Monday, March 11
6:30-8:30pm
US Navy Heritage Center
$12 in advance HERE or at the door
Screens with The New Woman: Annie “Londonderry” Kopchovsky USA /2013 / 27mins / directed by Gillian Willman. Presented in association with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Both filmmakers in attendance
At 2 a.m. November 1, 2007, an unknown Northern California rock band called the Ginger Ninjas set out from home on a seven month tour to southern Mexico. They had no van and no gigs. Instead, they hauled their instruments, camping gear and human-powered sound system on special load-carrying bicycles. Intent on living a life of gritty adventure, promoting the bicycle as a cooler-than-car cure for global warming and propelled by the mindful cultivation of blind faith and deeply resonant, kick-ass music, they pedaled 5,000 miles and played 100 shows. This documentary is an intimate exploration of youthful freedom, emotional transformation, and the interpersonal relationships that develop among the travelers in their multi-season odyssey.
Director’s Statement: “We are doing a tour on bicycle from California to Chiapas, generating our own electricity for our concerts, trying to show that not all Americans want to conquer the world and wage war for oil!” These were the first words I heard from Kipchoge, The Ginger Ninja’s bandleader, during a concert in the small town in Southern Baja California. Seeing them through the camera lens confirmed my intuition that these were the true protagonists of a great documentary. It didn’t take me long to pack my things and follow them in this adventure.
Argentine director Sergio Morkin worked as a professor, cameraman and direction assistant in several feature films and documentaries from 1993-1996. H completed the award-winning film “Oscar” in 2004. Currently Mr. Morkin lives in Mexico, where he teaches between film projects.
Screens with The New Woman: Annie “Londonderry” Kopchovsky
Until 1894, there were no female sports stars, no product endorsement deals, and no young, Jewish mothers with the chutzpah to circle the globe on a bicycle. Annie Kopchovsky changed all of that. A spicy blend of adventure, social history, and portrait of an athletic pioneer, ‘The New Woman: Annie ‘Londonderry’ Kopchovsky’ is a documentary film about an improbable journey by bicycle and the eccentric, fiery woman who dared to undertake it.
The New Woman is the directorial debut for Washington, DC filmmaker Gillian K. Willman and has been a seven-year long labor of love. In addition to producing this independent documentary, Gillian is also CINE award-winning Producer / Writer at Cortina Productions, a multimedia production company, where she has written, directed, and produced video and interactive content for more than a dozen cultural institutions, including presentations in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Tolerance, the Capitol Visitor Center, the Sports Museum of America, and the Lincoln Cottage Visitor Education Center. Gillian has also played a key role in the research and production of several long and short form documentary projects, including Peter Jennings Reporting: Guantanamo, Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report, and Discovery Education’s “The Science of Plants.”
