Ride 'Em In

This year's Bicycle Film Festival tours 16 cities across the globe, coming to skidding halt for four days in San Francisco. It manages such breadth by not focusing on any one bike — be it fixed-gear, road, mountain, BMX, or piece-of-crap — or any one group, though the cigarettes-and-cycling tribes do command much of the spotlight. Among the anticipated screenings are Monkey Warfare, a feature film about bike-riding revolutionaries that has been picking up awards on the festival circuit, and We Just Work Here, a gorgeously shot film about the workers of Santa Cruz Bicycles, founded by skater Rob Roskopp. Klunkerz details the history of the mountain bike, which started on the trails of Mount Tam after a group of wild men threw fat tires on traditional bikes, drank beer, and bombed the hills. And Bike Car is the required oddity, chronicling an infamous four-snowboarder, pedal-powered vehicle that searched for snow in the Northwest last year. Tomorrow's Messenger Program delivers the breathless street shorts, from N.Y.C.'s famed Monster Track alley-cat races to the most recent efforts of Lucas Brunelle, who documents fixed-gear riding in cities around the world with his helmet cam. Obviously, you should ride your bike to the screenings — the S.F. Bike Coalition provides its customary valet — and make room for the gatherings, such as Saturday's block party, which features BMX riding, track competitions, bike games, and an awards ceremony.

Tonight's program screens Monkey Warfare and the world premiere of Street Fighter.
Sept. 19-22, 7 p.m., 2007