DOCUMENTARY / FULL-GAS

The one thing I remember from my studies is how to row. Sometimes I miss it. So I go back to see Kevin, my old coach and current boatman of a rowing club at Cambridge.

“Bicycle Face” is a film essay that reflects on the relationship between women and bicycles from a contemporary perspective. Fragments of films, archival images, texts, fictional scenes, and bicycle sounds form this audiovisual collage, which aims to be a tribute to women's freedom, their capacity for struggle, and resistance. The starting point is a historical event that takes us back to the late 19th century when women began riding bicycles. It was then that a made-up disease was diagnosed with the goal of dissuading women from riding bicycles.

In 2021, the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on La Palma (Canary Islands), for 85 days destroying homes and lives along its path. Amid this chaos, Beatriz, a resilient islander, offers a remarkable perspective. Though the eruption destroyed her vineyard and home, she carries no bitterness. Instead, she shares a profound and poetic vision of the intricate bond between humans and earth. The film is an experimental documentary, guided by eclectic Beatriz and unique audio-visual world built through microscopic images and low-frequency sounds of the surrounding nature, making us rediscover and reflect upon the meaning of living in the shadows of such a powerful and unpredictable force, and the connection with it.

How do you find your place in the world? Through Daniele's extraordinary journey, we will share the difficulties and resources that over this 30-years-long journey have helped him cross invisible yet marked line that divides those experience disability and the rest of the world