Perth Voice Interactive

CYCLOPHILES can feed their two-wheeled obsession without the need to don the lycra when the Big Bike Film Night makes its return to Perth on Sunday September 15.

Now in its 10th year, the film nights were the brainchild of New Zealander Brett Cotter, who was looking for ways to raise money to help repair a giant bike statue that had been vandalised in his home town of Taupo.

“I wanted to make an event that celebrated cycling in all its glorious shapes and forms; one that was a tribute to the humble bicycle,” Mr Cotter said.

The screenings were a sell-out.

“Sitting there and watching the audience laugh, clap and cheer and appreciating the collection was really gratifying, and from the successful screenings we raised $2300 towards the giant bike’s restoration,” he recalls.

Since then the freewheeling love has seen the idea continue and this year there are screenings in Scotland, London, Australia and back in New Zealand.

“Each year I set out with just one goal – to bring together the best cycling short films from around the world for our audiences – this collection is awe-inspiring and celebrates the fun, the adventure and inspiration that bikes enable,” Mr Cotter said.

“This global program contains a fabulous Australian film, alongside an incredible assortment of international movies making their premiere in Australia.”

Meter eater

Double Everest follows “vertical meter eater” Ben Hildred on his quest to ride the equivalent of Mt Everest.

“For Ben, it’s just another mountain bike ride, but for us mere mortals, it’s utterly bonkers and brilliant; that’s why I love it,” Mr Cotter said.

On the other end, Undeniably Young: Nora Young and the Six-Day Race restores one of the world’s greatest athletes to the podium after almost drifting into obscurity.

Young was a prodigious athlete and a figurehead of Canada’s golden age of women’s sport in the 1920s and 30s, when women en masse became involved in organised sport. 

Young had grown up playing ice hockey against the boys, her shins protected from pucks and sticks by rolled-up catalogues, and by her late teens had won national championships in cycling, javelin and basketball, while also being handy at baseball and basketball where she later helped her team capture a national championship in 1948.

She retired for a while when arthritis started to affect her, but made an amazing comeback as a masters athlete, winning medals and setting records across numerous sports.

Big Bike Film Night
Sunday September 15
State Library Theatre
6pm
Tix: bigbikefilmnight.nz

by STEVE GRANT