Towards Carfree Cities IV - Video Night
- Berlin 2004 - Programme - Programme Details  
Wednesday, July 21 - 20:30-24:00
Evening of short movies; films under consideration are as follows:
Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels: (Extinction Stinks!, CAN, 2002, 6 min.)
The wild adventures of Vancouver's legendary band of mischevious, cycling velociraptors.
Web link: http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2002/07/13535.php/default.htm
Autoschreck (Car Fright): (Roland Schraut, GER, 1994, 15 min.)
The car is taking over the city. Michael Hartmann refuses to bow to them, refuses even to divert around the cars illegally parked on the sidewalk. Autoschreck is a documentary about a man committed to a mental hospital for being perfectly normal. He was just giving the cars a taste of their own medicine.
Download: http://nonato.vh.guad.de/fpx/car_autoschreck_engl.ram
Speelstraten (Playing Streets): (Stichting Speelstraten, NL, 5 min.)
Playing streets...because children have to play and streets have to live. Playing streets become a vibrant public space filled with sense of community for young and old.
Web link: http://www.speelstraten.nl/frameset.html
Test: (Vaclav Svankmajer, 1999, CZ, 5 min.)
A band of living-dead crash test dummies lure a motorist into an abandoned car repair business to get their revenge.
One Got Fat: (Interlude Films, USA, 1963, 15 min.)
Planet of the Apes meets Leave it to Beaver in this bizarre bicycle safety film in which a group of ape-children suffer a ridiculously high casualty rate en route to a nearby park.
Web link: http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=03534
Destination Earth: (Sutherland Productions, sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, USA, 1956, 13 min.)
A martian goes to Earth. Comedy ensues while he learns about oil-lubricated American greatness. Interesting mix of cute animation, conservative Cold War-era capitalist dogma, and narration so condescending it makes you cringe.
Web link: http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=10569
In the Suburbs: (On Film, Inc., sponsored by Redbook Magazine, USA, 1957, 19 min.)
A priceless view of the socio-economic conditions which led to what we now have to live with - the malling of the world. It looks cute today, but for everyone who laments the passing of community in the wake of McWorld, this film chronicles the beginning of the end.
Web link: http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=20484
24 Hours: (Nachhaltiger Filmblick, GER, 2003, 1 min.)
If cars could speak, they would probably tell us how bored they really are. This 60-second film gives cars a voice and shows what a miserable life they lead.
Web link: http://www.nachhaltiger-filmblick.de/start.php
(click Skip Intro, then English, then Insight, then Our Films.)
The Life of Animals: (Autoroutes.fr, FR, 2004, 30 seconds)
Depicts a deer, a rabbit and a beaver crossing a motorway with the aid of a trampoline. The implication being, of course, that motorway construction companies are responsible service providers.
Web link: http://www.autoroutes.fr/communications/encours.php?lng=2
Biking Beyond Petroleum: (Ell Southern/Obin Independent Media Workshop, UK/PL, 2004, 15 min.)
A film introducing young local cycling activists OLE (Obywatelska Liga Ekologiczna/Civil Environmental League) from Gdansk in North Poland. The viewers follow their preparations for their biggest cycling event of the year, the 'Grand Bicycle Ride'/'Wielki Przejazd Rowerowy' in the summer of 2003. The film also looks at the wider social context of the rise of car culture and consumerism in Poland, and why bicycles are now also on the rise! Interview with Przemek Miler of OLE.
Web link: http://photo.obin.org/album37+photos.html
Whooping Weenies: (USA, year?, 13 min.)
A tongue-in-cheek adventure spoofing San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, after his failed attempt to marginalise San Francisco Critical Mass. Brown called Critical Mass riders "weenies." The newspapers called them "thousands of whooping cyclists." Thus the film literally entails a new super power, whooping to blast away cars and violent drivers.
Reclaim the Streets, Bay Area: (USA, year?, 11 min.)
Uses footage from the breakaway march protesting the inauguration of George Bush. Also has a short trailer about the Feb. 9 fiasco, with an "Empire Strikes Back" tongue-in-cheek theme.
Transit Man: (USA, year?, 14 min.)
Our favorite do-gooder. Helps a young detective on public transportation get where she's going. Convinces a bike thief to fix bikes for free and "use his powers for good."
Broken Glass Man: (USA, year?, 5 min.)
Some young punks smash a bottle as a protest of modern life. Broken Glass man makes them pay a grizzly price. Cute bicyclists get to sail free as a result.
Car Bomb!: (USA, year?, 4 min.)
Short video set to NegativLand's carbomb song. Lots of footage of cars blowing up.
Mercury Mistress: (Saturday Night Live, USA, year?, min.?)
Spoof commercial for car penetration device.
Car Busters, Prague: (Ell Southern/Obin Independent Media Workshop, UK/PL, 2003, 8 min.)
A reportage about Carbusters magazine, interviewing Randy Ghent of the editorial crew. The reportage looks at how the magazine works, who it reaches, and at the wider issue of car culture in terms of climate change.
Grand Bicycle Ride, Gdansk 2004: (Obin Independent Media Workshop, for Indymedia Polska, PL, 2004, 5 min.)
A reportage about OLE's Grand Bicycle Ride (Wielki Przejazd Rowerowy) from 2004, in which around 4,000 people took part.
Web link: http://photo.obin.org/album06+photos.html
To Cycle With Hope: The Challenges of Cycling in Accra: (Lando Services, commissioned by the Centre for Cycling Expertise in Accra in the framework of the LOCOMOTIVES program coordinated by I-ce Interface for Cycling Expertise, NL, 2003, 22 min.)
Shows how cyclists, pedestrians and motorists interact in Ghana and presents their attitudes and behaviour patterns.
Web link: www.i-ce.info
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