NY’s Bicycle Film Festival to visit İstanbul for third time

NY’s Bicycle Film Festival to visit İstanbul for third timeThe touring New York-based independent Bicycle Film Festival (BFF) will come to İstanbul this week for the third time, offering a selection of films from famed directors including Spike Jonze, who is behind the 2013 comedy-drama “Her.”The festival will kick off on Thursday with an exhibition at the new event venue It’s Open on the Taşkışla campus of İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ). Workshops and talks about bicycle culture will also be held as part of the festival, which will continue until Sunday.Films from the festival’s former editions, as well as new titles, will be offered in admission-free screenings, a novelty the festival has introduced this year, according to the website of the festival. Other festival events will also be free of charge.The festival will start its screenings on Friday, when a selection of films will be shown under the title of “Urban Bike Shorts.” On Saturday, a workshop, “Bicycle Atelier: Mechanics of the Bicycle and Recycling Techniques,” a question-and-answer session with the crew of the film “Melons, Trucks and Angry Dogs” and a film screening program titled “Program 2: Travel on a Bike” will be held. The workshop on bicycle mechanics will continue on Sunday, when film screenings under the title of “Cinematic Shorts” will also take place.The BFF was founded in 2001 by New Yorker Brendt Barbur as a platform to celebrate the bicycle through music, art and film after he was hit by a bus while riding his bike in New York City. For further information, go to bicyclefilmfestival.com. ✪