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It might sound corny, but we believe that films can change the world. That is why we made our first documentary. We saw weaving together human stories on the screen as the best way to show folks how something as simple as the bicycle can be a force for global good. For Cycling Without Age, we wanted to tell a very different sort of pedal-powered story. We wrote, produced, and distributed a film that would get people thinking about the magic of not just that first ride, but the last ride as well. And we didn’t want the conversation to stop at the theater doors. We built out and ran an Impact Campaign that took the story to theaters and living rooms around the world, giving audiences the tools they needed to get all ages in their community outside and feeling the wind in their hair again.
COVID showed us all what it is like to be trapped inside. From our bubble, we heard stories from our hometown of Santa Barbara about angels providing live-saving adventures for seniors suffering from social isolation. This was our first experience with the global Cycling Without Age movement: a network of volunteers who used pedal powered trishaws to take elders in their communities out on rides to get coffee, ice cream, or just enjoy the sounds of the birds.
This had to be our next documentary.
No jumps. Slow is fast. Maximum of 7 miles per hour. This was not going to be your typical bike movie.
Telling this story was going to be sensitive. Nobody likes talking about dementia. Parents getting old. Death. While writing our first treatment, we focused hard on exploring these issues in a way that doesn’t sugar coat, but also gives the viewer a positive way to grapple with these difficult topics.
Capturing the story was equally tricky. So much of the power of these rides is in the little moments where nothing is said. A squeeze of an elder’s hand. A smile when they hear a bird overhead. We tailored our filming style to capture these intimate moments, putting you right there on the trishaw with a 90-year-old former whitewater guide. A legendary Korean War veteran. A daughter who had made the impossible decision to place her dad in memory care. In the final film, you hear him say “I love you” twice. Those were the most words that he said on the entire 3 hour ride we filmed with them.
After months in the edit bay weaving together these diverse ride experiences, we had our World Premiere at the annual global gathering of CWA chapters in Copenhagen in June 2024. Our U.S. Premiere was at Indy Shorts, where we won their first annual Lens of Hope Award. Bringing things back home to Santa Barbara, we screened the film in front of a sold out house of 600+ at the historic Lobero Theater. Since then Cycling Without Age has screened over 30 times around the world—in English, German, Portuguese, and Dutch. Check cyclingwithoutagethemovie.com to see if it’s playing near you!
We didn’t want the power of this story to stop at the theater door.
The goal of this film was to show the impact of these rides not only on the seniors up front, but also for the volunteer pilots who had the privilege of riding with them.
To that end, we developed a global Impact Campaign, with 40+ screenings in 2025. Wild and Scenic Film Festival in California. Big Bike Film Night across New Zealand. Grassroots showings with CWA chapters from Belgium to British Columbia. As a core piece of this campaign, we developed a Start a Chapter Guide to give audiences the tools they need to bring the trishaw magic to their communities. We are rolling this toolkit out at our core screenings in 2025: the LeadingAge Annual Gathering and the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. The ride is just beginning.
