In its ninth year, The Big Bike Film Night will be celebrating cycling in all its glorious shapes and forms, at the Monterey Cinemas in Howick on Tuesday, May 2, with a programme proclaimed as ‘a feast of short films devised and designed for the two-wheel devotee’.
With its humble beginnings in 2015, The Big Bike Film Night is now a much-anticipated Film Festival that brings a love of cycling to cinemas, presenting an array of international and New Zealand movies specifically selected by Taupō based Curator/ “Film Pedlar”, Brett Cotter.
“Each year I set out with just one goal – to bring together the best cycling short films from around the world for our audiences celebrating the fun, the adventure and inspiration that bikes enable,” says Cotter.
“Our stellar 2023 collection contains 10 mesmerising films that are as varied and diverse as you could hope for.
“This global programme contains a strong contingent of Kiwi films, including a world premiere, alongside an assortment of international films having their New Zealand premiere here as well.”
Return to Dillon Cone, set and shot in the rugged coastal Kaikōura ranges, will be making its world premiere at the festival, and is from talented Canterbury filmmakers Dylan Gerschwitz and Deane Parker.
The film follows a team who have spent five years formulating a dream…an attempt to reach an unridden peak accessible only by river.
The expedition has only one option to get there, taking on the jagged gorges of the Clarence River (Waiau-toa awa) by pack raft, and afterwards travelling by mountain bike, in their pursuit of summiting the steep shingle-laid slopes of the imposing Dillon Cone.
“The power of storytelling is at the forefront of what we offer, and the belief that the humble bicycle can improve our health, inspire and uplift people with where it can take us; connecting communities with stories that captivate us, stories that make us think and, most importantly of all, inspiring us to get out and ride,” says Cotter.
The Big Bike Film Night will be screening at the Monterey Cinemas in Howick on Tuesday, May 2, 6.15pm. For more information and to buy tickets visit www.bigbikefilmnight.nz.
WIN A DOUBLE PASS
We have a double pass to give away to Howick – The Big Bike Film Night 2023. Go to www.times.co.nz/times-win/ to enter. Entries close at 5pm Friday, April 28.
