Delve Into the Illegal World of Urban Exploration in This Short Documentary

The movement of urban dwellers is limited in many ways, with money being the biggest constraining factor – a great number of spaces in a city can be accessed only by those with a certain net worth, depriving their often stunning views from the general public. However, a small movement has taken off in recent years, where daredevils trespass illegally onto the rooftops and otherwise forbidden spaces of a city, thus bypassing the social ladder in the process and “liberating” these views, often through Instagram, for the inhabitants of that city. In this short documentary for The New York Times, filmmaker Matthew Bate followed one such urban exploration (UrbEx) aficionado, Vic Invades, for a tour of his secret places around Gotham, and a meditation on why he does what he does. Watch the video above.