Choose Not To Fall

If you're afraid to fall, you fall because you're afraid. Everything is a choice.




THE WINNER OF FILMINUTE 2010

       CHOOSE NOT TO FALL is directed by Matthew Marsh and features Daniel Ilabaca, a likeable and talented practitioner of parkour- the urban and physical discipline where athletes train to overcome any obstacle in their path by adapting their movements to the environment. Ilabaca is one of the world's leading parkour athletes and he is transcendental in his delivery of an articulate and optimistic message against "risk free achievement running rampant in youth culture", as one juror wrote.
      John Ketchum, Filminute's co-founder and head of jury singled out CHOOSE NOT TO FALL as the most quoted film in the festival, with many references and comments from online voters and Facebook fans repeating Ilabaca's line "If you're afraid of falling, you fall because you're afraid"



Danny Ilabaca:

It's nothing, cause it's everything....
The adventure is not knowing what's going to happen next.Do y'know what I mean, it's accepting that you don't have control of the future. But all you have control is now, make the most of now. So every step that I take,is not calculating the fall of. It's just...I, I put my body into that position and I adapt to it.
When you think ahead, in the future, it prevents you from being in the moment now, and when you're in the moment, is when you are...able to do things that other people, y'know, can't understand,or, or put their finger on, y'know?
Y'know, you might not have tomorrow, do y'know what I mean? That's the way I see it, like, I mean ... y'know, less time...full on conditioning for the future, and more time just enjoying the fact that you've got another day, really.
Just in, in the world, in general, imagination and creativity has just been lost....it's been stripped away from us over history, and has been, slowly, fed back into the world that we live in through computer games, and stuff like this! and this is why kids are so addicted to,because that's a way to achieve, an easy way to achieve. So a lot of people will be watching, and don't realize, that... I'm really, I'm using my body to really, really battle against... obviously the tall physical of this world.
Umm..used to do drugs, used to do all these things, and at one day I saw a guy do a wallflip ,in the streets. And,uh, straight away I was drawn in, didn't know why, at the time it was like "yeah, I want to learn, how to do that"
It, it was that individual...and the way of...the way he looked at life. And I never knew then, but I know now what it was, it was a way, for me, to break out from this mold. this uncontrollable system i was in...in order to find truth.
I don't do it to show off, I mean, i do it...maybe to wake someone up, or to, y'know, for them to ask the question "why are we doing this?" and then that, gives me the opportunity to speak to them and tell them the reason why I do this.
One of my aims is to help people to realize that, y'know, that parkour is a tool that is so powerful, that it can change so many peoples lives, really ,so...yeah.
Confidence isn't gained over time of practice. It's like, confidence is gained when..you realize that you choose your own path. you choose to fall, you choose not to fall.
Just the outlook on life helps me be...more free myself.
Parkour is a tool that can be, used for so much good, do y'know what I mean? And for people to become aware of that before it gets too late, and to the point where parkour completely physical, it becomes just competition....or,y'know ,about making money, and the message is lost.
If you're afraid to fall, you fall because you're afraid. Everything is a choice.