Event was one part rally, one part filming
By Aetna Smith
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
A Critical Mass rally of about 40 cyclists holding signs with sayings such as "Make love, not cars" and "God is my co-peddler" took to Railroad Square on Sunday afternoon.
But it wasn't just any rally. The group - which sang "all we are saying (is) give bikes a chance" - acted out a scene in a mock horror film called "Cargo Bike."
The short movie is kind of a "Little Shop of Horrors," except with a bike, said Isabelle Potts, one of the film's actors. Specifically, the cargo bike devours drivers of sport utility vehicles and spits them out as environmentally friendly cyclists, said its writer and director, Andy Opel.
He compared his low-budget film to ones like "The Love Bug" and "Christine" with inanimate objects as the leads.
"It's part of that genre where machines come to life, but we try to use humor and a familiar style to communicate an environmental message and a critique about inefficient automobiles in the form of SUVs," he said. "The main villain is (a Hummer) H2, which is the most extreme vehicle we have right now."
Opel, a bike advocate, said he's lived in bike-friendly cities in Oregon and North Carolina filled with greenways and bike paths. Although Tallahassee officials have spoken about building more greenways, he said, a lot of work still needs to be done. He bikes to work at Florida State University, where he's a media-productions administrator in the communications department.
"This town is bike-able, but you have to bike where cars aren't," he said.
Bike enthusiast Cathy McCarty said she went to Railroad Square after reading an ad for an open call for movie extras, preferably those with bicycles. McCarty, who rode her mountain bike to the set, said she liked the idea of SUV drivers being eaten in the movie. In real life, she said, SUVs and other big trucks make life scary for cyclists on the roadways.
Other cyclists brought street bikes; two-person recumbent bikes, in which riders recline; a tricycle that held a baby carrier; and one high bike - so named because the seat is about 2 feet higher than normal.
Opel shared production duties with Faust Films, led by community actor and director Terry Galloway, and Donna Nudd, an FSU professor in the College of Communication. Galloway is best known as the co-founder of and performer with the Mickee Faust Club, which produces cabaret-style comedies and satires.
Galloway said the film company has produced seven videos, which have won awards at international film festivals. The bike movie is the company's first environmental piece, she said.
"It's a small, short film, but quite funny," Galloway said. "It's got some mock-horror moments, but it also has a bit of a bite with the environmental themes."
She plays one of the lead characters, the mystical bike mechanic who gives the cargo bike its power. "He has an otherworldly connection with bicycles," she said about her male character. As the mechanic, Galloway's face was made up with whiskers and a mustache, and she wore a beat-up blue mechanic's uniform.
Julie Rogers, another lead character, said she could identify with the movie. "Like my character, I'm always screaming at cars while I sit in traffic, getting frustrated."
She pointed sheepishly at her own SUV and said, "I don't drive my car every day, so I'm contributing to the cause."
Opel said that after the movie is finished - an original music score and the film editing will be done this summer - he plans to enter it in environmental and traditional film festivals. The film will premiere at the Mickee Faust Club in Railroad Square in early fall, he said.
And he noted that SUV drivers aren't actually eaten but are transformed. At the movie's end, they all show up at a bike rally.
"We reclaim the streets for HPVs, or human powered vehicles," he said about traditional Critical Mass rallies and the movie's last scene. "The people who've fallen victim to the cargo bike emerge with a renewed awareness and appreciation for bicycles."
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