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One Earth Film Festival Returns to Chicago this Spring


 

One Earth Film Festival motivates Chicago to go “All In” for planet Earth in 2019.

 

     Springtime always brings excitement to J.C. Lind Bike Co. every year. Weather bounces between balmy and freezing rain; meanwhile customers, phone calls, and emails come pouring in, as do shipments of bikes we’ve ordered from across the continent and the world. All that excitement isn’t restricted to the business of running a bike shop, though, and the One Earth Film Festival is one of those things that we look forward to every year that happens outside the shop’s doors.

 

     This year the lineup of movies being shown at OEFF promises to impress and the programming that accompanies them we trust will be similarly thoughtful and insightful. It’s often a critique of environmental documentaries that they leave us feeling like the world is terrible, horrible, the situation is grim, and now we’re worse off than we were because prior to seeing the movie we were living in blissful ignorance. One Earth Film Festival is unique in that the festival’s organizers don’t just screen a movie; they put on an event that’s designed to give viewers the opportunity to take action on the topic just discussed, in order to make a positive difference in their little part of the world.

 

     In that same vein, we at the Shop try to be intentional about acting in ways that reflect what we learn from these movies. For us, that most often means riding our bikes! (Maybe that’s self-evident). We usually use the OEFF as an opportunity to do some kind of a planned ride to one or multiple screenings of movies. Sometimes we end up involved in the events tied to the screenings (as is the case this year). So, without further ado, let’s talk about the movie we’re greatly anticipating this year: Why We Cycle!

 

Whywecycle

 

         The story of how this movie came to the One Earth Film Festival is an interesting prologue that we were actually lucky to be involved in. Back in October of 2018, we got word from a customer of ours in Minneapolis about Why We Cycle, who sent the trailer our way knowing that we were a Dutch bike shop and we’d likely be interested in seeing it.

 

     We were so excited about the movie we contacted the filmmakers to see whether we could screen it at the shop. We quickly realized the logistics of hosting events at the bike shop pose more problems than we have the bandwidth to solve! It then dawned on us that there’s an organization that would be delighted and more than capable of screening the film if they could get approval from the directors. That organization is One Earth Film Festival. Over the several years we’ve been attending the film festival, we’ve talked with OEFF Director Ana Garcia Doyle about our shared desire for more documentaries about transportation and bicycling. It was only natural that we come to her with news about the movie’s existence, which leads us to today.

 

     Dutch filmmakers Gertjan Hulster, Arne Gielen, Marco te Brömmelstroet, and Jeroen Dirks bring us the movie Why We Cycle, a documentary which is truly a portrait of Dutch people, their motivations, joys, and rationales for riding bikes as much as they do. This year One Earth Film Festival was able to bring Gertjan Hulster and Arne Gielen to Chicago to be present for a Q&A following the March 9th screening of their film.

 

     This film, for a Dutch bike shop such as we are, is a really special moment to geek out over a passion we share with the Dutch and also spread it to Chicagoans in a unique context that is decidedly not a bike shop. Having said that, some readers may be excited to know that J.C. Lind’s own Jon Lind will be a part of a post-screening panel on March 2nd at the Oak Park Library. We will also be tabling following both screenings of the film to give viewers ideas and tangible ways that they can make a big local impact when it comes to bicycling and the environment. We advise that you book your tickets online in advance (there is a suggested donation), because these showings can and do sell out. Come join us!

 

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