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.

We just received The Loaded Warrior, in the mail. The piece begin with a fabulously written narrative. “In the sip of a pint, he lost everything.”

Filmmaker Joe Broemmel heard about Filmed by Bike from the flyers we put around San Francisco on our ambassadorial visit in October. We’re so glad to see that our posters, stickers and flyers are being seen in the places we visited.

Next step is for the jury to review it, but we have a stinking suspicion they’re really going to like this rough-n-tumble piece.

Cyclocross submissions will be juried specifically for the Blood, Sweat and Gears program. For more information on this new Filmed by Bike program, contact Alex Atkins Alex@FilmedByBike.org.

Calling all bike movies! It’s the 10th Anniversary of Filmed by Bike and our jury is eager to review a stellar collection of bike movies.

Long before the bike was considered an occasional fashion accessory, we’ve been rocking the silver screen with an impressive array of bike-themed films from creative filmmakers around the world.

We got our start with our first screening at the now-defunct micro-theater La Palabra. We had a goal of 40 attendees and were astounded when over 80 people showed up, many buying tickets knowing they wouldn’t even be able to see the screen. The bike-powered smoothie maker pedaled away on the front patio and a new movement was born.

Bike movies are here to stay. Send in yours today.

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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

Our jury is gearing up to sit though a weekend of screening movies to determine which submissions make the cut for our 2011 festival. We like to reward them with delicious food and plenty of booze. And then there are the bribes…. It’s okay if you want to try to bribe the jury. They like booze and snacks. We’ll be sure to tell them the bribe is from you.

So, even if you’ve already submitted your movie, it’s not too late to bribe the jury. Bribes can be dropped off at our headquarters (1158 NE Morton Street) on the door step any time before 2pm on Saturday. We look forward to seeing what you bring. Oh, and this picture is of the bribes we got last night.

Click to view a larger version – and that awesome sticker.