Tonight the Walker is premiering Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness. To whet your whistle for the film, might I suggest checking out Action Squad. Prepare to waste several hours checking this site out, especially if you’re interested in the underside (literally) of Twin Cities history. Action Squad was not the group of people that were arrested which began Melody Gilbert’s descent into making the film, but they are among the more prolific urban explorers out there.
Paul Graham would tell us that urban explorers are hackers. They’re not vandals, they’re just people who want to know more about the places we inhabit and aren’t satisfied with the limits of authority. It is a sensibility that many great artists can relate to, and why I am happy the Walker is able to premiere this film.
I hope Max Action is at the screening tonight, though no one will be able to recognize him unless he puts a black bar over his eyes. I’ll be looking.
Image borrowed from actionsquad.org.
Max probably will be there, along with a lot of the other local explorers. Just look for the ill-dressed men and well-dressed women with flashlights and cameras.
There’s a page about the making of the movie, with a picture of Melody Gilbert in a sewer, here, and a fun primer on interviewing urban explorers that’s probably equally applicable to audience-participation Q&A sessions…
Comment by Mike Gilday — 3/16/2007 @ 3:29 pm