Things Do Change Program (SBIFF, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Katie Funk. Viewed at Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara.

With My Own Two Wheels is a fascinating documentary directed by Jacob and Isaac Seigel-Boettner showing how the bicycle is used world-wide not just for fun but for those in impoverished regions to have the chance to live a better life. Different people from around the world are shown with their own unique reasons for using the bicycle. A young girl in India who once was not allowed to enter high-school like the boys because she had no way of getting there, a plight that many young girls had. Just to be given a bicycle meant that these girls could continue to be educated and perhaps were not as likely to be married off at the tender age of thirteen. Another young disabled woman in Africa and an outcast to her community found peace thanks to the bicycle by becoming a bicycle mechanic. She now fixes the bikes of men who once looked down upon her as a cripple without any useful abilities. Another man in a different part of Africa once walked 20 miles a day just to give care to the hundreds of neglected AIDS patients in the area. With the use of a donated bicycle he can now attend more people in less time and still make it home to his family without being completely exhausted by the end of the day. The importance of bicycles to these people is more than just a way to have fun, it has become a part of theirs and their communities very survival. This documentary is wonderful in that it is bringing awareness to the importance of bicycles and bicycle donation efforts across the world.

Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean directed by Curt Fissel is another fascinating documentary shown in this two-part program. It follows the lives of Ugandan coffee farmers as they fight for equal rights in the distribution of their coffee. These farmers have families that consist of up to 30 individuals with many being adopted from victims of the AIDS crisis. It is hard enough to feed such a large group of people so that when the coffee prices collapsed, the lives of these people were collapsing along with it. A peace co-op was created called “Delicious Peace Coffee Cooperative” in 2004 to help local farmers and their economic development. Thanks to the efforts of this co-op they soon partnered with a Fair Trade U.S distributor which meant that the prices of their coffee would stay where they needed to be for them to make a decent living. It was truly beautiful to watch these people flourish thanks to the Fair Trade organization that they partnered with. They now go around the world sharing their story and their delicious coffee with the public. I felt honored to see this documentary as it was a beautiful uplifting tale of human struggle and human empathy giving the small farmer a chance to survive and even thrive in the face of adversity.