It's kind of hard to believe that the Bicycle Film Festival has been around for over a decade now, parallel to the explosion of the contemporary cycling vogue. In fact, founding director Brendt Barbur expressed mixed feelings about the increased profile of the event, which started as a DIY pet project back in 2001, though he's always happy to see more riders on the streets.

via Blue Lug, who were in town from Tokyo before heading up to Geekhouse HQ to get fitted

Anyway, the series of screenings and events added a bit of structure to my weekend, and between the "flagship" program, which included the world premiere of "Racing Towards Red Hook," and the street fest, I think it went pretty well.

via John Watson / Prolly Is Not Probably

In addition to catching up with Thomas from Horse Cycles and Jeff from Continuum (not to be confused with the design consultancy), I also had the pleasure of meeting Matt Finkle of "I Love My Bike," one of Marty's picks for our summer gift guide (the book, not the person)... just a few of the many friendly faces on the urban bike event circuit.

Still, it is a film festival after all, and one of the film highlights turned out to be particularly relevant: "D'Acciaio" ("Of Steel") spoke to the notion of craftsmanship as a cultural value. The short documentary about the highly quotable Italian framebuilder Dario Pegoretti is viewable in full online; watch it after the jump:

Next stop, Minneapolis...

via Blue Lug