Josh Hite and Flick Harrison mentored some volunteer photographers at the Vancouver Drawdown this past weekend – if you don’t know the event, it’s the first one ever, and the photos should explain it all.

There was a Chalk Drop at community centres around the city, and various free public drawing stations to draw dancers, paint with your bike (!) and draw on the sidewalk!

Join in next year!!!

Meanwhile, here’s this CALL FOR ENTRIES from the Bike Film Festival:

Bicycle Film Festival | Trailer from casagrafica on Vimeo.

NINTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL
Deadline For Entries Is March 7

http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

We are looking for films with a strong theme or character of bicycles. This includes all mediums and styles such as animation, experimental, narrative, documentary and music videos.
The BFF is held in over 17 cities around the world including Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Milan, and London. In 2008 the total BFF attendance was over 110,000 people.

BFF is a celebration through film, art and music. Past BFFs has been have included works from legendary artists such as Jonas Mekas, Michel Gondry, Mike Mills and Jorgen Leth.  The emerging artist is showcased as well.

The Bike Film Fest will be the most fun yet in 2009.

For more information and entry forms, visit the BFF website: http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

Thanks
Brendt Barbur

What never made it into the issue is the fact that this was Spooky’s first and final ride.  We were taking her to the vet to be put down, after the terrible surprise of cancer that grew behind her right eye and couldn’t really be solved.  That’s a long story which I don’t need to blog about – suffice to say the kitty loved the adventure of riding a bike, in the safety / concealment of her cat carrier.  Oh, the things we learn too late.

In case that crazy issuu.com viewer doesn’t work, it’s on the Momentum site as well (without the picture, though).

The Wheels of Chance
by HG Wells

and

Urban Biker’s Tips and Tricks
By Dave (Mr. Bike) Glowacz

Both pretty awesome books! I could go on about them here, one being Wells’ (surprisingly) non-sci fi about adventure and romance in the early days of cycling (they were the fastest thing on the road!) and the other, Mr. Bike’s handy guide for maximizing your bike awesomeness.

But the reviews are much more complete than whatever short blurb I write here, despite how useful it would be to draw google hits by saying Hoopdriver Hoopdriver Hoopdriver!

Check them out with the links above.

-Flick Harrison

Here’s some pics from the premiere of Monkey Warfare at Empire cinemas in Vancouver, handed over by Ifny but shot by David Repa. This is Ifny of Pedal Revolutionaries (who has just posted her podcast of the MONKEY WARFARE INTERVIEW), Alan MacInnes of Discorder’s Cinema Aspirant, Reg Harkema, the director, and me, Flick Harrison.

We ended up being ballyhooed (?) by the MC3 chopper gang who tootled around outside the cinema on their amazing custom-chopped bikes.

The screening was marred by an ad for a car (the bike folks jeered) and a rock-video-like ad for the Canadian Armed Forces. Yeesh! Talk about bad product placement.

The MOLOTOV COCKTAIL SCENE seems to have gotten nixed from cinemas, though the Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun both report having seen it. Go figure. It might have something to do with screening tapes or press viewings at the film festivals, which those folks usually see far in advance, but Katherine Monk in the sun seems to believe it’s actually in the theatres somewhere. Go figure.

Then again, it might have to do with projectionists who aren’t keeping their eyes out for post-credit scenes, and putting the auto-marker tape on the print the moment they see the last credit fade out, instead of reeling ahead to make sure it’s ACTUALLY OVER. Is it really THAT crazy to have a post-credits sequence?

The show was great, and Reg wasn’t on Mushrooms like he was at his Toronto screening (at least as far as I can tell; he is a pretty freaky dude and this pic seems to be mushroom-inspiring, if not inspired).

Reg actually intro’d the film by saying that despite all the Toronto references, it is actually an East Van film: that’s where Reg is from.

DJ Hans Lucas had a crisis with the vinyl LP pressings. Apparently, there’s a spanish rap group whose catalogue number is WM 001 but Monkey Warfare’s catalogue number is MW 001 and the result is that the factory made 500 pressings of a spanish rap album instead of the Monkey Warfare soundtrack. Eeps! So there were no soundtracks to give away. Many people accosted us as a result and when the corrected LP’s get here in the fall, which is perhaps when the theatrical release will happen, I’ll be accosted from all sides again.

Above is a shot of the local premiere of Monkey Warfare! L-R it’s Sarah Muff, ex-Cineworks-er and now Canadian Images Coordinator at VIFF, with Reg Harkema (director writer), Cindy Wolfe (actor, props, music and pic clearance), me (assistant editor, actor, graphic designer) – the Vancouver Int’l Film Fest contingent of the Monkey Warfare crew. You can just see Kathy Weinkauf on the side, and beyond Sarah on the other side was Suzanne Ward (art director).

Here’s Reg after the second screening, with Amy Belling who introduced the film.

For this screening I had a chance to watch with my eyes closed. I’ve seen the film enough times, and I synched the rushes (sound to picture) so it was interesting just to listen to the soundtrack instead of watching. You could really feel the texture of the rooms where the characters were, hear the nice touches in the audio mix etc. Notably, I couldn’t hear a single edit in a dialogue scenes; that means good dialogue editing and mixing. After about 20 minutes I got tired of this exercise, and besides, I had to watch the hot-chicks-on-bikes montage, are you kidding me?

One bit of cinematic excitement was the presence at the 2nd screening of David Bordwell. He wrote the textbook “Film Art: an introduction” which both Reg and I read at UBC. He dug the film and took some photos for his blog.

If anyone’s wondering who it was at the Saturday screening that was cackling their ass off, it was Michael V Smith.

Today was the “Meet the Filmmakers” panel at the Vancouver International Film Centre which went well. We were just getting into the groove when the hour ran out. This was the first panel of the series, and it was Monday morning, but the audience was sure into it.

Then I went to the bank and scared the guard ‘cos I had sunglasses on, so I took them off.

PS – due to the confusion, there was no screening of MW clips at the Velofusion party, but there will be in the future. Drat and double drat.

The party was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia in the main ballroom. This picture is Cathy Falkner with Sandy Buck. Sandy planned the whole event which is an insanely big job. Cathy was helping do the decoration on the night.

In the background you can see my visuals! They were on two giant odd-shaped fabric backdrops on either side of the band, plus one little projection on the escalator outside the ballroom. It was fantabulous, in my opinion.

The worst thing about this gig was having to look at this dog over and over again. Especially when it was blown up twenty feet high at the party. It’s the cover of the 3rd VIFF guide and hoooo boy, it’s as bad aesthetically as Alan Franey’s hair inside the book (thankfully I didn’t have to scan that).

The first VIFF guide, I learned, was actually a RIDGE theatre guide which simply got filled up by the first fest. An odd sight to see. As you can see, by #3 they had added the Vancouver East Cinema and then soon after that added the Hollywood.

The Gala lacked Sushi but I’m sure there’ll be plenty floating around VIFF.

Suzanne Ward helped me install and hang the projectors, which resulted in no Telefilm executives being crushed by falling hot DVD players. My past weeks’ nightmares concerning such scenarios are over.

Here’s Suzanne and Cathy looking fab.

Reg and I did the Critical Mass ride on Friday. It was great fun riding around downtown Vancouver blocking traffic and generally promoting the end of automobiles. There were naked lesbians, as is par for the Critical Mass course, and surprisingly, even when those folks weren’t in sight, the drivers we blocked seemed generally supportive. Maybe they thought it was a parade or something.

We did happen to bike past the Telefilm Party at the Vancouver Film Centre, which was hilarious. We screamed “MONKEY WARFARE!” at Wayne Clarkson, the head of Telefilm Canada. He smiled broadly back at the streaming godless hordes on their anarcho-cycles and easily spotted the gigantic Reg who’d been shouting at him.

Neither Reg nor I made it to the Anza for the likely screening of clips from Monkey Warfare. As of this date I’ve not heard if they actually showed or not; hopefully they weren’t cheesed off that the DVD’s arrived without us.

I tell you this though – I’m gonna do critical mass every month. It was amazingly fun.

Also, there’s a new Monkey Warfare official website. Yay for top-level domain names! The page automatically plays the awesome Weird War song that usually runs through my head about six-seven hours per day now.

And finally, Monkey Warfare got a Special Jury Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2006!

Apparently the jury didn’t stay through the credits. Heh heh heh. So they missed the best part.

Fromthe interview with Reginald Harkema in the GLOBE AND MAIL:

“Harkema, a B.C. native, said afterwards: “Gee, I guess I’m not gonna buy that huge hunk of hash [hashish] I was dreaming about,” – an echo of director Bruce McDonald’s statement that “$25,000 is going to buy me a chunk of hash,” when his feature Roadkill took the Toronto-City prize in 1989.”

Endquote.

I love that they had to explain that hash is hashish. Really? Ya don’t say!

After my third day of TIFF I finally started getting an understanding of how tickets work. I think. Apparently cast and crew need to use their passes to go and get tickets to their own screenings for themselves, even though they’re free for them, just because that’s how the accounting works or something. I think. I have been treated to a whirlwind bubble not of celebrity, but of Reg and Cindy’s hospitality. I’ve hardly had to think the whole time, so get easily confused the moment I have to think for myself.

[Steve Gravestock introduced Jennifer Jonas, Reg Harkema, Cindy Wolfe, Nadia Litz and Leonard Farlinger]

Anyway, it was a good screening, I like the editing more and more each time. There is one cut especially which reminded me of the best cuts in “Goodfellas.” When Don McKellar lets Nadia Litz buy a certain item at a garage sale, she takes them and then is suddenly moving away on her bike. There’s a bike bell, I believe, that covers the edit, even though it’s not meant to be a diagetic bike bell (Reg’s favourite word is “non-diagetic.” In fact, Reg himself should fix that Wikipedia entry since it’s not only a stub but contains pathetic references).

The bike bell subconsciously paves over the discontinuity, I think, but it also reinforces it. The way Nadia moves and then suddenly reverses direction is a direct cause-and-effect but not a realistic, narratively continuous one. It’s the ultimate example of cutting out excess action and keeping just the bare minimum to convey the story, so concisely that it becomes stylized. Kathy Weinkauf is a rock’n good editor.

The Goodfellas edit it reminds me of is the one where Ray Liotta walks out of the house from screen right, walks over to his car at screen center, grabs the door handle, then there’s a “clunk” and we cut to a different location, just after he’s slammed the door on his way out of the same car. The “clunk” could either be the door opening or closing, or maybe a hybrid of both sounds, but it drives the edit. The second shot is composed so that the car is in the same spot on screen, he is still heading towards screen left, but now he’s apparently passed through the car. His motion from screen right to screen left isn’t interrupted by the tedium of getting in the car, doing his seatbelt, driving to the new place etc. He just reaches for the door handle and then slams it behind him without a moment’s delay; he never stops walking.

Anyway, it’s one of the fanciest edits ever, and Kathy / Reg have done a similarly marvelous one here in Monkey Warfare.

I’m tired now. It’s time to go back to Vancouver.

Next stop for MW is apparently Sudbury, but for me it’ll be VIFF.

Biking around Toronto on the bright-red, tiny, girl-bike that Reg Harkema and Cindy Wolfe (see pic at left) lent me, I dodged streetcar tracks and insanely aggressive taxi drivers through the streets of Parkdale and into the downtown core. Cindy has a great part in Monkey Warfare as a neurotic non-profit founder, and Reg is the writer-director. My borrowed bike, btw, is the one on the album cover of the MW promo LP – which makes it feel less like I’m a giant circus monkey (or maybe more?). Reg hands these albums out on the fly from his hand-made LP satchel that Cindy crocheted for him. One taxi cut Reg off and Reg kicked his door. Then the taxi chased him for a block or so and Cindy rather drew some attention by screaming at him and brandishing her bike chain.

Once safely across town, we strode up the stairs to the effervescent Telefilm party. It was so crowded that one could barely move. One could also barely stand it. I saw many folks I knew, including Evan Crowe (pictured with the ominous, omnipresent CN Tower) with whom I worked on Edgemont long ago, and at the Cinematheque Summer Film Institute. Evan, amazingly, had his grad film Starlight Tour from SFU accepted into TIFF and now he’s on the joyride of film livin’. (That’s him in front of the CN tower).

I also ran into Barbara Barde, a long-lost film comrade from my Road Movies days. I hadn’t laid eyes on her since 1992, but as I’d been walking up the steps to TIFFdom, I wondered, “Will Barbara be here?” That’s cos she’s the quintissential Toronto film dame. When last we’d met, Toronto was feeling Rodney King sympathy in the form of minor riots on Yonge street, cops on horseback trotting through crowds of protesters etc.

Also, on the way up the stairs to this party, I’m pretty sure we borrowed matches from Andrea Martin, but maybe I’m wrong. I would certainly hate to read some blog and find someone had mistaken me for someone else and think,”That Ass! He though I was Andrea Martin!” Then again, if Andrea Martin reads this, or even if she doesn’t, she might be thinking, “That Ass! He should get his own damn matches!”

Thence, we went to the INDIE FILM TENT which was a party specifically for the films Monkey Warfare and Sleeping Dogs. Had a grand old time there, especially the free beer (which, to be honest, was available everywhere all day). I finally met Nadia Litz from Monkey Warfare and saw Tracy Wright (pic with me at left) once more (I’d met her when I was in Toronto doing the colour-timing for Reg’s earlier shot-by-me doc, Better Off in Bed). Tracy was somewhat dumbfounded but apparently blissful at the fact that many people were wearing her on a t-shirt that says “I FUCK THE MAN,” which is Monkey Warfare’s slogan. Also hooked up with Kathy Weinkauf who edited MW (and BOIB, for that matter) and the producers of MW, Jennifer Jonas, Leonard Farlinger, and Kris King plus cinematographer Jonathon Cliff.

So after a quick Pho somewhere in the vicinity (I was becoming geographically confused, not to mention sleep-deprived from the 3-hrs shut-eye of the night before) we went to the Alliance-Atlantis party at Mars. It was a giant schmoozefest with loud music and well-hidden sushi. I met a guy named Jonathan who was formely in the central committee of the communist party of Canada, that was fun. Reg and I hooked up with Paul Anthony as well, aka Hugh Phukovsky (pic at left, with me and Reg), who was in town for some mysterious purpose, as well as fellow Vancouverite Roger Larry.

Then another stagger across town (this has been 3 parties so far, remember) and into U of T which was hosting the Mongrel Media party. There we were weighed down with odd gift bags (which contained such glamorous items as Woolite and Frizz-eze) and finally found Alex Shuper (who had earlier picked me up at the airport) and Aeryn Twidle (pictured at left in the Hart House Chess Room which was anything but strategic this evening) and the strangely chill Andrew Williamson (who looks a lot less Yaletown than he once did).

At last, the booze stopped flowing and the glittery people faded away. Biking carefully home we saw this last image: