Calendar – Past Event

Friday, June 11, 2010

NY Premiere! A documentary about Tulsa's best-known bicycle-riding, raccoon-feeding, scrapyard-dealing, screaming, motivational philosopher of life. To call Frank DeLarzelere III (AKA Biker Fox) a local celebrity is misleading--he is more an agitator than he is a prized local son. As a proponent of bicycles as the primary means of transportation, he is fighting an uphill battle against a Southern community that loves its cars, worships horsepower, and doesn't smile upon long haired, flamboyantly dressed eccentrics calling for lifestyle changes.

From the very first frames of Jeremy Lamberton's Biker Fox, it is very clear that this will not be your typical documentary portrait of a local character. In them, DeLarzelere stands over a grill, flipping burgers and hot dogs, gazing into the camera as he enthusiastically discusses how delicious all this cooked meat is going to be when it is ready. But suddenly his mood changes and he emphatically throws all of the meat to the ground and berates us for even considering eating such unhealthy food. He used to be obese, he explains, but eating healthy and riding his bike transformed all of that, and he thinks we can change our lives, too, if only we follow his example.

It would be tempting for most filmmakers to make Biker Fox into a hagiographical portrait of a maverick fighting the good fight for healthy living against the close-minded authorities in a conservative small city, but Lamberton is not interested in making so simple a story. It is certainly admirable that DeLarzelere is battling bravely against waste and laziness, but as Lamberton begins to uncover the darker sides of Biker Fox's personality, he comes much more human-and much more interesting. Those demons that we saw buried deep behind his eyes in the opening barbecue sequence are very real, and as they begin to surface the film shows us the intimate life of a troubled man who struggles daily against angry urges and a powerful sense of loneliness. Biker Fox is an iconic American character, but Frank DeLarzelere III is a troubled and fascinating man, and we, the audience, learn a lot from watching his successes and failures.

http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/12-biker-fox

VENUE
OPEN ROAD ROOFTOP
Open Road Rooftop
LOWER EAST SIDE
350 GRAND ST., NEW YORK, NY 10002
F, J, M, Z to Delancey Street-Essex Street; B, D, Q to Grand Street