Flying Revolution

“Flying Revolution” follows the group of B-Boys known as Flying Steps from their beginning to where they are now. This documentary offers us an insight on the lifestyle of somebody who does breakdancing for a full-time job. It offers interviews from family members, other B-Boys, as well as archived footage of when they first started out as a group.

I know very few people who can actually breakdance. Whenever I scroll on social media and see one of their posts about competitions, I always tune in just to see some moves that I wish I could pull off and be cool. So seeing this documentary wasn’t only just interesting, it made me more appreciative about the passion these dancers can have during these competitions. The amount of effort it takes to get into shape and to pull of these impressive dance moves where you can easily be injured is passion in itself. I wouldn’t want to risk getting hurt, but these men and women do. I’m always awestruck at seeing such talent.

One of the things I really appreciated about this documentary is how it shows the interviews with family members. They talk about when their son or brother was young and they frowned upon it thinking they wouldn’t be able to survive if they pursued it as a career. It then cuts to some of the B-boys in the group and they, too, express the doubt they had when they initially started. They had close calls and made money in the bizarre ways just to barely keep their head and families above the surface. It reminds me of being an artist just in general. Artists almost always struggle to make some sort of money when they first start out doing what they love most. They have moments of doubt, moments of regret, and moments when they think everything is pointless to attempt just once. And to that degree, this can feel relatable to a lot of struggling artists now.

My other favorite part is watching footage of these guys perform. I love how the filmmaker decided to make a documentary about this specific group because afterwards I went YouTube and looked at more videos. It sent me down an endless tunnel of video after video. I even asked some of my breakdancing friends if they even heard of Flying Steps before because I was so intrigued with their story and with their styles.

This documentary is extremely well made. There’s a structure the film follows which is doing the interview parts and then having an interlude of archival footage following a transition in the story being told. The footage becomes better with each performance and in a way it allows us to witness this group evolve. It’s pretty darn cool thinking about it from that perspective.

I would recommend this film to anybody who loves to watch people pursue their passions and offer insight on how to succeed. Not to mention you’ll be able to witness the human body doing abnormal moves that’s oddly entertaining to watch. When you mix an interesting backstory, interesting interviews and cool music with dancing, you get this documentary. Check it out.