Take The Lane

Epic cycling documentary is about the Canadian story

It was an epic cycling journey in 1956, 5,600 kilometres from Mexico to Toronto, by Mexican brothers Arturo Martinez McNaught and Gustavo Martinez McNaught.

And then 50 years later, they retraced their steps: exploring their love of cycling, their affection for Mexico and Canada, and their attachment to one another.

It was documented by filmmaker Andrea Martinez Crowther, daughter of Arturo and his wife, KW native Pat Crowther. The result, Ciclo, has toured around Latin American film festivals (it's in Spanish with English subtitles) and art-house festivals, creating positive buzz, such as this feature in Ottawa blog Apt 613.

Gustavo's daughter, Toronto singer/songwriter Amanda Martinez spoke with CBC Radio One's Matt Galloway in the run-up to the Pan Am Games about her uncle and her father, and their adventure, as an introduction to her part in the Games as a torch-bearer. In many ways, the story of these two Mexican cyclists is the story of Canada: people from many countries finding a home here.

I wrote about the production of the film in Take the Lane in 2009, when the film crew was finishing the journey in Toronto. It seems like a long time from there to here, but not so long, also.

Ciclo is being screened at the Kitchener Public Library, Central Branch, 85 Queen St. N., Kitchener, on Thursday, Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. This is not a library event, so there is an admission charge of $10 a person. Andrea Martinez Crowther is expected to attend the screening. You can check out Ciclo on Facebook.

Two Canadian cycling icons in one film

You get two cycling icons in one movie with the indie project by first-time director Tony Girardin in Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame, a 2014 Toronto Hot Docs favourite which opened Thursday night at the Princess Theatre in Waterloo and is opening Friday night at the Bookshelf in Guelph.

Girardin, who did a Q&A at the Princess and will appear at the Bookshelf on Friday, tells the story of Giuseppe Marinoni, the Italian-born, Montreal-based bicycle racer and bicycle builder, who at the age of 75, set out to break the one-hour world record (total distance cycled in one hour, non-stop) in his age group. Along the way, Girardin reveals the occasional soft spots in the crabby former champ, and provides some glimpses into the world of Canadian cycling legend Jocelyn Lovell, through Marinoni's connections to Lovell. 

Lovell, who won more medals than most Canadian competitive cyclists can dream of, rode to his 1978 Commonwealth Games victories on a Marinoni, the same frame that Marinoni uses for his record-breaking attempt. (The Lovell story, from cycling fame to the heartbreaking accident that left him a quadriplegic at the peak of his career, is just history to anyone under the age of 30, but this film should spark some interest in the former champ. I talked with Lovell in 2009, more about energy efficiency than cycling.)

It was a real pleasure to have the director there to introduce his film and to take questions from the appreciative audience.

He also sold posters after -- fundraising to offset his hotel and travel expenses coming for the opening. Ah, the life of the independent filmmaker. It's not all Hollywood glamour.

It's worth your while to see Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame. It continues at the Princess and at the Bookshelf on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For more on Marinoni, try B.C.-based Bruce Goett's La Bicycletta blog.

 

Take your meds first, then watch the movie

I don't recommend this Bicycle Film Festival movie, Line of Sight, because I advocate running red lights, riding against traffic, cutting off pedestrians or generally riding into the face of danger.

I do recommend it because it is interesting to see the bike messenger community in action, in a series of races at such major cities as New York and Tokyo. As you might expect, the kind of people who finish first at these events are high-octane Type A personalities (and don't be a check-point volunteer who isn't entirely prepared to answer any question they ask).

And it is educational to hear the filmmaker, Lucas Brunelle, explain how bike messengers use the pieces of the road between vehicles -- what motorists might regard as their buffer zones -- to manouevre in and out of places not even a motorcycle can go.

All the clinical analysis aside, it is also an adrenaline rush, with a pulse-pounding soundtrack. Take your meds first, then settle back to enjoy.

Looking for a cycling thrill ride?

If you're looking for a bicycle rush without moving your pedals, you might want to check out the theatre this weekend for Premium Rush, a Columbia Pictures release scheduled for Friday.

It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (ex-3rd Rock from the Rock alumnus) as a bicycle courier who has the package that everyone wants. The trip through New York City from Point A to Point B is a thrill ride with, according to the trailers, plenty of MacAskillesque moments. That is, don't try ANY of this at home, kids.  

Take a spin through cycling history with Evalyn Parry

A big wheel in cycling rolls into town on Tuesday when Evalyn Parry, poet, singer, storyteller and spokes-person, appears as the finale of the Waterloo Region Museum's storyteller series.

Parry is the hub of Spin, a theatrical performance centred around the story of Annie Londonderry, the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle, back in 1894-95. The version showing at the regional museum on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., also called Spin, is a significant selection of songs and stories from Parry's fully fleshed evening of song, spoken words and images.

Parry's show is the convergence of many things: her love of poetry, music and theatre; her lifelong passion for cycling and the freedom it promises; and the historic associations between the emergence of the bicycle as a "new" technology and the early emancipation of women. Hence the focus on Annie Londonderry, who undertook (according to the New York World of the time) "the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman."

In a phone chat Friday from the streets of Toronto, Parry talked about the show, about the politics of cycling (Hallo, Rob Ford), and about how much has changed since this simple device emerged in the late Victorian era. One of her observations is that the bicycle has been an enduring mobility solution.

"More than a hundred years after the invention of the bicycle, nothing has effectively replace this simple technology. We live in a world of accelerating technology... what else is around now from that period that has not been improved upon or replaced? The bicycle continues to provide that wondeerful feeling of freedom, and how amazing is that?"

Parry believes that there is "a renaissance of the bicycle" in some urban centres, and says that bike shop owners she knows have said that "women are leading that -- the increase in ridership is from women."

All the more interesting to hear the story of Annie Londonderry, a cycling suffragette.

If you can't get to the Waterloo Region Museum on Tuesday (and you really should), Parry will be bringing the entire Spin production to Guelph's The River Run Centre Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.

(There may be more coming out about Annie Londonderry thanks to a film documentary entitled A New Woman: Annie Londonderry Kopchovsky, which is scheduled for release sometime later this year by an American group called Spokeswoman Productions.)

 

More amazing MacAskill

Really, can you see enough of the thrilling street trials riding of Danny MacAskill? Here's another video, including some interview segments, from what is mostly an adventure skiing DVD from Perfect Moment/Nuit De La Glisse.

Unlike some of the previous MacAskill vids, this one shows some less successful manoeuvres, and the odd smashed bike. (Note to kids wanting to try this at home: your parents better have a bike store or deep pockets.)

Sure, you can cycle in snow

It's Friday and you need some music and video: try this one from Copenhagenize, "January Cycling - Your Country."

The very appropriate music is You're the Storm, by the Swedish group The Cardigans.

Won't be long now and you'll need your winter tires...

Crazy or not? OK, crazy....

It's hard to tell if the man known as Biker Fox is crazy or not. OK, he's crazy, but not in a criminal way.

Frank DeLarzelere is a Oklahoma businessperson who made a bundle selling parts for vintage muscle cars. As Biker Fox, he is a self-absorbed bicycle daredevil and bit of a nut. You can prove this for yourself at his website.

Or, if you have friends in the indie film business, you can ask them to screen a copy of Biker Fox, a documentary shown last week at Slamdance, an indie-film event that runs parallel to the Sundance Film Festival. Rick Warner of Bloomberg News has done a profile of the man and film here. Enjoy. And scratch your head.

Film details epic cycling journey

I know that it is easy to focus on the cycling successes of the present and recent past and forget the pioneers of cycling, so I have great hopes for Ciclo, a documentary about two Mexican brothers who rode 5,600 kilometres across North America from their village to Toronto in 1956.

The documentary, still in production, tells the story of this epic journey, at a less complicated moment in North American history and cycling culture, using clippings, archive footage and new film as filmmakers and the two cyclists themselves -- Arturo and Gustavo MartinezMcNaught, now in their 70s -- retrace the journey.

The film crew is arriving in Toronto this week to finish the trip, and you can hope to see some Toronto media coverage of Ciclo. Anyone with an interest in cycling history will spend some enjoyable moments cruising the film's website, where you can review clippings from 1956 and see photos of the handsome Latin brothers in their matching wool jerseys, hoisting Miss Toronto on their shoulders and discussing their route with local officials for the newspaper photographers as they wend their way through the United States. (You wonder what the border patrol would make of two Mexican brothers trying to ride across North America these days!)

For those in Waterloo Region, there's even a local connection: Arturo's wife Janet Crowther is a KW native and St. Mary's Hospital nursing school grad. Janet and Arturo are expected in the region at the nursing school's 50th anniversary reunion, Oct. 2-4.

A fascinating story, and one I hope we will be able to see on screen in this community.

Bicycling as culture

Lucky are the people at the Calgary Underground Film Festival later this month (April 19) who will be able to view Veer, a documentary that looks at the lives of five bicycle-centric people over the course of one year, charting their struggles and successes. Veer is about an emerging culture, and is a reminder that bicycling can be about more than commuting to work or Sunday club rides. You can see a trailer for Veer at their website.