Team 9Lives Wins 2010 Mobile Screen Fest!

Congratulations to Sydney's west multimedia and parkour artist Ali Kadhim for team 9Lives submission to the 2010 Mobile Screen Fest Competition and taking our the award category "Best Sports Video". Check it out!

To contact this fab crew, click here.

Life Lessons in Parkour with Ali Kadhim

This week was my first week of committing to the art of Parkour training with Ali Kadhim's 9 Lives training. Like many things in life, I've been avoiding this in the pursuit of the right moment and timing.
But I now have learnt a valuable lesson that I just have to really "commit" to my goals of movie making, stunts and acting if I really want to see it happen. Even my mentor Antony Szeto has blatantly pointed out my "laziness", which finally propelled me into some training. Of course, budding filmmaker and Parkour trainer Ali Kadhim gave me the "Tsk! Tsk!" when he saw me rock up at his Monday class.

It has been a fun week hanging out with Ali, climbing buildings, thinking deeply about life on the rooftops of Cabramatta, running across people's fences and I guess connecting to people that you never knew that you would just "click".

I now evolve into a here and now kind of person, not resisting so much to life, and learning to be content and go with the flow and enjoying the life lessons. The people in the past are there for a reason, its time to step up and build a future with those who you have in the here and now.

Sign out,

Maria Tran

STUNTS TRAINING: Parkour - The Art of Movement

This has been my second week of Parkour Training and I must say, it hasn't been no easy feat. Lots of bruises, crahses and facing up to fear factors and each move I'd rationalise the 1001 ways that I could die from it.

I've got another 8 weeks to go on this, twice a week on Monday (gym ans stunts training) and Friday (Commando drill style on the streets of Fairfield). I will bring the video camera next time to update you all on some of my developments.

In the meantime, to catch me on my Monday nights and Friday nights, come down for some lessons!

P.S - Ali is and his 9Lives crew are an awesome bunch. I've worked with him on various projects inthe past such as "Downtown Rumble" TV series on ABC/ JTV in late 2008 and he is well trained and very reliable.

TRAINER BIO: Ali Kadhim is a Sydney-based new media artist who focuses on digital art and multimedia.

The emerging young producer has been creating his own digital artworks

and short films since early high school.

Ali is a self taught digital artist and has completed a certificate IV in Digital Media through the Western Sydney institute of TAFE in 2005. He also completed TAFE accredited training and a range of digital arts skills

as a participant of the Information Cultural Exchange’s (ICE) Originate: Multicultural + Multimedia + Mentorship program (supported by The Australia Council for the Arts).

Ali is also Australia’s foremost practitioner of the French urban body-movement art form ‘Le Parkour’. In 2006, he was mentored by ICE and the Bankstown Youth Development service to undertake a

Parkour-focused youth development project and make a short documentary about the form. Ali’s Parkour crew ‘9 Lives’ have performed for numerous community events including Loud! The Sydney Arab Film Festival, Bring it On Youth Festival, Spectrum for Something Fresh, Big Rigg and the launch of Artfiles 2006.

Ali’s short films ‘Irrational Security’ (2005), Escape from Fairvale’ (2004), ‘Le Parkour’ (2005) and ‘Invincible Twin Fighters’ have been included in a number of film festivals including Auburn on Screen 2005, Shortcuts Western Sydney Short Film Fest For Young People (finalist both 2005 and 2006), and the Originate Showcase (2005)