Written by Zoe Crombie

Though they don’t seem noticably connected to the naked eye, films and bicycles have a fascinatingly entwined history – just ask my Lancaster Film Studies colleague Professor Bruce Bennett, whose book Cycling and Cinema traces the connections between the two technologies. If you want to learn more on the topic, I highly recommend it, but for the purposes of this newsletter, I’ll just say that the dynamism and kinetic energy of both and the worlds they opened up for billions of people cannot be understated.

Chasing the Sun makes this connection explicit by placing bikes and their riders front and centre in a documentary following the Chase the Sun sportive. Taking place over a single day between the Thames Estuary and Weston-Super-Mare, it isn’t about how fast you pedal, but how far you carry yourself through the gorgeous landscapes captured so expertly by Michael B. Clifford. But as expected, it’s not just about the cycling, but what riding means to those taking part, with some truly memorable characters being eternalised in this film.

Chasing the Sun screens on 26th June

Tickets: https://dukeslancaster.org/wha...