Thursday, June 15, 2006
Getting Hit By Inspiration: Interview with Brendt Barbur, founder of The Bicycle Film Festival.
The Bicycle Film Festival is going to be AMAZING this year in LA!!! I'm so excited for it I can hardly contain myself!
Anyway, here's an interview/article that I wrote about Brendt Barbur (founder and director of the BFF) and the Festival.
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I called Brendt Barbur last week.
"So Brendt, do you think we could hook up when you get into town so I can do this interview?"
He seems a bit distracted. "Yeah, sure. No problem." and then "Hey Ashira, do you think people are going to come?"
I've been through this with Brendt countless times before. In fact I think I've been through this every single time I've talked to him in the last month. I bite the urge to ask him if he's kidding, because I know he's not. Instead I say "Yes Brendt. People are definitely going to come."
"So you think people have heard of The Bicycle Film Festival?" He asks.
I don't understand how the 35 year old founder and director of a film festival that has been known to sell out consistently in cities around the world seems so markedly unsure. I make a note to ask him about that.
When I caught up with Brendt last Saturday afternoon, we talked a little about that. We also talked about why he loves bikes so much, and how The Bicycle Film Festival, now an international event in only it's sixth year, is going to change the world.
"People in the bike world, especially people who have been in the bike world for a long time, they've really seen the bike movement happen. And it's tripled, quadrupled - it's way bigger than it's ever been." We're in Griffith Park behind some bushes, near a low bent tree, off a narrow foot path. Brendt is sitting cross legged, trying to brush away the many bugs that we've interrupted by sitting down. "It's way bigger than it's ever been, however it's not that big. In my daily life, when I'm trying to make things happen and I'm dealing with (non-bike) people, they don't get it. I have to tell them." He stops for a second and then continues fast, in earnest. "I mean, I enjoy it, because I looooove talking about bikes and the bike movement. But sometimes I get caught up in it and I'm like - Wow! This is so big compared to what it used to be - but we haven't seen anything yet!" He starts to laugh. "You know?"
We're supposed to meet up with Dorothy somewhere near Griffith Park. Dorothy is a road racer who organizes criteriums and she wants a bunch of Bicycle Film Festival programs to hand out to fellow road racers at a big race that's happening on the following day. Brendt has 450 programs to give to her, but we haven't been able to reach her yet.
"You know, I didn't ask her to give these out." He says "She just wanted to." His tone is somewhere between awe, disbelief and gratitude. "She did it last year too!"
I know a little bit about the history of the Festival. It played exclusively in New York for the first three years, but in the last three years, The Bicycle Film Festival has grown at an unbelievable rate. In the Festivals fourth year, Brendt flew across the country to take the Festival to his hometown of San Francisco. "San Francisco was a cinch" He laughs "You know, I'm from there, so we did it there. We've sold out most shows since we started there." This year it will play in nine cities around the world, including London, Sydney, and Tokyo. "In London (last year) we had to do extra screenings." Those screenings played immediately after the screenings that were sold out and the extra screenings sold out as well. Brendt says that he gets emails from people all over the world asking, sometimes begging, for the Festival to come to their town. "What's happened is that people all over the world have caught on and are like Can we have it? Can we please have it here?"
------------------------
Read the rest at: www.redridinghoodproductions.com
Anyway, here's an interview/article that I wrote about Brendt Barbur (founder and director of the BFF) and the Festival.
---------------------------------------------
I called Brendt Barbur last week.
"So Brendt, do you think we could hook up when you get into town so I can do this interview?"
He seems a bit distracted. "Yeah, sure. No problem." and then "Hey Ashira, do you think people are going to come?"
I've been through this with Brendt countless times before. In fact I think I've been through this every single time I've talked to him in the last month. I bite the urge to ask him if he's kidding, because I know he's not. Instead I say "Yes Brendt. People are definitely going to come."
"So you think people have heard of The Bicycle Film Festival?" He asks.
I don't understand how the 35 year old founder and director of a film festival that has been known to sell out consistently in cities around the world seems so markedly unsure. I make a note to ask him about that.
When I caught up with Brendt last Saturday afternoon, we talked a little about that. We also talked about why he loves bikes so much, and how The Bicycle Film Festival, now an international event in only it's sixth year, is going to change the world.
"People in the bike world, especially people who have been in the bike world for a long time, they've really seen the bike movement happen. And it's tripled, quadrupled - it's way bigger than it's ever been." We're in Griffith Park behind some bushes, near a low bent tree, off a narrow foot path. Brendt is sitting cross legged, trying to brush away the many bugs that we've interrupted by sitting down. "It's way bigger than it's ever been, however it's not that big. In my daily life, when I'm trying to make things happen and I'm dealing with (non-bike) people, they don't get it. I have to tell them." He stops for a second and then continues fast, in earnest. "I mean, I enjoy it, because I looooove talking about bikes and the bike movement. But sometimes I get caught up in it and I'm like - Wow! This is so big compared to what it used to be - but we haven't seen anything yet!" He starts to laugh. "You know?"
We're supposed to meet up with Dorothy somewhere near Griffith Park. Dorothy is a road racer who organizes criteriums and she wants a bunch of Bicycle Film Festival programs to hand out to fellow road racers at a big race that's happening on the following day. Brendt has 450 programs to give to her, but we haven't been able to reach her yet.
"You know, I didn't ask her to give these out." He says "She just wanted to." His tone is somewhere between awe, disbelief and gratitude. "She did it last year too!"
I know a little bit about the history of the Festival. It played exclusively in New York for the first three years, but in the last three years, The Bicycle Film Festival has grown at an unbelievable rate. In the Festivals fourth year, Brendt flew across the country to take the Festival to his hometown of San Francisco. "San Francisco was a cinch" He laughs "You know, I'm from there, so we did it there. We've sold out most shows since we started there." This year it will play in nine cities around the world, including London, Sydney, and Tokyo. "In London (last year) we had to do extra screenings." Those screenings played immediately after the screenings that were sold out and the extra screenings sold out as well. Brendt says that he gets emails from people all over the world asking, sometimes begging, for the Festival to come to their town. "What's happened is that people all over the world have caught on and are like Can we have it? Can we please have it here?"
------------------------
Read the rest at: www.redridinghoodproductions.com
# posted by Red Riding Hood : 12:29 PM
