Profile: Brendt Barbur
15 October 2006 | culture, interviews | No Comments
It’s hard to believe the the Bicycle Film Festival is already on its sixth year, but it is, and it just keeps getting better each year. This probably sounds cliche, but outside of Breaking Away and Quicksilver, I had not known any other cycling movies had ever been made until this festival came around. I have Brendt Barbur to thank for opening my eyes to a previously untapped genre which is the bike film. Recently, I interviewed him online for this site, and he had many exciting developments to discuss.
Bitter Cyclist: I’ve been riding bikes for years, and it’s always excited me to ride, but it wasn’t until recently that I made that step into doing more than just riding into writing about cycling as well. How did the idea of putting together a bicycle film festival come about? What drove you into taking cycling from just a recreational activity into a cultural statement?
Brendt Barbur: I like that line “Cultural Statement”. It seems that I have told this story so many times. I feel like making up another story just for the fun of it. I love stories. This is the real story. I moved from SF to New York in late 1999. Of course I came with my biking habits. I ride mostly everywhere I go around the city. In late October 2000 on one of those beautiful day let’s take my time running errands rides. You know when you are on it fast and ninja aware you know that the car will make that turn before they do. You never get hurt when you ride like you are entitled to the street. Slow and day dreaming gets you woken up. I was doored by a construction van and I held on to the handle bars and for a split second I thought I had it made. The door had knocked me out in to the way of a oncoming City Bus. Wham! I was down. Ambulance, Hosptial, Rehab, Surgeon, doctors and doctors and yoga were in my schedule for the next year. It had been my dream to move to New York to set up my acting career and other artsy stuff. Everything was going to plan until the Bus knocked me out and left hyper active me in bed to recuperate. I am OK. It was not that bad. I was angry and wanted people to take notice of how important biking is. I have seen so many creative people who have been inspired by their life on a bike.I felt a Bicycle Film Festival could be a fun thing to accomplish the promotion of bicycles and the lives around them.
Brendt: Our first year we co produced the BFF with Anthology Film Archives. A legendary treasure of a Film House and Museum of Film In New York City. The cultural heritage of that place is huge. The names of the people who have been supporters of the place since it opened include Louis Bourgeois, Nam June Paik, Scorsese, Yoko Ono, Warhol, and its founder Jonas Mekas. It really opened a lot of doors to have their help. We had brain storming sessions on anything that people had seen at other Festivals to Hollywood stuff. Remember although it was not so long ago it was ages ago technologically. So many more people can pick up a camera and edit their footage on a computer at home. We had to dig. A lot more of it was film. Kino International (a film distribution company) where I had a friend introduced me to Jorgen Leth and “A Sunday In Hell” It sold out our first year. We screened it for our Fifth BFF celebration. Jorgen came and answered questions in New York at the BFF. That was a huge treat for us and the audience. We knew we were on to something when sold out shows the first year.
BC: Are you a film maker yourself?
Brendt: I produced 4 movies last year. When I get more time for other planned projects I will be a “Filmmaker”. I have a couple of projects on the burner.
BC: How many film submissions have you had for the festival? How have the numbers grown over the past five years?
Brendt: Well the first year we really did not have that many and last year we received 350 submissions. It is cool to see all the bike movies out there. Last year was the first year we had to turn down really well made films that did not fit. It is amazing we have films submitted from all over the world. One gem that maybe was not so action packed but was really beautiful and well paced was “Adventure High” from Estonia.
BC: Are there plans for expanding the festival into more cities?
Brendt: We are expanding from 6 last year to 10 or so this year. Four continents baby! We are crazy. It seems people are into it. The Bicycle Film Festival was attended by 17,000 people in 2005. We expect up to 40,000 people to attend in 2006. If we had the infrastructure we could go to 40 cities and sell out shows. We receive emails daily from people in South Africa to China to Iran. We get emails from people in almost every major city asking us to bring the Bicycle Film Festival to their City. I wish we could accommodate them.
BC: Do you have a personal favorite bike film that our readers should check out?
Brendt: I really do not have favorites. This year we are screening MASH final version and BIKE. They are both great. When it comes to bike movies I recommend people go to the Festival. There is nothing like watching these movies with five hundred other people in the Cinema. It is a lot of fun. Sometimes I feel like we could play the same movies every year and people would come just for that experience. Don’t worry we are not going to do that.
BC: Last year I also attended an art show as well as the film festival. Will you continue this? Is the art show expanding?
Brendt: We have been doing a bike art show in New York since the first year in 2001. I liked our show in SF a lot.It was raw. Over 1500 people came to the opening. People worked really hard on it. Mike Martin and John Stewart really came through. I wish they lived in New York. SF is fortunate to have such great folk contributing to bike culture. A group of people came out from New York to help as well. It is cool to see the exchange of ideas. I don’t know if we will do SF Bike Film Fest the same way this year. Every year is different. I think the bike rock show will be really cool for SF in 2006. Honestly I want to do a huge art show in New York in 2007. There it is. It is said. We are probably going to do art shows in LA and Tokyo as well this year. They are tons of work and planning. I think they have a giant impact. Visual art has a way of getting the message across.I think it is really important. Hopefully the Festival can inspire a little change. I think it has already. If I see people smiling at the Festival I know we have had an impact.
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