Coming September 26: The 4th Annual Bicycle Shorts Film Festival
Gathering Speed
A Fringie Award frontrunner at last year’s festival, BSFF rolls into its fourth year with three 90-minute blocks of bike-themed films from across the globe, plus a rescreening of the award winners for Narrative, Documentary, Experimental, Animation, Student, and Audience Choice. This year’s lineup includes powerful documentaries on urban advocacy, resilience and inclusion, immersive mountain journeys through Demark and Idaho, poetic BMX meditations, and whimsical shorts ranging from an Amazonian bike on a journey of self-discovery to a functional frame carved out of ice.
Block 1: Saturday, September 26 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm
Bici, The Story Of a Bike
Animation, Brazil, 9 min.
Director: Otoniel Lopes Oliveira
Abandoned after breaking down in Afuá, a city in the Amazon region, a mountain bike needs to reconnect with herself and find new meaning in her life while exploring a society where the only transportation is bicycles.
Get Your Gravel On: Gravel Racing in the Borderlands
Documentary, US, 15 min.
Director: Pablo Echevarría
A documentary showcasing the Inaugural Apacheria Gravel Race, which took place on November 15, 2024, in Douglas, Arizona.
How to Make Paper
Documentary, US, 9 min.
Director: Jeff Wielki
On a forestry road in the foothills, gravel biking becomes the method and process for making paper.
Invisible: Bike Workers Fight for Survival
Documentary, US, 22 min.
Director: Julien Sobel
Everyday delivery worker Sammy Escalante faces danger, challenge, and exploitation as he bikes through New York City.
Erosion Control
Documentary, US, 5 min.
Director: Marcus Honey
Athletes Aiden Parish and Harper Simon travel deep into the wild mountains of Idaho in search of never-before-ridden big mountain lines.
R(a)ising
Documentary, Germany, 20 min.
Director: Manuela Wörle
On a mountain bike trip together through Chile, a former professional mountain biker and her daughter confront a cross-generational legacy of achievement, love, and expectations that has shaped their relationship for years.
Block 2: Saturday, September 26 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm
The Postman
Narrative, UK, 1 min.
Director: Gavin Irvine
When a postman delivers a letter to the wrong address, he surprisingly discovers a quicker mode of transport than foot… a Raleigh Chopper! Question is: will any mail ever be delivered again?
So, I (Don’t) Cycle
Documentary, Austria, 14 min.
Director: Helen Vaaks
Through interviews, surveys, and observations, this short film explores cycling in Vienna from the perspective of migrants.
In the Heart of Patagonia
Documentary, Switzerland, 11 min.
Director: Martin Bissig
Austrian world-class mountain biker Tom Öhler travels to the windswept Aysen region of Chile, where he is joined by Patricio “Pato” Gocola, a local pioneer of Patagonian mountain biking.
Tandem
Narrative, US, 14 min.
Director: Darryl Jones
When two strangers cross paths biking through Raleigh, NC, their chance encounter sparks a romance that changes them both forever.
Despite Everything
Documentary, New Zealand, 16 min.
Director: Matthew Jenke
The story of Ilaria, an Italian woman with Myasthenia Gravis (MG), who continues to pursue her passion for triathlon despite living with a severe autoimmune disease and visual impairment.
Onlooker
Experimental, US, 4 min.
Director: Garrett Creamer
A meditation on presence in the city through the eyes of a professional BMX biker.
Rolling!
Documentary, US, 10 min.
Director: Mark C. Burns
The film rides along with New York City’s ‘Thursday Night Social Ride’. It’s a look at the characters, vibrations and mission that have made this group ride a New York institution for over a decade.
Limitless Pedal
Documentary, Turkey, 18 min.
Director: Cihan Emre Zengin
Visually impaired young athletes form a quiet yet powerful partnership on a tandem bike. Road, wind, and rhythm become their language. Alongside physical barriers, they seek recognition and support.
Shop Dog: a Mötley Movie
Documentary, US, 7 min.
Director: Marie Ullrich
Mötley is the shop dog at Working Bikes, a non-profit bike shop in Chicago supporting cycling locally and worldwide. She rides to work with Josh, the shop manager at Working Bikes.
Block 3: Saturday, September 26 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm
Bunny Hop
Narrative, UK, 10 min.
Director: Roger Valentine
A free-spirited woman named Bunny and her boyfriend Ed are cycling, tipsy and absorbed in each other when Bunny has a sudden accident. Bunny survives, but in the the body of the rental bike she rode.
Chaos Darkness Woman
Experimental, Mexico, 4 min.
Director: Andrea Gutiérrez Cedeño, Rogelio Hernández Pérez
Through a journey across the city at night, a woman tests the definitions of femininity and pleasure that were given to her by society.
We Are All Cyclists:
The All Bodies on Bikes Story
Documentary, US, 11 min.
Director: Robin Sansom
From a grassroots idea into a global movement, All Bodies on Bikes challenges narrow, performance-driven definitions of cycling and expanding who gets to call themselves a cyclist.
Everesting Denmark
Documentary, Denmark, 13 min.
Director: Tobias Illeris
Mads Bo Andersen and his close friend Jacob Plough set out to become the first to complete the Everesting challenge off-road on mountain bikes in Denmark.
001 The Beginning
Experimental, Australia, 1 min.
Director: Christopher Martin
A FOLDEE folding cargo bike in action in Melbourne.
The Last Flight of the Tandem
Documentary, Spain, 20 min.
Director: Ignacio Niño
David and Pablo, coordinators of the Green Plan at a school in Madrid, are about to ride 100 kilometers on an old tandem bike. The challenge aims to raise enough funds to buy a new tandem for the school.
Of Water and Wheels
Narrative, Poland, 5 min.
Director: Adam Zdanowicz
The MAD Bicycles team creates a block of ice that works as an actual frame. The message is simple: We cannot forget what we owe to nature.
The Ice Weasels Cometh
Documentary, US, 6 min.
Director: Jeff Udell
Get ready for the wildest party on two wheels! Witness the thrilling, hilarious, and utterly unique Northeast cyclocross race season finale: The Ice Weasels Cometh.
BMX 1513
Narrative, US, 20 min.
Director: Gregory Earls
A BMX flatland rider who performs through excruciating pain pushes himself past every limit in one final ride, leaving behind a haunting legacy that compels his grief-stricken girlfriend to return to her art and embrace the cost of creating something true.
Award Winners: Saturday, September 26 from 8 to 9:30 pm
The award-winning films and the three winners of the Audience Choice vote for each block will be rescreened at 8 pm. A final vote will decide who wins the Golden Bicycle. Check back Saturday at 7:30 pm to see the full lineup! In the meantime, here are last year’s award winners:
Jan Svankmajer Prize for Best Animated Short
“Velo Love” Animation, US, 11 min, Dir. Sam Méndez, Carlos Cruz
This dialogue-free stop-motion film tells the story of two bicycles that fall in love while parked outside a café, where their riders stop each morning for coffee. They realize that, to stay together, they must get their humans to fall in love.
Chick Vennera Prize for Best Narrative Short
“Swerve · Eli”, Narrative, US, 28 min, Dir. Raphael Xavier, Gary Dourdan
After a pandemic leaves an artist out of work, he reaches out to a former street friend for some fast cash. But the friend has something else in mind. He wants him to mentor a troubled kid trying to fit in with Philly’s BMX wheelie culture.
Prix Duchamp for Best Experimental Short
“DEADENDS & dolci”, Experimental, Switzerland, 6 min, Dir. Jan Mühlethaler
This Super 8 film adventure accompanies a group of bike-packing cyclists on their journey to 5 remote deadend-strees in the south of Switzerland.
Joseph R. Fusco Jr. Award for Best Documentary Short
“Cycling Against Ghosts”, Documentary, Germany, 13 min, Dir. Livia Giuliani
Two courageous women fight against the overwhelming dominance of car culture in Berlin, advocating for the rights of cyclists. Their lives are intertwined by ghost bicycles—white-painted memorials placed at the sites of fatal accidents.
Audra Alexander Award for Best Student Short
“Get Your Gravel On: Racing in the Borderlands”, Documentary, US, 15 min, Dir. Pablo Echevarría
A documentary showcasing the Inaugural Apacheria Gravel Race, which took place on November 15, 2024, in Douglas, Arizona.
Golden Bicycle Audience Choice Award
“Kiko”, Documentary, US, 16 min, Dir. Aaron Peterson
Kiko Silvelet rides elite endurance events on his beloved BMX bike, plays
accordion, makes a little trouble and tells truths we all probably need to hear.
