Started in New York City, the Bicycle Film Festival has gained in size and status since its inception in 2000. All aspects of bicycle culture are represented in films generally ranging three to ten minutes. According to the Bicycle Film Festival website, the festival was viewed by over 100,000 people in 15 cities across the world last year. Submissions for 2008 are currently being accepted until February 19th.
A new movement is brewing in this country right now, and the festival is just one indicator. People are once again experiencing the wonderful freedom of bicycles. For those already won over, the myriad benefits and joys are a given. There are those who proselytize the bicycle way of life as an alternative to cars, pollution and destruction; some who understand and advocate the bicycle as a health benefit or an athletic endeavor, and those who appreciate the aesthetic beauty and pleasure of the mechanics—the machine itself. Each and every one of these qualities is agreeable and legitimate, further proof of the endless functionality and simplicity of riding.
However, there is, in my mind, one aspect that trumps everything: sheer fun. The pure joy of riding a bicycle is, first and foremost, the main attraction to cycling; easily the most tangible, visceral expression of the two-wheeled phenomena. Nothing takes a human being back to the raw thrill of childhood, unhinged and free of any boundary, free to propel oneself across the face of this world we have found ourselves in. Freedom, unchecked and unrelenting, is at your fingertips in a moments notice. Only a doorway stands between a static lifestyle, and one which communes with the air, the earth and the sky. There are few boundaries when the bicycle enters one’s world.
Enjoy a trailer from this year’s upcoming festival, apparently a Japanese race that takes place in Africa.
