2015 / 90 minutes / English and others with subtitles / Color
Directed by: Fredrik Gertten
Print supplied by: WG Film
Tuesday, August 4th, 2015
6:00pm
at The Mason O. Damon Auditorium at Buffalo Central Library
Please join us for a one-night screening event of Fredrik Gertten’s latest documentary Bikes vs Cars [2015]. The director will be in attendance to introduce the film and conduct a post-screening Q&A.
Ticket Information: $5.00 at the door / CASH ONLY
ATM available across the street at Hotel Lafayette
Cyclists are also welcome to join Cultivate Cinema Circle and GO Bike Buffalo for a group ride to Hydraulic Hearth afterwards for discounted drinks with proof of your ride down. Here is the map:
Stop in early to be sure to score a FREE soft pretzel from Breadhive Cooperative Bakery!
Summer 2015 Season Sponsor: Community Beer Works
Event Sponsors: Buffalo Pug & Small Breed Rescue; Perk’s Cafe and Market; BreadHive Cooperative Bakery; GO Bike Buffalo; Hydraulic Hearth & Hotel @ The Lafayette
BIKES vs CARS TRAILER from WG Film on Vimeo.
Synopsis courtesy of Bikes vs Cars:
The bicycle, an amazing tool for change. Activists and cities all over the world are moving towards a new system. But will the economic powers allow it? Bikes vs Cars, a new film project from BANANAS!* and Big Boys Gone Bananas!* director Fredrik Gertten, looks into and investigates the daily global drama in traffic around the world.
Climate change and never-ending gridlocks frustrate people more than ever. Instead of whining, people in cities around the world take on the bicycle as a Do It Yourself solution. Road rage and poor city planning creates daily death amongst the bicyclists. And now they demand safe lanes.
It’s an uneven fight. Activists and politicians that work for change are facing a multi-billion dollar car, oil and construction industry that use all their means to keep society car dependent. We know that the world needs radical changes to save the climate and the environment, but the car industry is selling more cars than ever. Today there are one billion cars in the world. By 2020, that number will double.
The film will follow the individuals around the world that are fighting to create change. We meet Aline at Sao Paulo’s Ciclofaxia, the weekly Sunday ride where one lane of Paulista Avenue is opened for bikes only. Aline is an inspirational person in the city’s bicycle movement, who tries to focus on the positive aspects of being a cyclist. But that can be difficult in a city where one bicyclist is killed every four days. And in Toronto, where mayor Rob Ford strips away the city’s bike lanes in his battle to win the “war on cars,” we watch as members of the Urban Repair Squad infiltrate the streets at night, using spray paint and stencils to replace them.
From bike activists in Sao Paulo and Los Angeles, fighting for safe bike lanes, to the City of Copenhagen, where forty percent commute by bike daily, Bikes vs Cars will look at both the struggle for bicyclists in a society dominated by cars, and the revolutionary changes that could take place if more cities moved away from car-centric models.
Director’s Note:
Born in a city where the bike is the natural choice for going from one place to another, I’ve travelled the world wondering why there are so few bicycles. Now, the car model as we know it has reached an extreme level with constant gridlock and millions of productive hours lost. Frustration is growing and cities need to look into new models.
The new urban biking is pushing this development. It’s a growing movement, which I’ve now seen around the world. People who simply put a sign on their bike saying “ONE LESS CAR.” A Do-It-Yourself attitude towards a global crisis.
It’s a positive message. If all cities adopted the model of Copenhagen, where forty percent commute within the city on bikes, it would be a radical change for the world. Something you can measure in health, pollution, oil usage.
And now the conflict. The car industry is in the center of our economic system. For the car owners and commuters that have become so invested in their lifestyle, it will be painful to change. It’s a conflict that interests me, and that is why I’ve decided to take on this project. A project of passion.
Fredrik Gertten
Cultivate Cinema Circle 