In this provided photo, Filmed By Bike festival director Ayleen Crotty speaks to a crowd at Hollywood Theater.
Filmed By Bike
After 21 years, Filmed By Bike festival founder and director Ayleen Crotty is rolling on to other projects and looking to find a buyer. The film festival features an international selection of short films and documentaries, all centered around the theme of bicycles and cycling culture. OPB’s “Weekend Edition” host Lillian Karabaic talked with Crotty about her legacy ahead of a Greatest Hits screening on Thursday, Oct. 26.
What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Lillian Karabaic: What is it about bicycles that act as a connector for filmmakers?
Ayleen Crotty: I think it’s exciting. You know, every time we see a movement or a cultural change reflected in the arts, it’s a sign of a growing movement. It’s a sign of a happening. And for bicycles, we saw that early on, people were writing songs that had bicycles in them, making bike artwork. And then there became films about cycling.
And people often say to me, “Is it really possible you have 21 years’ worth of people just showing movies about riding their bike?” And I always say it’s not movies about people riding their bikes — the content, the movies are so much richer than that. The storylines are sometimes beautiful. They’re often documentaries, and sometimes they’re just really amazing tales that you wouldn’t expect to hear that happen, that have bikes woven through them.
A provided still from the film "Dada the Malagasy Trialist" by French filmmaker Felix Le Blanc. It is the story of a bike trials rider in Madagascar. It was supported in part by the Filmed By Bike BIPOC filmmaker grant, which encourages Black, Indigenous and people of color to tell their bicycle stories.
Felix Le Blanc / Filmed By Bike
Karabaic: Can you talk to me about the early days? What made you put together the film festival in the first place?
Crotty: You know, the interesting thing is when we look out at the streets, Portland in the summertime, we see all these people on bikes, but it hasn’t always been that way. In the early days of Portland’s cycling culture in the early 2000s, we just wanted to spend time with other people who understood that passion for riding bikes and having fun on bikes. So we were looking for opportunities to bring people together. And the Filmed by Bike festival was one of those things.
It was meant to be a one-time event, and here we are 21 years later.
Karabaic: That’s wild, considering how big it is. How many people were at that first film festival?
Crotty: Well, we were hoping for about 25 or 30, and we had 60. It was standing room only. There were people purchasing tickets knowing they wouldn’t be able to see the screen and even see the movies, but they could feel that excitement, and they wanted to be a part of it and they wanted to support it.
Karabaic: You’re stepping down; what are your hopes for the film festival in the future?
Crotty: The Portland community knows and loves the festival pretty well. But when we go to other cities, we’re brand new in a lot of places, and we’re bringing people together to watch bike movies, galvanize bike communities and raise funds for nonprofits. And sometimes those communities have never seen anything like this.
So, in passing the torch and stepping down from Filmed By Bike, I’m really excited to see it continue. I know there’s a lot of life left in the festival. I feel like I have had my time to grow it and sculpt it to where it is. And now I’m really excited to see what other folks want to do with it. You know, life changes, our culture evolves. So what more can we do with Filmed By Bike?
In this provided photo, Filmed By Bike festival is shown at the Hollywood Theater in Northeast Portland. The festival has been running for 21 years, and is hosting a "greatest hits" exhibition, curated by outgoing festival director and founder Ayleen Crotty.
Ayleen Crotty / Filmed By Bike
Karabaic: You’ve curated a special Greatest Hits event. And I think you even dug some of the films off VHS tape from the original one. Can you talk about how you curated? What is the greatest hit after 21 years?
Crotty: Exactly. Because when I started to go through our archive, I just couldn’t stop. And I would have programmed a four-hour production. Nobody wants to sit through that.
But we have shown about 1,200 films over the years, and our archive has about 850 films in it — the ones we were able to keep hold of.
I looked at what are the funny moments, the ones that I knew the audience loved, the tear jerkers, the emotional stories, and the films where, when we showed them, we thought people would not have seen these otherwise if it weren’t for having an outlet like Filmed By Bike.
And then I kept thinking about these VHS tapes that I knew I once had and I thought were lost. They contained some archival footage of on-the-streets bike events in the early 2000s, the Chunkathalon which was a very creative event by a bike culture group, C.H.U.N.K. 666. And it shows people jousting on tall bikes and just this wild and free type of bike event that we don’t necessarily see as frequently or at all these days.
I think the audience is absolutely going to love it. What a treat to be able to share these just to show what has been the audience’s favorites as well as some of my favorites over the years.
Karabaic: That was Ayleen Crotty, the founder and outgoing festival director for Filmed By Bike festival. They are hosting a “Greatest Hits” event on Thursday, Oct. 26, in Portland at Cinema 21 and streaming online at filmedbybike.org.