(from Garry Harrington – promoter for Bicycle Dreams)
Bicycle Dreams, the award-winning feature-length documentary about the Race Across America (RAAM), will premiere at several cities along the route of the epic 3,000-mile bicycle race that will be held for the 30th year in 2011. This year’s race begins on June 14 in Oceanside, California, and will end 10 days later in Annapolis, Maryland.
To commemorate the 30th edition of what is considered by many the most challenging sporting event in the world, Bicycle Dreams will follow alongside the racers by showing the film in 10 cities along the route, including Dayton. The film will be shown at The Neon at 130 E. 5th St. at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22.
The film, which has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the world, “is an up-close look at what RAAM riders go through,” says Stephen Auerbach, the director and producer of Bicycle Dreams. “They deal with searing desert heat, agonizing mountain climbs, and endless stretches of open road. And they do it all while battling extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation. It’s a great subject for a film.”
“Bicycle Dreams is a spectacular and heartfelt film that offers a riveting portrait of extreme courage in the face of inhuman obstacles,” writes TheLoveOfMovies.com. “It is an artistic triumph that renewed my belief in the power of desire and the strength of the human will.”
The upcoming tour of the film is scheduled to coincide with the 2011 Race Across America, which begins on June 14 when riders leave from Oceanside, California. Bicycle Dreams will be shown in Flagstaff, Arizona; Durango, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas; Columbia, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Dayton, Ohio; and Cincinnati, Ohio, during the RAAM’s run across the United States. The race is expected to end on or about June 24.
“We are very excited to be able to bring Bicycle Dreams to so many locations along the route that have never had access to the film before,” says Auerbach. “Viewers will be overwhelmed by the amount of pain and suffering these riders go through, and they will be able to see it all first-hand in the days following the film when the 2011 racers come through their towns.”
To capture the mammoth scope of the race, Auerbach worked around the clock with a complement of 18 cameras. Embedded camera operators traveled inside the racers’ support crew vehicles, gaining unprecedented access to the cyclists and their teams. Their footage captured emotional and physical breakdowns, late-night strategy sessions, and great moments of personal triumph, all in intimate detail. Auerbach then took on the enormous task of editing hundreds of hours of material and forming it into a powerful and inspiring look inside the most difficult race on the planet.
Bicycle Dreams has won major awards at the Fallbrook and Breckenridge film festivals, as well as the Yosemite, Grand Rapids, Red Rock and All Sports LA film festivals, among many others.
Most recently the film added the Best Foreign Film trophy from the Krasnogorski International Festival of Sports Films in Moscow and was also invited to be included in the 2011 World Cinema Showcase in New Zealand as well as the Mountain Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey. And before that it made its Australian debut at the Big Pond Film Festival in Adelaide.
Critical acclaim for the film continues to pour in from all sources.
“An astonishing documentary. This film is a ride of many stark contrasts; when it ended I felt both shattered and triumphant. I realized I was experiencing its genius. A central theme of Bicycle Dreams is the profoundly inspiring strength of the human in facing monumental challenge and tragedy. Bicycle Dreams is a race of truth.” – Pez Cycling.
“This film isn’t for those who want to shy away from the tragic side of the human experience, unwilling to risk the cracking of their shell of denial, not willing to risk their coping mechanism,” writes Cycling-Review.com. “Bicycle Dreams captures the human condition like few other films. Bicycle Dreams moves us to break through the barrier of the fear of death. I have seldom found a film that captures this ‘life drama’ as powerfully as does Bicycle Dreams.”
Adds Podium Café, “Bicycle Dreams is the ultimate inner journey. If you thought the life of a cyclist was an internal struggle, wait until you see what Auerbach unearths in this film. Bicycle Dreams is an unprecedented exploration of the subject of the suffering on the bike.”
About.com writes, “As we fall deeper and deeper into Bicycle Dreams, what we witness grows more terrifying, yet more compelling. Auerbach’s masterful direction exposes the raw lessons that drive people to push beyond the limits of human endurance. Revealing what lies at the heart of every impossible human endeavor is what Bicycle Dreams is all about.”
And finally, Bicycle Touring Pro comments, “If you’ve ever dreamed of challenging yourself to a place far beyond what you previously thought was possible, Bicycle Dreams is a film you must see. It’s beautiful, thought provoking, exciting, emotional and scary. The experience of watching this film will leave you with a new perspective on life that will remain with you for a very long time to come.”
Bicycle Dreams also has been named one of the top 10 adventure films of all time by both The Matador Network and Playground Magazine.
The upcoming nationwide tour to be held in conjunction with the 2011 Race Across America will include a screening at the Neon in Dayton at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. To purchase advance tickets go to www.imathlete.com/events/bicycledreams. For more information on the film, go to www.bicycledreamsmovie.com or find us on Facebook.
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