The bicycle film festival we all need

Some 19 years ago, a cadre of spoke-and-sprocket-loving Oregonians got together to inaugurate the first of many Filmed By Bike festivals. The festival is back and virtual, so we can all check out the unique and inspiring artistic and bicycle-forward fare on offer from May 20 to 23.

This year’s festival features 60 films from around the world broken down into six movie programs screened as live events on YouTube. Momentum had a chat with founder Ayleen Crotty about the festival’s humble beginnings, its new BIPOC filmmaker grant, and, of course, this year’s festival.

Tell me about the roots of the festival. What got the bike festival rolling?

It started at a time where it was rare for people to be riding a bike simply for enjoyment. So there was a desire for those of us here in Portland, Oregon, who loved riding bikes, to want to spend time and share space with other people who understood our passion for bikes. So there was a burgeoning bike culture that was forming. And we simply hosted Filmed By Bike as a way to raise funds for a summertime bicycle festival. And here we are 19 years later.

How did the first year go?

In that first year that we hosted that event, we had a standing-room-only crowd that was buying tickets with people spilling out onto the sidewalk and that’s when we knew that we were on to something worth continuing, though we never envisioned we would still be around 19 years later.

How has the festival evolved over the years?

It’s been really interesting to see how Filmed By Bike has grown over the years because we have evolved as a bike culture. And we’ve evolved as an event. And also those of us who are at the helm, we’ve grown up as well. So our festival has moved from micro-theatres to a larger theatre venue. And now what we find is we’re doing all this stuff in the virtual realm. So it’s been interesting to see the festival change over the years.

And what is the secret to its success?

One thing that remains constant is that we are at the mercy of our filmmakers and the work that they are creating. So we have a film festival that can exist because of our global community of filmmakers. So every year is different. Our content changes, we style a different event but the basic framework is the same. Every year, there are new films to delight the audience based on what our filmmakers are creating.

Tell me about weathering this pandemic, and how it changed the festival.

At the beginning of the global pandemic, when the writing was on the wall that people were going to be home bound, people were confused and we didn’t know a lot about the pandemic. At the time, people weren’t sure what was safe and what they could be doing and not doing. So a lot of people just sort of stayed home and shut down. We knew immediately that the cyclists who are used to being social, being out and riding and meeting others, it was very challenging to be inside and not be riding bikes and not be around other people. And we knew that there was going to be a great need to bring comfort and solace to the global bike community. So we immediately took this old YouTube channel that we had not paid any attention to. And we sort of dusted it off and revamped it and started a whole series of online content and YouTube live stream events. For the bike community, we hosted a festival called the Global Bike Festival. We hosted a whole series of events all last year, simply with the idea of offering entertainment to the community at this extremely challenging time. And you know, to me, it’s so exciting to look back on that year and think about well, that’s the kind of stuff we do at Filmed By Bike. That was not part of our old formula. We used to just be one event once a year here in Portland. But we’re always open to the idea of trying new things, and staying vibrant, and staying relevant with a goal of entertaining the global bike community, whatever that takes.

Outside of this year, you’ve also developed a tour program so we can all get in on the action, right?

We started getting inquiries from different groups around the country asking if they could show Filmed By Bike, so we decided to package up our program. We show an extensive number of films here at our signature annual festival in Portland, we show about 60, 70 films, but then we whittle that down into a smaller collection that goes into our tour program. And that program has been able to help different communities strengthen their bike community and bring in the funding that they need for their programs. Everybody loves movies, and those of us who love bikes, love bikes movies, and we work really hard to ensure that we’re curating collections that are going to entertain our audience.

And you’ve also begun a BIPOC filmmaker grant, that’s exciting. How is that going?

So our BIPOC filmmaker grant fund started because every year we work really hard to bring in a wide variety of films. And we are dedicated to putting into positions of power, prominence and celebration, the voices of people who are often underrepresented in the bicycle conversation. And for us, that means the films that are on screen as well as presenters and guests who join us on stage, whether that’s the physical theatre stage or the virtual stage. And though we do this work every year to form relationships with the global community of filmmakers to dig deep on the internet to find interesting films, we still sit there in our review process with our jury, and we are underwhelmed by the representation available. And that is simply because the films do not exist. So we have long had a mission of finding ways to bring more of these films out into the world. And we finally last year realized, you know what, the best way to do that is to help fund these films. Because funding is the number one barrier to a concept being turned into a film. A filmmaker has to put a lot of time in, and they also have to put money into that production. So last fall, we started crowdfunding for our BIPOC filmmaker grant funds that will support emerging filmmakers in telling their bicycle stories.

So they are underway now?

We had hoped to fund two filmmakers in 2020. And we were so overwhelmed and overjoyed to be able to fund three filmmakers with each with a $1,500 cash grant to support the production of their film concept. We received over 100 applications. And we were able to choose three because we received so much support through our crowdfunding and the sponsorship that we got for the grant fund. We’re really excited that this is an ongoing revolving grant fund. So it’s not a one-time thing, but we are continually fundraising to support that grant fund. And our next round of applications will be in July, and June is when the next round of applications are due. At that time, we’ll be able to fund additional filmmakers for the program.

When will we be able to see the results?

So we’ll see these first round of filmmakers who are awarded, we’ll see their films come out at next year’s festival. People are going to have to wait a little bit to see the resulting work. But we’re just so excited to know that we’re able to do our small part to help fund work by Black, Indigenous, and all people of color who are emerging filmmakers. And at this year’s festival, we are going to be interviewing those filmmakers who were awarded in that first round of grant funding about what their production is like and how the grant has been helpful to them.

Tell us about the year’s Filmed By Bike program, which kicks off May 20.

This year, the films are really interesting. You know, as I mentioned every year, the festival is different based on what filmmakers are working on. This year’s lineup includes a lot of longer films. And that is really new for us. We specialize in very short films. Our audience will be really delighted to be treated to a collection of longer stories, more in-depth tales that take a little bit longer to unfold. We’re excited about those films.

And what else is happening?

Well, our second show on Friday night is just jam-packed with hilarious movies. We took all the funny funny stuff or the festival, and we stuck it all into one program on a Friday night because we know that right now people need a good laugh, right? It’s been a hard year and we are coming out of a challenging time as a society. So we put all the funny stuff into one awesome program on Friday night. And it’s just a great mix of movies this year. Lots of films that reference the pandemic and reference the past year. But a lot of stories of hope and excitement and adventure. It’s such a wide variety. Everything from documentaries to adventure films, scripted-out love stories, and all sorts of films to delight. So we’ll be bringing special guests on stage at every show time and showing great collections of movies. And because we’re YouTube live stream events, that means people can watch it anytime. We encourage people to tune in live because they can join the chat window and hear more from the filmmakers about the films and some of the behind-the-scenes information. But they can also rewind, pause, watch live or watch later.

What would you say is the can’t miss part of Filmed By Bike?

Well, I would say I’m a little biased, but I would say, as the person who has been curating the festival for 19 years, I think our long-form program on Sunday night is not to be missed because it is those longer stories that are a little bit more in-depth and take longer to unfold. Both the films are longer and the entire program is longer. So we’re intentionally planning this really special experience for the viewers, and it is also the program that is in conjunction with our closing party, so people will be able to stick around after the movies for our closing activities. We have a live musician who will be performing. And so it’s just going to be a really fun way to close out the festival. So that would be my pick. My other pick of the program would be our Saturday night Adventure Program. Everybody loves it. It’s all those great stories of adventure on the rugged road and people pushing themselves to the extreme and going off into beautiful lands and landscapes with their bicycles. So that’s always a good program.

For more information on the festival go to Filmedbybike.org.