Project Overview: Bike Bus Documentary

Hello! If you’ve come to this page, we probably met on the bike bus, and I told you about the documentary film I’m making. Below is more info about the project, me, and (if you’d like) how you can participate.

Goals and Objectives

The film is an attempt to capture the joy of riding bikes with friends, and the conversations that happen between kids and adults as they pedal through the city.

This will be a ‘slice of life’ documentary, which is to say there won’t be formal interviews about why bike buses are good, and the film won’t have a thesis statement or any kind of social justice or advocacy agenda. The idea is that through regular/everyday conversations kids have about school, books, what they had for breakfast, something they saw along the way — or just complete nonsense — the viewer puts together for themselves ideas about streets that are safe for kids, the joys of being outside, and how valuable and doable it is to brave the elements and develop grit and get back on your bike when you fall.

To capture these moments and conversations as they happen, I need to put mics on riders, so I’m looking for parents (and kids) who are interested in participating. Please email me to sign up! There's nothing a kid wearing a mic is supposed to say or do, aside from focusing on riding and having fun, as it’s the spontaneous and unplanned conversations that we’re after. What I'm not after are embarrassing or “gotcha” moments of any kind, or using footage where anyone does or says something “bad.” I don’t post to Instagram, and my Substack is similarly barren. You’ll be able to watch all the raw footage of you and/or your child, and before anything would be considered being used in the project, we would have conversations about it. There is no rush because this is very much:

A Long-Term Project

Two kids talking about Calvin and Hobbes (which happened recently), or two kids making plans for recess while pedaling side by side, or maybe months from now, someone who was nervous on their first ride finds themselves reassuring another first-timer: “This was my first bike bus too!” It’s these kinds of tiny, unscripted moments I want to collect and eventually weave together. Capturing moments like these takes time. Rain cancels rides, batteries run out, the camera isn’t pointed the right way… the stars have to align for us to get usable footage, and most days we don’t really get any. That is completely fine. My last feature documentary took three and a half years to film. This is the reality of documentary filmmaking! If there’s any inspiration for the project it would be French filmmaker Claire Simon’s documentary Elementary.

One Last Note on Participation and Consent

I take consent seriously, especially when it comes to children, and especially given the privacy concerns of today’s world. Participation is completely optional; being part of the bike bus does not mean being part of the film. I also want to say explicitly that parents who prefer not to have images of their children recorded or shared should never be made to feel awkward for making that choice. I completely respect this. If your child appears incidentally in the background, I can (and will) blur their face or crop them out, and I won’t post or use identifiable footage of your child without your permission. While I'm only interested in the funny, sweet, completely ordinary interactions that happen when kids ride bikes through their city together, you never need to apologize for wanting to protect your child’s privacy. Please do not hesitate to talk to me, or ask me anything you’d like.

About Me

Born and raised in Hyde Park, I have been working professionally in film/production for about 20 years. I’ve filmed a bunch in schools for DonorsChoose.org, I like to make Persian food at home, and occasionally in winters will ditch my cats to go out west to live in a van, edit footage, and ski.

cyrus@tahdigpictures.com