Brendt Barbur founded Bicycle Film Festival in New York in 2001, linking bicycles with film, music and art. The idea followed a collision in which a bus hit him while cycling: a difficult experience became the starting point for a cultural project.
The festival welcomes documentary, animation, narrative and experimental filmmaking. Emerging directors share its scope with established filmmakers. Bicycles provide a connecting thread for different forms of storytelling, taking the programme beyond the recording of sporting results.
The 2025 Japan programme illustrates that range. The six-minute The Hands of the Mechanics focuses on bicycle mechanics’ hands and accumulated experience, while the four-minute Onlooker observes the city through BMX rider Chad Douglas’s perspective. A short film can draw attention to what an everyday ride leaves in the background.
The 2026 calendar still includes Cincinnati on 21 November and Vancouver on 3 December. Check each city’s programme individually: a touring festival’s name does not mean the same film selection is shown everywhere.