The Hanging
2016 · 15m · United States
Directed by Geoffrey Feinberg
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tense
New York filmmaker Geoffrey Feinberg spends two weeks in Russia with Kirill Oreshkin, the teenage "Russian Spider Man" free-climbing Moscow's tallest rooftops and skyscrapers, exploring the roofing subculture through the eyes of its enigmatic leader.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A documentary about rooftopping could've been pure adrenaline porn, but Feinberg's two-week immersion lets the subculture breathe—the film trusts Kirill's enigma instead of forcing a redemption arc, which is the move most filmmakers bottle.
This sits comfortably in the observational documentary tradition, though the contemplative pacing occasionally drifts where tighter editing in the montage sequences could've sharpened the formal argument about risk and youth.
The singular choice here is committing to real time on those rooftops—no dramatic score, no cuts away—which transforms what could've been B-roll into a sustained meditation on vertigo and agency; that restraint is what separates this from every other extreme-sport doc.
Reviews
The Hanging, the result of these two weeks, is a captivating exploration of roofing through the eyes of the extremely talented, daring and intriguing Kirill. Feinberg perfectly captures the roofing experience by showing the dedication and sense of adventure attached to the practice.