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I unexpectedly ended up at the strangest film festival for bicycle enthusiastes this saturday. Bizarre, i know. I don’t even own a bike anymore. Anyway, there was supposed to be a block party outside the theater, but it didn’t really materialize because of the rain. There was a crazy guy that looked kind of like a cross between a pirate and a clown, and some cyclists doing stunts on their bikes for a littlewhile though. One guy could actually do a 360 from standing which was pretty impressive while it lasted.

Once we got inside, I was able to see a series of shorts about cycling that lasted for what felt like about two hours. Some of the features were pretty entertaining, like the first one to play, entitled “Tag,” which was basically a five minute clip of an extreme cyclist chasing down and extreme rollerblader. Another entertaining spot was a strangely suggestive short about the love of a man for his bike. Unfortunately it wasn’t all fun and games. There was definitely a very strong political message as well.

I hadn’t really given it much thought, but cyclists in this city have a pretty rough time, with virtually every motorist in the city willing to violate the bike lanes to double park, make a turn, or just plain pass other cars. Cyclists are stuck in a constant struggle not to be squashed by cars, or struck by stray cab doors, and so they’re pretty keen on getting more safety concessions from the city. That meant that the film festival had quite a few pieces on this subject, like “In Memoriam,” a film dedicated to the 14 cyclists killed in the city in 2006. At this point I should say, politics in film isn’t really my bag, especially when i’m not expecting it. To be fair, the shorts did bring up important points about underappreciated safety concerns for the cycling community, even if they were just preaching to the choir.

The Bottom Line
The Bicycle Film Festival was a bit of an unplanned detour in my weekend, but for $8.50 i got to see a pretty hefty mix of shorts, some of which were highly entertaining. The street fair would have been a lot more fun if the weather wasn’t so bad, but it was solid, all things considered. While I don’t suppose this event will be coming around again for a while, it’s definitely something worth checking out if you’re a bicycle enthusiast, and may be an interesting diversion even if your not.