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Bikeymentary (2007)
 

Main image of Bikeymentary (2007)
 
 
Writer/Director/Editor Reshma Dokia, Lailita Kaushal, Amandeep Gill, Crystal Jagdev, Aisha Nansubuga, Sahar Darwish, Soraya Darwish, Kishani Nesakumar, Saema Gulamnabi, Simran Arora, Shreya Banerjee
Additional Footage Charlie Barrow, Dave Critchley
Facilitators Alicia Blum-Ross, Charlie Barrow, Kerry Deacon, Tim Holloway
Special Thanks Ruth Cadbury, Councillor for Brentford; James Hammond and Mark Frost, Hounslow Council; Josie Heffernan, British Cycling; Kathy Horsman and Will Carleysmith, Brompton Bicycles
 
Focus Questions
In the Classroom

Bikeymentary was created by a group of Year 11 Media Studies students at Brentford School for Girls in West London. Inspired by archive films that showed the Point of View (POV) of different modes of transport through cameras mounted on the front of trains etc, the girls started to brainstorm what life would be like from the bike's perspective. They envisioned a light-hearted documentary that would not only discuss some of the debates over cycling, but also give the different bikes in the area their own personalities.

Brentford turned out to be an ideal place to situate a film about cycling. Within easy reach of the school there was not only a bike shop and a riverside route popular with cyclists, but also the Brompton factory - one of the only places where bikes are still made virtually start-to-finish in the UK. Also very luckily Charlie Barrow from Brentford CLC had a helmet-cam that produced some of the footage that you see in the film, which really gets into the heart of the bike's POV.

However making the film about bikes also highlighted some of the difficulties in cycling for young women in Brentford as well. It was a challenge to bring bikes into school because parents were concerned about cycling on the roads, as well as theft. These pertinent questions were put to the interviewees as the students considered what some of the barriers to cycling are as well as the positives.

 
Video Clips
Bikeymentary Complete film (6.55)
Downloadable Teaching Resources
Journey Times for your school

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