"The upside-down is where they feel, existentially, the right way up, free from the constraints of the surface world. One of them, urban explorer and geographer Bradley Garrett, who we see in the film savouring the faecal tang and abandoned car wrecks of Las Vegas's storm drains, says that down there he experiences the smell he most associates with freedom."
"Some fear is good, says Petit as we travel downwards. But not too much. Hyperventilating takes away the oxygen. What if I freak out? Or twist my ankle? Or join Pleistocene mammoths and lions in the fossil record?"
"Petit, too, feels free underground. And not just because there's no wifi, he laughs. Time changes down here—it thick"
Filmmaker Robert Petit has spent five years creating a documentary called Underland, inspired by Robert Macfarlane's 2019 subterranean travelogue. The film follows three protagonists who find freedom and existential meaning in underground spaces, including urban explorer Bradley Garrett who experiences a sense of liberation in Las Vegas storm drains. Petit himself feels free underground, partly due to the absence of modern technology but also because of how time and perception shift in these spaces. The documentary explores why people are drawn to the underworld, suggesting that subterranean environments offer escape from surface world constraints and provide a transformative experience where individuals feel existentially aligned.
#underground-exploration #documentary-filmmaking #subterranean-environments #freedom-and-escapism #urban-exploration
Read at www.theguardian.com
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