Bicycle Film Festival in San Diego This Weekend!

The Bicycle Film Festival is to take place this weekend in San Diego for the first time ever!

Tonite (Friday) : The festivities begin at the Kensington Club BFF pre-party this evening. DJs include bike kid favorites, Eddie Kon, Huge Euge, and Cota Pop.

For all you speedy fools, come out and enter the Goldsprints comp--a sprint comp on to take place inside the Ken Club on stationary bikes.

Ride home safe and sober so that you can come tomorrow for the actual films.

Tomorrow (Saturday): There are nearly 30 bicycle-related films to be screened Saturday at Balboa Park Museum of Photographic Arts - 1649 El Prado.

The 30 films are broken down into 4 different programs throughout the day. Here is the list of films, courtesy of the BFF website:

1pm Manivela Food Bike Delivery Picnic and BMX Jam
Free BBQ and Fun (veggie friendly options). BMX Jam hosted by East County BMX.
Check back for details on location soon.

PROGRAM 1
3:00 PM Buy Tickets

STANDING START
UK 2007 | DV 12min.
Dir. Adrian McDowall and Finlay Pretsell
Standing Start offers insight into Olympian and World Champion Track Sprinter Craig MacLean, his unflinching focus and preparation.

MILLAR'S TALE
USA 2007 | DV 11min
Dir. Nigel Dick
David Millar, one time prologue winner of the Tour de France, talks about his fight against doping and his future with Slipstream Sports.

ROAD TO ROUBAIX
USA 2008 | Video 75min.
Dir. David Deal and David Cooper
The film features the most difficult and prestigious one-day cycling race in the world: Paris-Roubaix. First held in 1896, the race is a grueling contest over 160 miles of cobbled farm roads in Northern France with a finish in the historic Roubaix Velodrome.
PROGRAM 2
5:00pm Buy Tickets

KIEST PARK
USA 2005 | 16mm 5min.
Dir. John Ayala
A seven year old leaves his parents and his block for the first time to explore, observe and destroy in a vast new world.

BIKE RIDE
USA 2000 | 16mm 6min
Dir. Tom Schroeder
James rides his bike 50 miles to see his girlfriend, who dumps him. He rides home.

A BICYCLE TRIP
Italy 2008 | Betacam 4min.
Dir. Lorenzo Veracini, Nandini Namblar, Marco Avoletta
Basel, 19 April 1943. Dr. Albert Hofmann, a chemist, is cycling home after a days work in the laboratory. This episode has passed into legend, associated with the discovery of the effect on the human psyche of LSD. The film tells the story of this famous "trip", imagining an unconventional psychedelic of the '40s.

KEIRIN
Japan/Italy 2008 | HD 5min.
Dir. Giovanni Giommi
A beautifully shot portrait of Japanese Track Racers directed by the director of LES NINJA DU JAPON.

WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO
UK 2007 | Video 3min.
Dir. Dougal Wilson
BAT FOR LASHES Music video

SOME THINGS RIDE A BICYCLE
USA 2006 | Video 1min.
Dir. Chris Jolly
This is a series of chalkboard animations of various funny objects riding bicycles.

WHERE ARE YOU GO
Canada 2009 | 75min.
Dir. Benny Zenga & Brian Vernor
Four months on a bicycle between Cairo, Egypt and Cape Town, South Africa en route with the Tour d' Afrique, the world's longest bicycle race and expedition. BFF Alumni the Zenga Bros. and Brian Vernor share a universal love of the bicycle with Africa's roadside mechanics, sporting racers and curious strangers. Traveling more than 70 miles per day, 50 racers and expedition riders experienced the boundless Nubian desert of Sudan, the great majesty of Victoria Falls, and finally the cold rush of the Atlantic Ocean. The 7,000 mile expedition is a constant adventure full of playfulness and mysterious beauty, and is testament to the endurance of human curiosity.

PROGRAM 3
7:00 PM Buy Tickets

I'M GOOD ON THAT ONE
USA 2008 | DVCProHD 9min
Dir. Marco Svizzero
A fun summer in SF with amazing BMX riding.

TRAIN TRIP
USA 2006 | miniDV/Super8/Still Images 14min.
Dir. Joe Rich & Ruben Alcantara
A document of a BMX trip by two legends in the sport Directed and shot by themselves.

I LOVE MY BICYCLE: THE STORY OF FBM BIKES
USA 2009 | HDV 75 min.
Dir. Joe Stakun
In reaction to big business BMX companies in the early 90's, 17-year-old Steve Crandall started a company of his own called Fat Bald Men (FBM). What began as selling t-shirts out of a backpack has turned into one of the most well respected DIY bicycle companies around. Through fortune and misfortune, the film follows FBM through their 15 years of mayhem as told by Crandall and the rest of the BMX bicycle community from close friends to influential icons like Dave Mirra and Mat Hoffman.
PROGRAM 4
9:00pm Buy Tickets

EMPIRE
USA 2009 | 24p HD DVCPRO 5min.
Dir. Luke Stiles & Christian Thormann
No one can dispute that this Track thing started in New York and these are the current writers of history on the streets.

ONE LESS HORSE
France 2009 | Video 3min.
Dir. Yorgo Tloupas, Benjamin Seroussi & Patrice Meignan
Three horse polo players go head to head with three bike polo players.

BIKE THIEF
USA 2004 | DV 4min.
Dir. Neistat Brothers
This is a study of stealing bikes in New York City.

SAFARI LONDON
UK 2009 | HD 4min.
Dir. Rick Symonds & Roddy Macintyre
Spend a whole evening with a cyclist in London condensed to a few moments with time-lapse.

KRITSADA PRATHUMMA
Thailand 2008 | HDV 4min
Dir. Christopher San Agustin
What it's like to be a bike shop owner in Thailand and a BMX pro flatlander.

ON TIME
USA 1985 | 16mm 7min.
Dir. Ari Taub
This comedy classic short, shown worldwide, marked the debut of director/screenwriter Ari Taub and captured the spirit of low budget filmmaking in New York City. Jimmy a bicycle messenger from the Albatross Courier Company, takes us through the streets and boroughs of New York to deliver a package "on time". Braving the perilous city streets, there's nothing Jimmy can't handle, or is there?

BAREND JAM
UK 2006 | DV 3min.
Dir. Alex Rankin
A fun BMX short from the UK.

MADE IN QUEENS
USA 2008 | Video 10min.
Dir. Joe Stevens & Nicolas Randall
In Queens, a group of teens from Trinidad attached speakers to their bikes. The music was never quite loud enough and they had to go bigger and bigger with the sound systems.

AN APOLOGY
USA 2007 | DV 3min.
Dir. Neistat Brothers
The Neistat Brothers make a movie for the BFF every year. Here is an apology.

Pixel Gear Bikes!!! Ride Safe, Ride Fast, Ride Free
Spain 2009 | VIDEO 1min.
Dir. Simon Bericua Lopez
Pixel Gear Bikes!!! Is an animation based on Paperboy2 videogame sprites.

KANT
Japan 2009 | DVD 4min.
Dir. Kazuto Nakamura & Ikuma Ootsuba
Yokohama fixed gear riders having fun with friends.

BELLE EPOCH
ITALY/USA 2008 | Video 3min.
Dir. Robert Chynoweth
Italian cyclist Giuliano Calore (aka "Cyclist of the Impossible") rides on Europe's steepest mountain roads playing different musical instruments along the way.

THE SCRAPER BIKE KING
USA 2009 | 16mm 13min.
Dir. Rafael Flores
The inspirational story of "Bay-be Champ", the original creator of the scraper bike movement in Oakland, CA.

BROADWAY BOMBER/BRIDGE BATTLE
USA 2009 | HD 11min.
Dir. Lucas Brunelle
Lucas never ceases to amaze viewers with the first person perspective video from his helmet-cams. Close calls and dangerous streets shows urban cycling at its finest.

SKI BOYS
Canada 2006 | Super8 8min.
Dir. Benny Zenga
The last reels of the Ski Boys, which document their inventive exploits in rural Ontario during the early 70's.

ANIMA D'ACCIAIO (SOUL OF STEEL)
USA/Italy 2009 | HD 11min.
Dir. Daniel Leeb
A Portrait of the legendary Italian Frame Builder Giovanni Pelizzoli aka "Ciocc" . Ciocc shares his wisdom and life story while hand building a revolutionary new frame for urban fixed gear cycling. Ciocc demonstrates that the tradition and craft of frame building’s Golden age can be re-born and push the technical frontier of Cycling's future. Also feaures Ed "Wonka" La Forte and Antonio Colombo with an original soundtrack by Blonde Redhead.

Tickets for each program cost $10. More info here:
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/?p=sandiego

AFTER PARTY

Hosted by Velo Cult - 10pm-2am
Whistle Stop Bar - 2236 Fern Street