Amazingly my idea to have a monthly film night themed around the humble bike appears to be working and our November evening will be the thoroughly enjoyable documentary Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle

Anyone who rides a bike regularly will at some time have dreamt about owning their dream bike.  This may not be the ‘best’ bike but simply the best bike for them, the type of rider they are, where and when they ride.  Author and journalist Rob Penn decided to do just that, to create his dream bike.  In doing so he travels the world meeting the prioneers, mavericks and creators to put the parts together for his perfect bike, meeting some fascinating characters along the way.

The Ride of My Life however not just the story of a bike obsessive getting his dream bike built, it also tells the history of the humble machine from Baron Karl Drais’s ‘running machine’ through to the bikes we know today.  In doing so Rob engagingly tells the story of how the cycling pioneers were drivers of social progress way beyond their early imaginings.

This will be the fourth of our film evenings before we take a break for Christmas and the small charge we are making for this hour long documentary will be going to St Gemma’s Hospice in rememberance of Jenn #forjenn #jennride

The first two film nights have been a great success I think, both events sold out and people have really seemed to enjoy themselves which is what it’s all about.  The third film night brings a very special film Wadjda and this is really not one to be missed.

Susan Brownwell Anthony was a prominent civial rights leader and campaigner to secure women’s suffrage in the United States who once said  “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”  How relevant is this quote today in parts of the world were universal suffrage has not been acheived ?

The film Wadjda is a film of firsts, a funny romantic comedy set in Saudi Arabia.  It’s the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature film to be made by a female Saudi filmaker in a country where cinemas are banned and women cannot drive or vote.  It tells the story of a young ten year old girl (Wadjda) determined to raise enough money to buy a bike to race her friend Abdullah in a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue.  In order to try to raise the money Wadjda enters a Qur’an reading competition at school which offers her the chance to win the money for the bike. So she acts the model student and gets her head in the book. The real reason for her new-found interest in devout study is kept secret.

Wadjda is a film about working for change under the radar, with small victories and shows there are subtle ways to attack injustice.  Director Haifaa Al-Mansour criticism of her country is delivered inside a love letter to her people and to custom and this approach like Wadjda’s in the film is perhaps the way change happens as the film’s nomination as Saudi Arabia’s 2013 Oscar contender is arguably an implicit nod of approval from the country’s mainstream.

Date: Monday 19 October 2015

Venue: The Reliance, 76-78 North Street, Leeds

Tickets: £5 (plus eventbrite admin fee) in advance via the eventbrite link opposite

Following on from the great first film night the second event is going to be the documentary Rising From Ashes.  I’m keen for the film club to feature all sorts of films, documentaries and shorts as well as featuring all types of bike and cycling styles.

Rising From Ashes is an uplifting documentary bringing a little known story to life about the creation of the first Rwandan National Cycling Team. The title has a double meaning that refers not only to the tremendous spirit displayed by the athletes as they struggle to overcome the horrific legacy of the genocide that occurred a generation earlier, but also the personal redemption of the famed American cyclist who led them.

Bicycles have a prominent role in Rwanda (known as the The Land of a Thousand Hills) as they are a primary means of transport.  American bike builder Tom Richey explored the country on his mountain bike in 2005 and met a group of cyclists who called themselves Team Rwanda.  Inspired by their dedication, Richey enlisted his friend and former rival Jock Boyer, who was the first American to participate in the Tour de France, to become their coach.

The film details his subsequent years long efforts to whip the Rwandan team into enought shape to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.  Among his riders is Adrein Niyonshut who lost 60 members of his family, including six brothers, in the 1994 genocide.  The documentary avoids melodramatics but tells the moving and powerful story. 

Date: Monday 28 September

Time: 7pm

Venue: The Reliance, 76-78 North Street, Leeds

Tickets: £4.50 (plus eventbrite admin fee) that can be purchased via the link opposite

We are going to kick off Leeds Bicycle Film Club with the 1979 cult classic Breaking Away, which many years ago I can remember watching and jumping on my ‘racer’ and tearing around the hills of South Wales imagining that I was taking on all comers.

A Midwest American college town in the 1970s is the setting for this coming-of-age tale about four working-class teens who are trying to escape their parents’ working class fates. Class consciousness and conflicts abound, as local college kids refer disparagingly to the protagonists as “Cutters.” The blue-collar stone-cutters literally built the homes the rich kids live in and the college that these kids attend. Dennis Christopher is Dave, a relentlessly fanatical bicyclist who has suddenly decided to embrace all things Italian (right down to a tacky Italian accent), Paul Dooley gives the film’s most memorable performance as Dave’s exasperated father. His character undergoes a quiet transformation from a cynical, weary, and worried fellow into a cagey optimist. Dooley was overlooked come Oscar time, though Barbara Barrie was nominated for her memorably wistful turn as Dave’s mother. Breaking Away has a gentle soul, the central characters have dreams, but they wonder if those dreams are attainable. Dave’s enthusiastic pursuit of his dream gives all the others hope, and it is the hinge upon which the crowd-rousing bicycle-racing finale turns. Bike racing is the film’s metaphor for escape: to break away from the pack in a race is equivalent to breaking away from one’s familial and cultural history. The film pivots on the question of whether, and to what extent, this kind of breaking away is either necessary or desirable. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Breaking Away won one Oscar, for Steve Tesich’s Best Original Screenplay.

Date Showing: Monday 24 August, 7pm

Venue: The Little Reliance Cinema, The Reliance, North Street, Leeds