Evan and Adam Nix, known as The Nix Brothers, are filmmakers and bicycle enthusiasts based in Denver, Colorado. Along with songwriter/actor, Randy Washington, they created one of the most popular videos of our 2011 festival, All You Haters (Suck My Balls).

Assisted by Auto-Tune and often dancing in front of intentionally shoddy, green-screen-assisted backgrounds, the video’s star, played by Washington, musically explains the trials of being a hated-on hipster cyclist. “The general position the song takes is supposed to both embrace and be self-deprecating about the whole hipster ideology. If you’re sensitive about being called a hipster … that makes you too concerned with image and therefore a hipster,” explains Evan. “We just think people should spend less time worrying about all of that nonsense and just go ride bikes.”

Evan, Adam and Randy continue to churn out great work to this day. The three of them perform in the faux-German parody disco group Total Ghost, for which they’ve produced a number of music videos. They also produce web comedies with various Denver comedians. To see more of their work, visit their website.

Filmed by Bike is this weekend and there are over
40 bike movies showing at the Clinton Street Theater. Each day there are three showings of different movies and Friday features its own special program of movies most suitable for the raucous Friday crowd.

Buy an unlimited entry festival pass and see them all!

No shows will sell out before doors open.

We have a limited number of ADVANCE tickets available for sale online and more tickets are for sale at the door. We recommend you come at least a half hour prior to showtime to ensure you get a ticket. If you are trying to get tickets for the 7:00 or 9:00 shows on Friday night, we recommend you come at 5:30 when the box office opens and tickets go on sale. Those popular shows will sell out quickly.

See the full program here >>

Professor Dave Shapiro is a longtime contributor to Filmed by Bike, and returns once again this year with his film “The Boy Who Cried ‘Mechanical’.” This stop-motion photography-animated short continues Dave’s series of Aesop Fables with bikes as the main stars. Dave brainstorms ideas for his movies while biking to work – an hour and a half each way. “I have lots of time to make stuff up,” he says. “I got to the point where the script was pared down to the minimum; then I wrote it out, and shot the film.” The subject matter is fitting; Professor Dave, as he’s known by friends and students, is a philosophy instructor, hence the draw to re-telling Aesop’s Fables.

Professor Dave spends about one day shooting his films with his daughter and her friend as assistants. He says it generally takes him about three days to edit and finalize the pieces. Dave plans to make more bike-themed films, “I have a few more Aesop’s fables I’d like to try; then, at some point, I want to do an animated version of Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ using bikes as the main characters.”

Professor Dave and his daughter will be on stage after the Saturday 5pm screening as a part of our Filmmaker Q+A series.

The Boy Who Cried “Mechanical” plays in the Friday Program and the Need for Speed” Program of shorts B.

Filmed by Bike audiences will have the rare opportunity to see the last bike movie shot on Kodachrome film. Kodachrome debuted in 1935 and was an instant hit as the first film to effectively, and later extremely vibrantly, render color.

The very last Kodachrome processing machine was shut down in at the end of 2010, and filmmaker Lars C. Larsen, a veteran Filmed by Bike participant, managed to get one last film made before processing was no longer available. The result is “Cyclocross on Kodachrome 40″, a gritty, gorgeous cyclocross portrait set to a killer soundtrack (as Larsen’s films always are).

“Cyclocross on Kodachrome 40″ plays during all screenings of the Friday Night Program and in the Need for Speed Program of Shorts B.

Crash is a charming comedy short in which two friends get into bike accidents amid lusty desires. The piece is produced by filmmaker and Sexbot band leader Ilima Considine. Ilima says her storytelling background stems from making music videos for her band and drawing comic books as a kid. She says she got the idea for Crash after learning of a mutual lust, “‘Oh yeah, those greasy fingers.’ This comment, from a straight Mormon, made me realize that I’m not the only one with a thing for bike mechanics.”

Crash has a bold set of actors (including Ilima herself) that would normally be hard to come by, but to cast the film she simply wrote a bulletin on Facebook titled “Who is willing to ride their bike straight into a tree for me?” and drafted anyone interested. The cast and crew toughed out the hurdles they encountered while filming, including Portland’s nasty weather. Although the story is set in the summer, it was shot in 30 degree weather. “In one scene, you can actually see my lips turning blue,” Ilima explains. Ilima worked to find interesting indoor locations on a budget, including some that had to be shot quickly, before the crew could be thrown out.

In the future Ilima is releasing another music video for The Sexbots, “It’s basically a 3-minute action film where I am kidnapped, tortured by dominatrices, and end up shooting my kidnapper in the head. It’s going to be awesome.” You can check out her band’s work on their website.

Crash premiers in the Bike Love: Program of Shorts C.

Our Filmmaker Q+A sessions are powerful nights in the theater, an opportunity to get to know the creative minds behind some of Filmed by Bike’s favorite movies.

When the LCD Soundsystem remade the video for their song Drunk Girls, they chose to film it with a cadre of Portland bikers. The result is a gritty party video. Producer Kevin Sullivan will be on stage to discuss this piece, why they chose Portland, how they found the actors and how they developed the rough-and-tumble concept of an underground tall bike jousting bout.

Saturday, after the 5:00pm show:

Merritt Raitt, Kevin Sullivan (Producer), Professor Dave and his daughter, Heath Korvola

Sunday, after the 7:00pm show:

Joe Biel and Steve Bozzone, Ilima Considine, Chad Berkley

Oh the Places You Will Go to Film by Bike

(A poetic interpretation of one man’s adventures in filming and biking: about filmmaker Mike Vogel)

Meet Mike

     Who likes to film by bike.

But we ask would he dare

     Film by bike anywhere?

Would he film on a crane?

     Could he film in the rain?

I would film on a crane

     I would film in the rain.

I would film here or there,

     I would film anywhere.

Would he film in a pick-up truck,

     All the way to Lady Luck?

Where he and his crew,

     Could get a shot of my tattoo?

Yes in a truck, to Lady Luck

I would go, to prove it so.

That I would film here or there,

     I would film anywhere.

I bet he wouldn’t on Hawthorne Bridge,

     It’s vertically filming on a ridge.

Shy away from the bridge, I would not

     If it meant getting the perfect shot.

I would film here or there,

     I would film anywhere.

He wouldn’t, he couldn’t if it were against the law.

I would and could if I thought no one saw.

I would film here or there,

     I would film anywhere.

I guess it’s true, I guess it’s so

     There is not a place Mike wouldn’t go.

So the question remains, the places you will go

     In order to be in the Filmed By Bike Show.

Drawing inspiration from drawings is not just a process exclusive to big guns such as Marvel and DC Comics, but something animator Carlos Maya has perfected for Filmed by Bike in his shorts like “Big Wheel Bounce”, a 30-second complex animated piece that showed in our 2009 festival.

I would never describe my Saturday morning cartoons as a very thoughtful effort, except perhaps to decide which sugar cereal goes best with reruns of Captain Planet. For Carlos, though, this is when the thinking cap comes on. An animator by trade, Carlos’ ten years of experience have helped prepare him to be a front runner for past Filmed by Bike festivals. His inspiration from cartoons is the fuel behind his passion. Drawing from the archives of classic School House Rock, Carlos sets forth to bring out originality, personality and something completely new through his work.

Carlos offers up this advice for all of you aspiring filmmakers: “Do what you love, even if it does not make sense.” Maybe for Carlos doing what you love means cartoons and making people laugh, but for you it could mean something different. Find out what it is that you love and start filming. We can’t wait to see.

The deadline for Filmed by Bike submissions 1/20/2011 and you can learn more at our Best of the Worst (What not to do) event on November 6th. Details here >>

What makes a great Filmed by Bike movie? Find out by watching the worst ever festival submissions at The Best of the Worst (what not to do) on November 6th at The Art Department (1315 SE 9th, at Madison). The event is an ongoing program of submissions rejected by the jury. Painful? Likely. Hilarious? Yes. Terribly awesome? Most definitely.

There will be a bar, food, filmmaker mini-talks and a jury opinion panel. This event marks the opening of our Call for Entries season. We will also be unveiling the fresh 2011 festival trailer by Daniel Hill.

The Best of the Worst (what not to do) is an ongoing looped program from 8:00-10:30p, so you may arrive at any time. Entrants will receive a wristband to come and go freely throughout the night.

MORE INFO >>