 StreetFilms.Org, New York, NY    |
 FilmedByBike.org, Portland, OR |
Back Story
I became a fan of StreetFilms.org in 2010. My enthusiasm grew after attending Transportation Camp East (NYC) in March 2011, put on by OpenPlans.org. When the program committee for the Upstate Transportation Forum began meeting early this year, I advocated for an "unconference" participant-led format (e.g. Transportation Camp) and for including a film festival. Well, the unconference element in the Forum became the "popcorn session" and the Film Festival moved from an idea to reality. It wasn't too much of a stretch, afterall, the forum took place in Downtown Ithaca's multi-plex movie theater - Cinemapolis.
The objective of the film festival was to engage the public in the Forum by adding a free public event. Both the fesitival and the forum co-marketed one another. They embodied the Forum's theme of engaging in successful collaboration and partnership. The first 70% of films embrace the themes of collaboration and positive social action, after which FilmedByBike's bike-themed films take you on a random ride.
Tom Knipe (Tompkins County Planning Dept.) and I co-produced the festival. Tom contributed the FilmedByBike selections, wrote the script, hung posters and contacted people about the event. The festival would not have been possible without support of the Forum program committee who bought the idea; Jennifer Dotson, Forum Chair, who secured funding from Porter & Curtis Insurance and made sure Tom & I stayed on schedule; Dawn LaMorte, who coordinated co-marketing with the Forum and operational details with Cinemapolis; Glen Harris, Gnomon Copy, poster designer; Scott Doyle, narrator; Vikki Armstrong, door prize coordinator; and the film jury of Fernando deAragon, Alyson Fletcher, Tom & I. Special thanks are due to Robin Smith of StreetFilms.org & Alyeen Crotty of FilmByBike.org for supplying their films and to GoMaine.org and GoGet.com.au for publishing their work online. - Dwight Mengel, Sept 2011
The objective of the film festival was to engage the public in the Forum by adding a free public event. Both the fesitival and the forum co-marketed one another. They embodied the Forum's theme of engaging in successful collaboration and partnership. The first 70% of films embrace the themes of collaboration and positive social action, after which FilmedByBike's bike-themed films take you on a random ride.
Tom Knipe (Tompkins County Planning Dept.) and I co-produced the festival. Tom contributed the FilmedByBike selections, wrote the script, hung posters and contacted people about the event. The festival would not have been possible without support of the Forum program committee who bought the idea; Jennifer Dotson, Forum Chair, who secured funding from Porter & Curtis Insurance and made sure Tom & I stayed on schedule; Dawn LaMorte, who coordinated co-marketing with the Forum and operational details with Cinemapolis; Glen Harris, Gnomon Copy, poster designer; Scott Doyle, narrator; Vikki Armstrong, door prize coordinator; and the film jury of Fernando deAragon, Alyson Fletcher, Tom & I. Special thanks are due to Robin Smith of StreetFilms.org & Alyeen Crotty of FilmByBike.org for supplying their films and to GoMaine.org and GoGet.com.au for publishing their work online. - Dwight Mengel, Sept 2011
| script-_livable_streets_film_fest1.docx |
Film Festival Program - Sept 22, 2011
Order Title Length
1 Intro - 3 min 3:00
2 Clarence the Traffic Calming Sasquatch 3:07
3 Parking Day NYC 2007 6:22
4 Moving Beyond Automobile: Road Diet 4:48
5 Chicane 0:24
6 Bus Chick: Rewards of a Riding Life 4:17
7 1 Min Comment #1 1:00
8 Moving Beyond the Automobile: Bicycling 3:46
9 Hal and Kerri Grade Your Bike Locking 5:47
10 Portland: Intersection Repair 10:42
11 Diverter 0:48
12 Paint a Parking Lot, Put up a Paradise 2:45
13 1 Min Comment #2 1:00
14 Daylighting: Making your crosswalks safer 3:49
15 Raised Crosswalk 1:00
16 Success of Capital Bike Share 4:33
17 GoMaine Nation: Emergency Ride Home 1:33
18 GoGet Carshare in 60 Seconds 1:00
19 San Francisco Bike Music Festival 7:15 FilmedByBike 2011 DvD
20 Intermission 10:00
21 Remember Your First Bicycle 8:50 FBB2011
22 Burundi Bananas 2:00 FBB2011
23 Filmed By Bike 2010 DVD, start on track 2 45:00 FBB2010
24 Closing & Thank You 01:00
Total 8,086 seconds, 2.2 hours
1 Intro - 3 min 3:00
2 Clarence the Traffic Calming Sasquatch 3:07
3 Parking Day NYC 2007 6:22
4 Moving Beyond Automobile: Road Diet 4:48
5 Chicane 0:24
6 Bus Chick: Rewards of a Riding Life 4:17
7 1 Min Comment #1 1:00
8 Moving Beyond the Automobile: Bicycling 3:46
9 Hal and Kerri Grade Your Bike Locking 5:47
10 Portland: Intersection Repair 10:42
11 Diverter 0:48
12 Paint a Parking Lot, Put up a Paradise 2:45
13 1 Min Comment #2 1:00
14 Daylighting: Making your crosswalks safer 3:49
15 Raised Crosswalk 1:00
16 Success of Capital Bike Share 4:33
17 GoMaine Nation: Emergency Ride Home 1:33
18 GoGet Carshare in 60 Seconds 1:00
19 San Francisco Bike Music Festival 7:15 FilmedByBike 2011 DvD
20 Intermission 10:00
21 Remember Your First Bicycle 8:50 FBB2011
22 Burundi Bananas 2:00 FBB2011
23 Filmed By Bike 2010 DVD, start on track 2 45:00 FBB2010
24 Closing & Thank You 01:00
Total 8,086 seconds, 2.2 hours
PostScript - Historical Livable Streets: San Francisco, 1905
"San Francisco's main avenue in 1905 as seen from the front window of a streetcar moving along Market Street. The film was created by the legendary Miles Brothers and has been widely available through the Library of Congress and You Tube. It was shot just before a violent earthquake/fire destroyed the area in 1906." Eco-Mobility.tv
Here is traffic anarchy in full splendor. By today's standards this not congestion, everything and everbody keeps moving. While there are no apparent traffic controls, people seem to follow accepted rules of the road. Everyone and every vehicle shares the street - trolleys, horsedrawn wagons, pedestrians, bicyclists and automobiles. It's pretty exciting stuff. You see why later generations of traffic engineers went full bore to get the street under control and optimized for cars and trucks, to the exclusion of everybody else.
The present generation is pushing back against the auto-dominate engineering regime - hence the rise of Complete Streets, bus rapid transit, bicycles, traffic calming, and pedestrianism. The video adds a historical frame of reference, a starting benchmark, to consider for the future.
Dwight Mengel, October 2011
Link to more reference info
Here is traffic anarchy in full splendor. By today's standards this not congestion, everything and everbody keeps moving. While there are no apparent traffic controls, people seem to follow accepted rules of the road. Everyone and every vehicle shares the street - trolleys, horsedrawn wagons, pedestrians, bicyclists and automobiles. It's pretty exciting stuff. You see why later generations of traffic engineers went full bore to get the street under control and optimized for cars and trucks, to the exclusion of everybody else.
The present generation is pushing back against the auto-dominate engineering regime - hence the rise of Complete Streets, bus rapid transit, bicycles, traffic calming, and pedestrianism. The video adds a historical frame of reference, a starting benchmark, to consider for the future.
Dwight Mengel, October 2011
Link to more reference info
