Bicycle Film Festival comes to Seattle this weekend; see trailers

This weekend brings the Bicycle Film Festival to Seattle, one of nearly 40 presentations in cities around the world for the 10th anniversary of the event.

Film showings are scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Western Bridge, 3412 4th Avenue, South in the South of Downtown area.

The first two nights of programs are followed by BFF After Parties at The Orient Express, 2963 4th Ave. South, on Friday and The Siren Tavern, 3403 4th Ave. South, on Saturday.

Long and short of it

These films are all about all forms of bicycling. They are long and short, documentary and feature.

The festival opens Friday with the “Birth of Big Air,” the amazing story of how Mat Hoffman lives to soar through the air on his bicycle. It's preceded by the equally scary “Line of Sight,” about bikes dodging traffic in big city alleycat races.

A series of short and medium pieces makes up the second program at the show.

Touring

The main feature on Saturday is “Riding the Long White Cloud” [trailer below] which takes us to New Zealand where skateboarders ride their bicycles around the North Island in search of ideal skakeboarding locations. An interesting lifestyle piece tells about the taxi-bike drivers of Cuba.

Saturday's second program features a number of short films, including “Tokyo to Osaka” [trailer below] which tells about 12 Americans who ride their fixies between to the two Japanese cities.

Three programs are featured on Sunday.

China

The sole film in the opening program, “Man Zou,” is the story of four Americans who ride their bicycles more than 1,000 across China to learn how the country is changing.

Several short subjects precede the second program's main title “The Cyclocross Meeting,” which examins the growing cyclocross race scene in America and Japan.

The final program features “Empire,” the story of New York City's best urban cyclists.

Tickets

Programs are 7 and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 5, 7, and 9 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets can be purchased online for the individual programs, but a festival pass for all seven programs over three days can be had for $35. Go to Brown Bag Tickets.

Riding the Long White Cloud

“Tokyo to Osaka”