Vladimir Underground Report by Live Media

If you've been wondering what the story has been behind all of the weird location that I've been posting on my Instagram account over the past week or so, let me introduce you to the Vladimir Independent Film Festival. Vladimir has been a best-kept secret for those in the know for over 9 years now. The nearly decade-long event, organized by a small collective of friends including ring leader Nikola Racan, has grown to fame and prestige in the underground skate video and photography community because of the simple purity of the event and the motivations behind it. And because it has remained so pure and special, a lot of people kind of WANT to keep it a secret so that it has a chance to remain as such for as long as possible. But after finally getting to attend the event myself and getting to experience the incredible vibes of the community, the spirit of the organizers and the beauty of the location, I feel like it would be unjust to not at least share it with those of you who take the time to actually read what's written on our site instead of just click the links.

Along with the experience of all of the independent film screenings, zine launches, book talks, etc that happen all week long, perhaps the most amazing part of Vladimir is meeting all of the underground creators in skateboarding from literally ALL over the world who convene here in a pseudo secret-society of skateboarding underground And in this meeting of the minds, I was able to meet an incredible list of awesome people including the French powerhouse I've known for a long time via email and Instagram but never had gotten to meet in person. America Nocus, of Live Skateboard Media fame, has been a big help to connect the French scene with the rest of the skateboarding world and he was buzzing around the small town of Fazana, where the festival occurs, all week long on 4 wheels. America put together an extensive recap of the weeks events and I thought it would be silly to repeat the work so I would like to link you to his story below since he is not only a Vladimir veteran but also a better writer than myself. So enjoy the story by clicking the image below and welcome to Vladimir!