women's rights, a girl and a bike - a film called Wadjda

Seeing how the other half lives often puts our own daily trials and tribulations into perspective. Sometimes you can step into someone else's shoes through watching a film. Or hop on someone else's saddle. Take Wadjda, for example, an award-winning film about women's rights in Saudi Arabia, told through the tale of a young girl and a green bicycle.

I sure hope Wadjda comes to San Francisco. How could we make it happen?

Here's a clip from the film.



What's more, 10-year old actress Waad Mohammed not only talks the talk, but walks the walk, right onto the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.

Wherever you are in the world, we cyclists all tell the same story: on a bicycle, you feel liberated, independent, free.

Bike Camping and Touring

My bikey filmmaker friend Laura Lukitsch took the plunge into bike camping, as many of my other friends (like CTX from CYLRAB) have in the past year, and documented her experience like like any good filmmaker would. Check out her fun ABC's of bike camping:

Intro to Bike Camping from Laura J. Lukitsch on Vimeo.

One of the reasons I purchased my Surly Cross Check was so I could join my friends on some bike camping/touring trips in the near future. But Laura shows us that you don't need any special kind of bike - you can hop on the one you got, grab a map and go!

OR, maybe one day you can live the dream of an entire bike touring vacation. This gorgeous video of Oregon's Scenic Bikeways dishes out some juicy travel inspiration.



Makes me want to hop on Amtrak with Seabiscuit and go on a road trip! Shall we?

dream the impossible dreamcycle (with cardboard)

NPR reported about an Israeli inventor who has designed a durable bicycle out of cardboard, even after his engineer friends told him it was impossible to do. It's funny to read the comments on the NPR page - people still don't believe him, even though he's proven it can be done. Watch this well-made and inspiring film about how he built the cardboard bike, tested it and perfected it!

Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.

Although Izhar's bike may not be the bike of everyone's dreams, if it really can be made for less than $20, then it could very well be a solution for some.

If you can dream it, you can build it and ride it. Thank you for your ingenuity, Izhar!

Short animation - Por mi ciudad en bicicleta

This short animation from Mexico (only 1 minute - watch it!) has been making its way around the interwebz today (thanks to CYLRAB for sharing). I love it!



Very clever and simple but beautiful animation that represents how all of us, no matter what type of person, feel when we bike from here to there everyday, and reiterates what we as cyclists all know, that cycling for transportation is healthier, more fun, better for our cities, better for us and the planet.

Happy Friday!

vintage bike films at oddball/ Critical Mass festivities

      

poster art by Meligrosa

Are you getting ready to play Critical Mass 20th Anniversary on Friday? Suggested itinerary: Ride Critical Mass, peel off and view some vintage bike films at Oddball in the mission, eat some good foods from MamakSF at the event.

Spin on THIS! - bike power, baby!

No clue if this is for real or not, but it certainly is possible.

Harness your energy and RIDE ON!

KT's Life Story, Cycle Chic and the Bike Bechdel Test

One of my most favorite discussions, women and biking, has come to the podium again. Elly Blue has written an article in which she lays out criteria for the Bike Test, modeled after the film industry's Bechdel Test. I couldn't be more pleased. Like Madonna and Lady Gaga, I'm one of those people who believe that any kind of PR is good PR: if it gets people to start talking about the subject more, then that's a good thing. Which is why, four and a half years ago, I was inspired by Cycle Chic and Mikael Colville Andersen to start this very blog about women, street fashion and the bicycle.

Quite serendipitously since Cycle Chic hit the streets and the blogosphere, many good things have taken flight: 1) more bike blogs by women (and men), 2) more women and men in North America using the bicycle for every day transportation, and 3) more types of bikes on the streets. Whether or not this can be attributed to Cycle Chic or not is highly debatable. Many MANY factors contribute to the rise of cycling as a real form of transportation (rise in gas prices, awareness of climate change and the desire to "go green"), but the Cycle Chic phenomenon cannot be overlooked as a factor. My own self included, many women were inspired and empowered by seeing other women wearing fashionable clothing while riding European style bicycles to work and play, and they decided to get their own bikes and join the movement.

Let me tell you my own story as an example. I'm going to start from the beginning. My whole life, I have always loved the bicycle. I used to have a yellow Schwinn with a banana seat when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I graduated to a mountain bike. It was the trendy thing to do as I lived in Marin County. I used to ride everywhere - to work, to visit friends, to play, to exercise. (I never wore a helmet either.)

I brought the bike to college in San Diego and when I lived off campus, I used to ride my bike to school, until it got stolen when I left it parked overnight during finals. I inherited another mountain bike from a friend of mine, and was more careful with it. I kept that bike through grad school and beyond. It came with me when I moved to Los Angeles. I never bike-commuted to work because I worked at night and I lived too far away from my office. I did, however, ride it around my neighborhood to yoga, farmers' markets and cafés to meet friends. When I decided to move back to the Bay Area in 2006, I gave the bike to my friend who helped me move out of my Silver Lake apartment.

Back in the Bay Area, I lived in West Marin for a year and a half. Again, the job I ended up with prevented me from biking to and from work. It was a night job, or should I say THEY were night jobs. I had three of them, and all of them started at 5 pm and ended at 2 am, and some of them were over 32 miles away from home, over bridges with no bike lane. So I bought a new bike that I would enjoy during the day. I got a road bike, with clipless pedals even, and I wore a helmet, lycra shorts, butt pads and cycle jerseys when I rode this bike through redwood forests, along streams, past reservoirs and pastures, and I did this for about 2 - 3 hours every single day. On weekdays, in one of the most beautiful counties in California, I literally got high riding my bike. And on weekends, I rode this same road bike to and from San Francisco to party and stay with my friends and enjoy my singlehood. This road bike, belovedly named Beurre et Sucre, is one of my very favorites. Every time I saddle up, happiness and exhilaration ensue.

I moved from West Marin to San Francisco in 2007, and for many reasons, it was clear that the Beurre et Sucre was not an ideal everyday bike for The City. This is when Cycle Chic comes in. On New Year's Eve, my friend and co-founder of Vélo Vogue, Lilia, invited me to a Cyclecide party at the Junkyard. I didn't feel comfortable riding my road bike with clipless pedals in my New Year's outfit and high heels to the party across town. I couldn't blend fashion with my bicycle. I remember her words to me on that night to this day: "But Kristin, bicycle IS fashion." I ended up taking the bus, but I also had one of the most memorable riding double experiences on the way home on the back of a boy's bike at 4 o'clock in the morning that I will take to my grave.

Shortly after that night, in fact in February of 2008, Lilia sent me a link to Cycle Chic. I immediately related to its appeal. These gorgeous Scandinavian women rode bicycles wearing Christian Louboutins and I was sold. The next day, I took a photo of a stylish woman on a bicycle in San Francisco, and Vélo Vogue was born.

I also found a new-to-me bike on Craigslist - a Motobécane Mixte for $88 that I bought on Chinese New Year and instantly knew that it would be my new city bike. Le Rouge et Noir became my new ride, and my notion of cycling was redefined.

I am telling you my life story for the simple reason that I am not only a woman who rides a bicycle and writes a blog about it. I am also a woman who is an award-winning filmmaker. So the Bechdel Test is something that I feel very strongly about. HOWEVER, my film that currently is in festivals, Forms of Identification, might not pass the Bechdel Test. Even though it has all the ingredients of feminist quandary, from a purist's standpoint, it might fail. This is the very same reason that Vélo Vogue is independent of the Cycle Chic Republic. I do not subscribe to the Cycle Chic Manifesto. I also do not absolutely subscribe to the Bechdel Test as a filmmaker. Therefore, I cannot absolutely subscribe to the Bike Bechdel Test as a bike blogger. I support both the Test and the Manifesto wholeheartedly for their good intentions to inspire more realistic portrayals of women in film and more real women on bikes, respectively. I also think that both the Manifesto and the Test provide some people a framework within to operate. If you need these rules, then take the inspiration and ride on.

The Bike Bechdel Test, like the Cycle Chic Manifesto, both question today's norm, but in different ways. Since we still live in a democracy, we know that access to information and freedom of speech and expression are what makes it all possible. We need these different approaches to the movement to keep it healthy and diverse, so all kinds of women and all kinds of cyclists can not only find their place, but become empowered to go the extra mile and create and participate.

So, since I am a woman bike blogger and a woman filmmaker/mediamaker, here's what I vow to do with the new Bike Bechdel Test. I will subject all my posts about women and bikes to the following criteria in hopes that the content will spark dialogue that challenges the status quo and the definition of women and biking in the same way that Cycle Chic changed the game for me four years ago:

1. Are women present or represented at all?
2. Are the women presented as active subjects rather than passive objects?
3. If the gender were reversed, would the meaning stay more or less unchanged? (Or would the image become hilarious?)

My hope is that these criteria will lift the discussion to a new level on this blog and my peers' blogs, and inspire male and female bike bloggers to scrutinize their posts about women and cycling in a new light, and that this light will carry to bike manufacturers, bike shops, bike expos, bike clothing and accessory designers to rethink exactly what inspires real women to hop on a bike and what women really need to change the world.

Yes, I said it. Change The World.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

Busting out an oldie but goodie from two years ago. It's Euro Championship time, and the fever is rising. In just one hour France will take on England in a historic match, wearing their new Gaultieresque uniforms.



Who will claim victory? I can't contain my excitement.

What On Earth?

With all the focus on Venus this week, I thought I'd bring the conversation back down to Earth.



Signs of intelligence on Earth? Watch this film from 1966 to see how Earthlings eat, sleep, play together, and have “dispensed with sex to reproduce.”

Hmmmm... then I prefer being a two-wheeled alien.

More about this film here.

You & I - for your viewing pleasure

I love stop motion animation.

I love that this stop motion animation film starts with a cute hipster couple taking a ride on a tandem bicycle.

I love that they end up in Paris and the guy's got the killer t-shirt to show for it.

I love the simple DIY nature of this film.

i just can't get enough of hot dudes on bikes

This guy on a bike (and the cake he gave to his girlfriend) looks yummy.

Some nice work from Dominic Latham-Koenig of London.

bicycle = style = art

Bicycle art belongs here. Prepare to be mesmerized.



Sorry for the silence lately, bikey peeps. I have been celebrating the holidays with friends and family. Been an intense year, I'm sure some of you know what I mean.

I've also been really obsessed with crafts, for example - these Jedi snowflakes.







Sometimes there's more to life than riding a bike!

Feel the force in 2012!

Copenhagen Cycles - cinetrope by Eric Dyer

I just discovered this zoetrope masterpiece by artist/filmmaker Eric Dyer in the interwebz - Copenhagen Cycles.



For a behind the scenes look at the creative process behind this amazing art, check out his Cinetrope Mashup.



And for even more bike artsy goodness, here's Eric's ode to his own Schwinn Speedster, called Chopin's Bicycle.



Now your Monday is filled with movie magic! Enjoy.

With My Own Two Wheels on Link TV

This incredibly moving film about our favorite mode of transportation is airing this Friday on Link TV - the television network that is also my employer. It is also available online on Link TV's website.



For many Americans, the bicycle is a choice. For countless others across the globe, it is much more. For Fred, a health worker in Zambia, the bicycle is a means of reaching twice as many patients. For Bharati, a teenager in India, it provides access to education. For Mirriam, a disabled Ghanaian woman, working on bicycles is an escape from the stigma attached to disabled people in her community. For Carlos, a farmer in Guatemala, pedal power is a way to help neighbors reduce their impact on the environment. For Sharkey, a young man in California, the bicycle is an escape from the gangs that consume so many of his peers.

My Own Two Wheels weaves together the experiences of these five individuals into a single story about how the bicycle can change the world - one pedal stroke at a time. Find out when it airs at linktv.org.

ViewChange: With My Own Two Wheels Airdates

(Times in Pacific time zone)
Friday, October 21st
05:00 pm
Tuesday, October 25th
08:00 pm
Thursday, October 27th
02:30 am
Saturday, October 29th
05:30 am

DIRECTV Channel 375 | DISH Network Channel 9410

cross-posted at Change Your Life. Ride a Bike!

Cycling For Everyone by Amsterdamize

Could this be our history too? Someday?



This is a fantastic little film by my friend Marc from Amsterdamize on the history and state of cycling in The Netherlands. Excellent filmmaking and narration by Marc, the man, the myth, the legend himself.

blockbuster bikes

It was bound to happen - bikes are everywhere now, and have made it back to the big screen and Hollywood.

Enter Premium Rush - The Matrix meets The Messenger. Here's the synopsis:

“A New York bike messenger is given an envelope by a young woman at an uptown Manhattan college and is told he has 90 minutes to deliver it to an address in Chinatown. Complications ensue when an undercover police office appears and demands the envelope on special grounds. The truth, hidden motivations, and the life-and-death stakes on all sides are revealed through a series of flashbacks as the cop and the messenger engage in a length-of-Manhattan chase, racing against time after the messenger discovers the precious nature of the envelope’s slender contents."

Not my breed of cycling, and definitely not a film that will give cyclists a good name, nor inspire a non-cyclist to get back on a bike. But kinda badass nonetheless.

So when the "cycle chic" film comes out, will it be more like "Sex and the City?"

Mind The Gap - Trip to China

Check out my friend Laura's Kickstarter campaign for her film Mind The Gap! Help Laura film in China by making a donation! Laura is a talented filmmaker and her project on sustainable urban transportation is so important.



Here is what the project is all about:

MIND THE GAP is a multi-platform documentary project examining the exciting work individuals, advocates and governments are doing to foster sustainable urban transit. The project includes a feature length film, event series, and webisode series.

At the end of May we plan to go to China to film in Beijing and Guangzhou. I’ve been talking to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy who just named the city of Guangzhou the winner of the Sustainable Transport award for 2011. They are very welcoming and will help us understand how Guangzhou got to where they are today, as well as help us find commuters to follow. In Beijing, I am speaking to a local producer who is able to put me in touch with local bike advocates, local commuters, and transit policy people. We will also film an eclectic Beijing native who is a subway engineer by day and is an experimental musician at night.

DFF + VV = TLF!

For the third year in a row, Vélo Vogue has covered the red carpet at the Disposable Film Festival's Bike-In Movie Screening. This year, hundreds of cyclists rolled into the hip Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin and lounged by the pool to catch 2011's winning disposable films.



Kudos to DFF Founder Carlton for gathering our community for another fine event.



Food carts filled our tummies with yumminess once again, among them was Brian, with his original curry on wheels.


We all had a blast, but perhaps some of the hotel guests were slightly overwhelmed by the successful turnout.



And for those of you who missed it, here's one of my favorite films of the festival. Got a lot of laughs!

The Kitty Papers from Disposable Film Festival on Vimeo.

More to come over the next couple weeks from the DFF red carpet!

smart girls cycle chic!

How about a story of how a bicycle provided secondary education for a generation of village girls in India?



Check out the clip from the film With My Own Two Wheels about how the bicycle once again changed people's lives for the better.

The Cycletrope!

Just about the coolest thing I've seen since the zoetrope at Pixar. "A simple mechanism comes to life!"