The documentary script/synopsis.

What is a bicycle? If you asked my father back in the fifties when he was a kid it meant the world to him. He used to be a racer for a local bicycle club back in Greece and that’s what he mainly did ,day in ,day out, he was on the saddle. Even when he met my mom he used to go to their dates on his bike. Apparently she didn’t mind much so here I am writing these words. That love did not go far from our family and both my brother and I got oversized bikes on our birthdays ( for when we would outgrow them ) and went for our first rides the hard way. For me a bike has always been a cross mix of childhood accessory and a means of transport. Spinning the question on its head then what is the world on a bike? Let’s face it. There’s no other means of transport that can take you places just with the power of your legs and the capacity of your lungs without having to adapt the landscape to the needs of your vehicle. No gas stations to pump gas from, no worries about fluctuations in the prices of oil. That’s freedom man, there’s no other way to see it. Plus it’s fast too. Wheels roll, a bicycle can buzz past you and disappear into the horizon before you know it. However , not everybody sees things this way and during the twentieth century many factors and players came into play making the internal combustion engine the choice of the industrialized world. Cyclists can moan and nag about how things would have been if…but the die was cast. Sure thing though we have a real mess in our hands now and somebody has to do something about it. Don’t you all feel tired of somehow taking things the way it’s being served to you? Switch your tv on any given day and …There you go … car ads from the automotive industry and loan ads from banks that are more than willing to oblige with the necessary funds to put more motor transport on the roads. Ok, maybe there is a problem on the streets of our cities but that does not mean there has to be a stop to the money to be made. Money or not I pass hundreds of half asleep commuters stuck in their cars in the morning traffic on my way to work every day. And guess what I ride my bike…this works! so who’s winning? The sad answer is nobody…a lone cyclist zig zagging between hundreds of mean looking SUV monstrosities emitting tons of carbon monoxide is no victory. It’s just a sad fact. Plus now it’s worldwide… It used to be a problem for the first world but now industrialization has expanded all over the world making global awareness a must… Hence the idea…A bike trip…But what kind? A bike trip that could connect all those sensitive environments via the tracks that only bike wheels can make…a thin red line going from coast to coast of continents uniting troubled areas…It almost sounds dreamlike but bicycles and dreams are born out of the same matter…the Wright brothers used to be bicycle builders after all. The purpose of such a trip would be to inform anyone that is interested on the state of the global environment via a documentary that would help to raise awareness on severely critical environmental issues the most authentic way possible…By being there on bicycles giving first hand accounts and taking on the spot shots unobserved , with the stealthiness of a click clacking generated by shifting a chain on a cog. There are endless possibilities that open up just by the mere fact that it will be a bike trip. The route is also open to any interpretation possible…Where do you want to go? What problems are there to be exposed? Take your pick and you are already there…There are environmental problems everywhere…no matter the route, no matter the country there are dark areas of concern…so just ride and discover what the people that live there already know…ride and record… Written by DEAN - Kostas Mavridis.