SBS Documentaries

Yamakasi (2006x5)

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For more than 10 years they have defied the laws of gravity; climbing walls, leaping between buildings and creating a new athletic code rooted in discipline, self sacrifice and physical endurance. They are the Yamakasi, seven young men from different ethnic backgrounds, who grew up in the poor housing projects of Paris and created "the Moving Style", a style of free-form athletics that transforms their oppressive, concrete environment into a place of fantasy, possibility and play. Taken from the Congolese dialect Lingala, Yamakasi means "strong spirit, strong body, and strong man". The men who have adopted it share the values of friendship, honesty, humility and courage as they discover their weaknesses and learn to overcome them. The Yamakasi are Charles Perriere, from Central Africa, Vietnam-born Chau Belle Dinh, Chau's brother, Williams Belle, Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke, from Zaire, Malik Diouf, from Senegal, Italian-Frenchman Laurent Piemontesi, and Yann Hnautra, whose mixed ancestry includes parents from Melanesia and Reunion. Yamakasi follows the lives and dreams of the men as they negotiate a new challenge, a period of profound change and conflict. The skill and daring of the Yamakasi have won them success and a lucrative place in the entertainment world, but they did not develop as a showbiz act. Their message and their sport are rooted in the hard realities of the projects and conflicts arising from their success have a deep emotional impact on the members