Paris, Taipei: Bicycles Forever (巴黎.台北 單車萬歲) is a documentary directed by Jean-Robert Thomann (尚若白). It looks at the experience of bicycle commuters in Paris and Taipei. I went to the premiere screening at Eslite Dunnan Bookstore today and it will screen on PTS (公視) tomorrow.
The documentary explores the attitudes of those who have chosen to use a bicycle as their primary form of transport. It looks at both the positives and negatives of this lifestyle choice. The people featured are quite a diverse group. I thought the most interesting one was a woman who uses a bicycle to send her two children to school. If only more people in Taipei would follow her example.
The documentary also considers the development of bicycle paths and bike sharing systems. Taipei’s U-bike system obviously lags a long way behind Paris’s Velib system. It shows that while there have been some improvements in Taipei, the city still has a long way to go before it provides a friendly environment for bicycle commuters.
The photo above shows Jean-Robert filming Bike Smiling in Taipei in March 2009. There is a funny story related to this photo. Before being interviewed the man said they should interview the foreigner to make it more international (國際化). I replied that it was better to film him to make it more local (本土化). I make several brief appearances in the documentary.
Paris, Taipei: Bicycles Forever premieres on PTS at 10pm on Tuesday 9 March 2010. There are repeats at 3am on 10 March and 3pm on 13 March. The documentary is in French and Mandarin with Chinese subtitles.
【巴黎.台北 單車萬歲】
公共電視13頻道
3/9 週二 晚間十點
3/10 週三 凌晨兩點半
3/13 周六 下午三點
法、華語發音，中文字幕
*Originally posted at David on Formosa.
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