Tales of a Yellow Bike

In a world of automobiles, can one woman on a yellow bike make a difference? Perhaps not. But maybe a fleet of bikes might create a new model for sustainable transportation.

Toronto’s Bike Share Program is at a crossroads. Internationally recognized, it cannot maintain funding for its yellow bike program without stepping on a new path. Maogosha Pyjor is the Manager of Bike Share. Now that the program is cancelled, she is searching for models that can work for the challenges faced in North America. Maogosha looks for bikes and finds visionaries in Europe, North America, Columbia and China. Models for bike loaning are many and have different purposes. Corporate, political and community leaders share their lessons and thoughts on how the successes and failures of their system. But can Maogosha find a model that her community needs: accessible use of bicycles for everyone?

Meanwhile, BikeShare is struggling to maintain a presence in Toronto, as the Community Bike Network evaluates its programming and explores a new model for operations. Geoff Bercarich was one of Maogosha’s key volunteers when BikeShare was running. He delivered bikes to the lending hubs using a cargo bike. While Maogosha travels the world, Geoff is still delivering bikes around Toronto trying to keep the yellow bikes of BikeShare visible. The fate of the yellow bikes rest in the hands of the Community Bike Network, and the new model it has found may not include the colour yellow.

Join us on a trip that takes us to Beijing, Amsterdam, Bogotá, New York, La Rochelle, Paris and back to Toronto. Models for bike loaning are many and have different purposes. Corporate, political and community leaders share their lessons and thoughts on the successes and failures of their systems. We look for bikes and finds visionaries including:

Mayor Maxime Bono, La Rochelle, France
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, France Rugby Union Player from La Rochelle
Jean-Luc Dumesnil, advisor in charge of the bicycle policy to Denis Baupin, Paris
Albert Asseraf, General Manager of Strategy Studies and Marketing of JC Decaux, France.
Luud Schimmelpennink, Founder, White Bike Program, Amsterdam, 1960’s
Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia
Ricardo Montezuma, Cuidad Fundacion Humana (CFH) Humane City Foundation, Colombia
Haiyan Guo, General Secretary, China Bicycle Association
Wang Wenlan, Award-winning Photographer and Photo Editor, China Daily
David Haskell, Executive Director, the Forum for Urban Design, New York
Lisa Stein, Executive Director, Recycle-a-Bicycle, New York
Patrick Tomeny, Ride Club Coordinator, Recycle-a-Bicycle, New York

Tales of a Yellow Bike has been selected for screening in the 9th annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival, which takes place October 22nd-26th in Toronto. We hope you can join us.

For more information about the screening
World Premiere

For an article from Dandyhorse about the film
Dandyhorse

For updates on screenings of Tales of a Yellow Bike, please visit www.symmetreemedia.com again. We are also constructing a site specifically for this film www.talesofayellowbike.com to be launched when a DVD is available for purchase. If you would like more information about this film, please contact Tina Hahn tinahahn@symmetreemedia.com.

Tales of a Yellow Bike is produced for OMNI Television and will be available in English, Mandarin and Spanish in 2009.

This documentary was made possible with 100% funding from the OMNI Television Independent Producers Initiative. The 32.5 million fund is a seven year commitment created and made available for the independent production of third-language ethnocultural programming. The fund is not only dedicated to helping Canadian independent producers tell their stories in their language of comfort, but also to make sure that these stories are accessible to other ethnocultural communities through re-versioning in different languages.
This is the industry’s first, and only, major source of funding for the independent production of non-official language programming.

More details on the fund available are at OMNI Television’s website www.omnitv.ca
World Premiere Screening Information