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.