Friday, August 26th, 2005
8:30 - Live music
9:00 - Benefit for the Mass Defense Committee of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and lawyers.
On the lawn at Automotive High School
50 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Dress warmly (it's cooler when you're sitting still).
In the event of rain the show is indoors at the same location.
Bicycle Film Festival - Still We Ride
Critical Mass is a monthly group bicycle ride that takes place in hundreds of cities across the world on the last Friday of every month. Critical Mass rides have been taking place in New York City for over 12 years. On the last Friday of August, 2004, days before the start of the Republican National Convention, the New York City Police Department arrested 264 cyclists. In the year since then, not a single Critical Mass ride has passed in Manhattan without mass arrests. In 2005 alone, the NYPD has arrested approximately 150 people during Critical Mass rides. These arrests have spawned multiple battles in state and federal court, and scores of open criminal cases.
On the last Friday in August, on the night of the Critical Mass ride marking the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the crackdown, Rooftop Films and the Bicycle Film Festival present a night of bike films as a benefit for the Mass Defense Committee of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. For over 65 years, the National Lawyers Guild has provided support for the struggles for racial justice, civil rights and workers' rights.
During the RNC, hundreds of volunteer NLG legal observers patrolled the streets, observing police conduct and documenting arrests. Since then, the Mass Defense Committee has provided volunteer legal observers at Critical Mass rides. Rooftop Films and the Bicycle Film Festival are proud to support the work of the National Lawyers Guild.
NOTICE TO BICYCLISTS:
This event is bike-centric, and it is planned on the same night as is a Critical Mass ride. We want to remind those of you who plan on going on the ride and then coming to Rooftop that riding over bridges on which bicycle traffic is prohibited might be a particularly bad idea tonight, especially if you are riding in a group.
THE FILMS:
Still We Ride
(Elizabeth Press, Andrew Lynn and Christopher Ryan /
New York, NY / 40:00)
On Friday August 27, 2004 in New York City, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention, 264 people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and parading without a permit during the monthly bicycle celebration, Critical Mass. The ritual began in 1992 in San Francisco and has since spread around the world to over 300 cities. The August crackdown in NYC was the beginning of an ongoing effort to suppress free assembly for group rides. The monthly cycle of arrests and bicycle seizures has forced the bike community into a legal battle with the city and politicized the very act of riding a bike.
Warriors: The Bike Race (Christopher Ryan, Jesse Epstein, Mike Green / New York, NY / 24:00)
In August of 2002, over 800 bicycle riders descended upon New York City in the form of 89 gangs. Their goal: to live out the epic gang warfare movie known as The Warriors. During the all-night race from the Bronx to Coney Island, riders got lost, blood was shed, police were outwitted, and countless brain cells were destroyed. Most of what took place that night was thankfully never to be discussed again until...Warriors: The Bike Race.
Monster Track VI (Lucas Brunelle / New York, NY / 4:00)
All the excitement of a world-class fixed-gear urban bike race without the potential for severe bodily harm. Lucas Brunelle, the king of dramatic and dangerous first-person urban bike ride movies, will scare the bejeezus out of you as he mounts a camera on his helmet and weaves past cars, buses, pedestrians, and Christo's Gates, all on one of the coldest days of the year. Some might say that this kind of riding is what makes bikers so hated by city drivers, but if more people rode bikes, this kind of riding wouldn't be necessary.
Bomb Bay with Ted Shred (Matt Goldman / San Francisco, CA / 5:00)
As if the top messengers weren't risky enough, legendary ex-skater, DJ and Bike FF spokesmodel Ted Shred bombs the hills and bustling streets of San Francisco with no brakes. Seriously, No Brakes! Filmmaker Matt Goldman mixes the kamikaze ride with Ted's own visionary DJ-ing to create this adrenalized scratch poem.
Fast and Reliable (Tom Soper / New York, NY / 8:00)
It's tough enough starting your own business in New York—try starting your own bike messenger service with one leg. This is the amazing story of legendary rider Dexter Benjamin, an immigrant from Trinidad who lost a leg in a heroic biking accident, but didn't lose his speed and determination.
There's a Flower in my Pedal
(Andrea Dorfman / Halifax, Novia Scotia / 4:00)
A lovely mixed-media ode to the peaceful act of riding a bicycle.
Gears for Fears (Nicholas Golebiewski / Brooklyn, NY / 02:00)
An animated history and explanation of one of the world's largest and longest-running peaceful rallies, Critical Mass.
