DM: So what brought you to the east coast and did you ever think that you would start something like the film festival?

BB: I moved to New York to get into acting, theater and art. I never lived anywhere else outside of California. I thought it would be cool to live around really tall buildings. The atmosphere had that energy. Then one day while I was out here, I got hit by a bus while riding my bike. But, before that happened, on a daily basis I would encounter people yelling at me for riding – you know, “Get out of the road!” I was 28 years old when that happened. I’m 34 years old now. I was thinking about that today. Wow where does the time go!?

So, I got hit by a bus. I usually don’t tell this story because I don’t want the festival to be focused on a negative event in my life. But since we have a lot of time, we can get into it. A couple of things happened to motivate me to do the festival. Before I got hit I was arrested at Critical Mass. I’ve been doing Critical Mass since it started in San Francisco. Critical Mass to me was this fun thing. I’d go there and meet friends, and it was a party. It wasn’t because I was anti-car, or anything necessarily political, although I have this liberal blood running through me, it was more about having a good time. We’d get all dressed up and get together for the ride and then party.

When I moved to New York, I had a hard time finding Critical Mass! It was so small. At that time the biggest critical mass was in early 2000. It was great. We went through Time Square. Unfortunately while I was riding this random guy jumped out in a white uniform. Right from the middle of the crowd and tackled me. I thought he was random, but he turned out to be a police officer.

I have a picture and there were 8 policemen holding me down. It looks ridiculous. I admit I tried to get away but who could blame me. The first thing you think of when someone is chasing you with a gun is, “Get out of there!”

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