Photograph by Helena Kubicka

 

Benefit Screening of Man On Wire and

Q&A Session with Philippe Petit

7 pm, Wednesday, April 15th

Benefit Donations: $20 available online or

by calling 866 811-4111.

Click here to watch the trailer for Man On Wire.

Long-time Cathedral Artist in Residence Philippe Petit hosts a benefit screening of the Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire and then answers questions from the audience at the Cathedral on Wednesday, April 15 at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 each, with proceeds benefiting the Cathedral.

On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit accomplished what may be the most astounding “artistic crime” of all time. He walked a high wire illegally stretched between the rooftops of the Twin Towers of the World Center, making eight crossings over the course of an hour, a quarter mile above the sidewalks of New York.

Mr. Petit ’s book, To Reach the Clouds, which recounts the World Trade Center adventure, is the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary film, Man On Wire. To Reach the Clouds, re-titled as Man On Wire, was recently released in paperback. Philippe Petit has done more than a dozen walks in New York City, where he has been an Artist in Residence at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine since 1982.

In addition to walking the high wire, Mr. Petit writes, draws, performs close-up magic and street-juggling, practices lock-picking and 18th-Century timber framing, plays chess, studies French wines and was once seen bullfighting in Peru. He continues to give lectures and workshops internationally. His seventh book, L’Art du Pickpocket, was recently published in Paris; he is now at work on his eighth, On Building a Barn.

Click here to view Philippe Petit's book, Man On Wire, on which the film was based.