Bike film festival ready to roll
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision will host a cinematic celebration of cycling over the next 10 days.
Featuring everything from action and drama to stories of social and personal change, the New Zealand Bicycle Film Festival aims to enthral, challenge and most of all inspire people to get on their bike, says Nga Taonga outreach & engagement manager Di Pivac. ’’The magic of film lets us see, hear and experience bicycle culture across geography and time,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s 200 years since the first bike was built. Here in New Zealand, bikes as transport and fun have been part of our culture for 140 years or so. We’re thrilled to be celebrating bicycles, on screen, with Kiwi cyclists and bicycle lovers.’’
Events kick off last tonight with a screening of the 2013 documentary Rising From the Ashes at 7pm. T.C. Johnstone’s documentary follows legendary American cyclist Jock Boyer as he attempts to help Rwanda’s first national cycling team prepare for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Other documentaries scheduled to screen include 2014’s Contromano (which focuses on a pair of Italian bicycle repair shop owners), Dutch 2015 tale Mama Agatha (about a charismatic 59-year-old Ghanian woman) and the Los Angeles-set 2016 story Ovarian Psycos.
Much-loved 1948 Italian neorealist drama The Bicycle Thief will also screen, while the festival also features three curated programmes of short films and snippets – Nga Taonga Sound & Vision’s own A Cinematic Century of Cycling (featuring footage from as far back as 1907), the femaleorientated Cycle Chic and the annual Big Bike Film Night, which this year includes the story of New Zealand’s Old Ghost Road.
Supported by Wellington City Council’s Communities on Bikes Fund, it will also feature panel discussions on cycling and social change. There will even be an indoor bike stand available for use.
The New Zealand Bicycle Film Festival runs at Taranaki St’s Nga Taonga Sound & Vision from tonight to April 8. For more information, see ngataonga.org.nz