Arlington Bike Travel Film Festival 2014

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Arlington Bike Travel Film Festival, Sponsored by Ciclismo Classico at the Regent Theatre in Arlington.

http://arlington.patch.com/groups/events/p/5th-annual-ciclismo-classico-bike-travel-film-festival_cc30c357

This was a great, grassroots cycling event, sponsored principally by a cycle tour company, but lots of local cycle shops and lots of cookie companies, giving free cookies to the local people. Plus all proceeds were going to the Massacheussetts Bicycle Commission (http://massbike.org/). The location was pretty easy to get to, halfway along a major bike path that runs through Cambridge - The Minuteman Bikeway (http://minutemanbikeway.org/)

The theatre was very full, I'd guess about 70% of capacity which was excellent. The vibe was relaxed, but cool, although it seems that cycle touring attracts the older clientelle (which I am of course part of!) rather than the usual bike nerds.

The films were very varied. They were selected from entrants by a group of the organisers and local bike gurus. The vibe, the production, and the editing were varied but each of them really gave a flavour of the pioneer spirit that is required to undertake a bike ride. The shortest films were 3 minutes long, and all, except the final one (the prize winner) were under 10 minutes. The winner was 25 minutes.

The stand out ones for me were:
1) A dude riding from US down to the tip of South America. With no agenda. No timelines. He's been doing it for 2 years.
2) A couple who always cycled holidayed, doing a tour of Holland with a 5 month old baby.
3) A man from New York, taking his 9 year old son and 4 year old daughter around Iceland for 40 days.
4) A couple of likely lads from the UK, jollying over to Holland
5) The winner. A long long tour around Kyrgystan, over rivers, practically without roads the whole time, breaking wheels, ice climbing, drinking vodka with military men at checkpoints, but having an awesome time

The films had a common theme. Each of them were finding themselves closer to nature, closer to an authentic version of themselves, going through adventures that were never predictable, suffering in one way or another, meeting people and generally living life a better way through two wheels (or 5 wheels as in the case of the chap with his daughter and son in tow). Words that came up a lot were: alive, unplugged, nature, coming to terms, fun, awesome. It left me quite emotional, and with a huge desire to plan something extraordinary. Watch this space!

Here is the agenda and I am linking to as many of the films/blogs as I can below.
Keep the wheels rolling. JJ

Actually - since everyone blogs these days and all videos are on youtube and vimeo - I've managed to find all the videos. Watch them below. As I said, they're all pretty short, but selected from a god list by cycling fanatics, so you might find something you like in the mix.

http://charlieandrob.wordpress.com/category/estonia/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtM8u1A-nA

http://travellingtwo.com/resources/encyclopedia/chris-roach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbmJaVf8zVI

http://www.onemanonebikeoneworld.com/2014/04/video-alive-in-south-east-asia/

http://cyclingabout.com/index.php/2013/07/video-alleykat-meets-inviting-iran-ep-3/

http://www.americabycycle.com/2012/10/22/shbang/

http://travellingtwo.com/12830

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKBHNHssoRM

http://dalstonist.co.uk/these-guys-are-cycling-from-dalston-to-the-dam-to-sell-t-shirts/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caa2n88xdq4

http://www.cycloexpeditionamericas.com/the-project/
http://www.cycloexpeditionamericas.com/category/medias/videos/?lang=en_us

http://www.theroadfromkarakol.com/
https://vimeo.com/69045994