Benny Zenga
Toronto Producer of the Bicycle Film Festival
I glanced over my mug's rim at every guy who entered I Deal Coffee on Ossington wondering which one would be Benny Zenga, producer of the Toronto segment of The Bicycle Film Festival. After a couple of false alarms, a lean, sun-kissed blonde strolled (or, more precisely, rolled) in with an absolutely stellar bike. Smooth black tires on red wheels. Vintage bike lamp. It was a pretty safe bet that this was him: “You must be Benny.”
“I forgot my lock’s keys,” he shrugs, gesturing towards his bike.
Sitting down, he proceeds to tell me that he’s been a bit scatterbrained recently. You see, he just returned from a four month bike trip across Africa where, amongst other activities, he drove a tall bike (constructed of two bikes on top of each other) through Ethiopia causing off the cuff reactions everywhere. After returning, he edited a brief film of his journey, zipped to NYC to screen it, and has been prepping for the Toronto Bicycle Film Fest, for which he’ll be screening a short that he’ll be filming this weekend at the Cycle Messenger World Championships.
Yep, I think he can be excused for forgetting his keys.
Though Benny’s an awfully busy guy right now, his demeanour doesn’t show it. He’s laid back, and always speaks of bikes as a source of joy, rather than a responsibility. He raves about how fun it is to race against the ticking countdown at pedestrian crossings and jokes about how it’s laughable how many people trade in the awesomeness of cycling when they turn sixteen only to get trapped in traffic all the time.
Benny’s role as producer of Toronto’s Bicycle Film Festival is clearly a labour of love, and his spirit of playful bike adoration is shared by the festival.
Glancing through the bicycle film fest’s program, you’ll find that the only commonality between the films, artwork and bands involved is their love of bicycles. A single shorts program to be screened at The Royal on June 30 includes a comic D.I.Y. made by a couple of amateurs about bike thieves, a cine-poem about bikes bringing freedom to women, and a doc on the Recycle a Bicycle program at NYC public schools.
The art show – Joy Ride – hosted at Studio Gallery features thirty-two artists representing the spectrum of mediums. While the Bikes Rock party, likewise at Studio Gallery, features bands that, like bikes, make you want to move: The Bicycles, Sandro Perri & Friends, Syntonics and The Cleef. It will have, in Benny’s words, “a fun sock hop feel.”
Asked how he envisions the future of the Bicycle Film Festival, Benny thoughtfully responds that he really likes what he sees now and hopes it will continue that way. It’s in the beautiful Royal Cinema, which adds an air of glamour, yet the festival’s relatively small scale preserves the sense of community.
So with all this love on for bikes, will you feel like a freak for arriving on the streetcar? Heck no. Benny wants everyone to come out so that they can acquire a taste for the perfection that is the bicycle.
Diversity, inclusiveness and celebration are the festival’s guiding mantras. It’s not limited to the hot trends in biking – courier culture and fixies (that’s fixed gear riders for those out of the loop) – nor is it targeted exclusively at twenty-something bike scenesters. It’s about toddlers giggling on their trikes, bike commuters zooming to work, and post-menopausal moms rekindling that love affair with the cycle hiding at the back of the garage. It’s about building an international movement of bike enthusiasm across seventeen cities on four continents.
So come out to the Bicycle Film Fest, get your bike valet parked (ooh la la), walk the red carpet, and raise a toast to the beautiful invention that is the bicycle with, as Benny puts it, “the flare, style and energy that it deserves.”
The Bicycle Film Festival runs from June 18-June 21. Screenings take place at The Royal, 608 College S.. The Joy Ride art show and the Bikes Rock party take place at Studio Gallery, 294 College St. 2nd Floor. See www.bicyclefilmfestival.com for tickets and details.
