The view from the bicycle
Filmed by Bike III takes viewers on an eye-opening ride through the
two-wheeled world
Friday, April 15, 2005
JOHN FOYSTON [email hidden]
Filmed by Bike III is a festival of short films about bike culture, but it
could be an episode of "Wild Kingdom" -- thanks to a roster that includes
bunnies, rats and a flying squad of Mega Rays.
No, not the stars of "Venomous Mega Rays From the Planet Morgo" or any of
the other sci-fi films at which we misspent our youth. Mega Rays are Schwinn
bicycles modified with banana seats and ape-hanger handlebars, making them
Stingrays for big kids, or Mega Rays. They're favored by the Belligerantes,
the Portland bicycle gang that plans to turn out en masse and in regalia for
tonight's screening.
As well they should, because one of the films is about them. "Rolling
Monuments" is a short film by Portland filmmaker (and club co-founder) Craig
Babb about a day in the life of the Belligerantes, a day that includes
"rolling out" (their term for riding), beer drinking (their term for . . .
oh you know that one!) and the Belligerantes' way of observing the Fourth of
July, which involves lashing pyrotechnic devices to one's Mega Ray.
"Rolling Monuments" -- which includes footage of the club's ultrasecret Area
52 -- opens the second half of the one-night festival. There are a dozen
films in all, beginning with "Bunny on a Bike," a Portland film about the
Bunny Ride -- yes, please wear a bunny suit if you have one -- at Easter.
Another film on the bill is "Rat Patrol," about a Chicago bicycle gang that
takes its name from a municipal rat-eradication program and roots for
treasure in alleys. It shows that creative weirdness is not peculiar to
Portland's bike community, says festival organizer Ayleen Crotty.
"Imagine" dreams about a world with fewer cars; "Lords of the Chain Ring"
illustrates one possible way toward that goal when a group of bicyclists
chase down an errant motorist and whang the tar out of his rig with their
bicycle locks.
"Locking Bikes" is from the makers of New York's "Bike TV," and follows the
crew as they tour the locked bicycles of the Big Apple and grade bicyclists
on their skill at securely locking their bikes.
Not that it makes that much difference, suggests "190 Sadnesses." Less than
two minutes long, this film is a relentless parade of still photos of 190
bicycles that had been securely locked -- and smashed, stripped, looted or
crumpled nonetheless.
But that's life in the big city. "A Day at the Races," on the other hand, is
about life out here in the West, a film about the joys of cyclecross, a form
of bicyclical mayhem similar to motocross for motorcycles. Crotty says it's
fast-paced and exciting and everybody gets muddy. "I don't know if they
water those tracks or not, but everybody ends up covered in mud."
Not that wheelmen and women are all mud-encrusted roughnecks. Todd
Boulanger's "Biking With Umbrella" is a film about exactly that, and the
Association of Sycling Sisters made "Do Bikes and Skirts Mix?" which urges
higher sumptuary standards among Portland's bicyclists -- or at least among
those who might be persuaded to wear skirts.