With My Own Two Wheels (Jacob Seigel-Boettner, Isaac Seigel-Boettner, 2010): USA/Georgia/Guatemala/India/Zambia

Reviewed by Ulrika Bjorck at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011.

If you think about it, a bike is so much more than just a way to get transported. Of course that is the main thing, and the importance of having a bike is certainly to easily get from one place to another. But you never really think about in what way a bicycle simply can change people’s lives. That is what we get the opportunity to learn by watching With My Own Two Wheels, a colorful short documentary film, directed by the Seigel-Boettner brothers Jacob and Isaac.

In this short film we visit five different people from five different countries. For these five people a simple thing as a bike has made a huge impact on their lives. A bicycle. A thing many of us take for granted. Many of us have at least one standing in our garage, maybe without even using it. With the reason,” I use my car instead”, or, “I take the bus”. How often do you actually think about the huge difference a bike can do for so many less fortunate people in a lot of places of the world? Probably never. At least I have to admit that it never occurred to me.

We get to see a glint of these five people’s lives. And pretty soon you realize that problems that occur for them could easily be solved with this amazing invention on two wheels. In this film we meet people who are depending on the bike to get an education, being able to meet patients in work. But also a couple of people that work as bike-mechanics in order to get a safe ground in life and a place to go to. A bike can have different meanings to different people. And what you do with it, and how you use it to make a difference in your own life is completely up to you.

I really liked this short film, I felt like it was full of hope, in many ways, and that it brought lots of positive energy through the screen, to the viewer. What I liked the most was probably the realization of what changes a bicycle can make in a person’s life. For instance, instead of being out of school at the age of twelve, this girl named Bharati and her classmates from India got help from an organization to get their very own bikes. Because of the long distances it can be really hard for these kids to get to school without a bike. So this organization works on providing kids with bikes so that they will have the possibility to get to school.

I definitely think this short documentary film is worth seeing. I feel like I actually learned something, and it was interesting and entertaining to watch.

And by the way, more people should use their bike more often. Not only because it’s healthy for you, but it would also save our earth’s resources so much. Think about our environment. So why not next time; leave your car at home, use your bike.