Motorcycle movie returns for Northfield Premiere!

Former Carleton College film teacher, Eric Tretbar, returns Saturday, May 11 at 7pm to the Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema for the Northfield community premiere of his new feature film, GIRL MEETS BIKE. Members of the cast and crew will attend, with a question and answer session to follow. This event is free and open to the public.

Tretbar shot the film in and around Northfield in the summer of 2011 with a crew of mostly Carleton film students, along with strong support from the Northfield community and a cast of real Minneapolis motorcyclists. Local KYMN Radio host and DJ, Jessica Paxton, served as line producer for the film, providing direct contact to local businesses and city offices for locations and road use." We couldn't have made this film without the wonderful support of Northfield and Carleton College. I think everyone will love how beautiful Northfield looks on the big screen!,” says Tretbar.

The finished 105-minute film premiered last week at the Minneapolis/St.Paul International film festival to a sold-out audience of motorcyclists and festival fans, enjoying a warm reception from all. Tretbar reports, "It was gratifying to hear from many women viewers that 'this was my story'. A number of women said whether or not you ride motorcycles, the story expresses that difficult path of learning to be free—insisting to do everything yourself, by yourself, for yourself."

GIRL MEETS BIKE is the 7th feature film by Tretbar, but notes that this time around he is using a very new approach for distribution. "The old model of taking a film to festivals and searching for distribution is changing. Because I know the main audience for this film is strong women and the people who love them—bikers or not--I can go straight to the audience. We made DVDs immediately after finishing the film and are selling them on our website along with posters, scarves, t-shirts and other fun “moto-useful” things."

The production also used the crowd-funding site, Kickstarter, to raise some finishing money last summer. "Through Kickstarter," says Tretbar, "we gained an international audience, with interviews and articles about the movie in Poland and Israel already. Thanks to new online moto friends in Poland plus people in the Carleton community, the film was subtitled in Polish, German, French, Chinese and Spanish for these foreign audiences."

Tretbar, who is a Kansas native and graduate of Carleton College, says he is very proud of the work done by both the cast and the crew. "I continue to receive many compliments about the beautiful photography in the film, the work of Carleton grads Jameson Siegert and Sam Scherf. This was the first feature film for most of the cast and crew, many of whom will be at the screening at Carleton, and they did amazing work. We also produced a commentary track on the DVD which discusses everyone's roles, plus working with the surrounding towns of Dundas, Nerstrand and Dennison."

official website:www.girlmeetsbikemovie.com

facebook page:www.facebook.com/girlmeetsbikemovie

trailer:http://youtu.be/DkrexqIKmMs

GIRL MEETS BIKE

105 min/color/USA © 2013 Moto Girl Films

Written and directed by Eric Tretbar

Note: This film is unrated (if rated - R for language, brief nudity)