Films A-Z
Auto*Mate
Auto*Mat
Martin Mareček / Czech Republic / 2009 / 90 min.
"You're deliberately going around Prague and complicating traffic, which is already complicated enough," says an angry policewoman in 2003 to participants in the first mass bike ride, while her colleagues arrest several youngsters with bicycles. Five years later, a peloton of 5,000 cyclists travels around Prague and the police ensure their safety. These bike rides are the most visible and popular form of the Auto*Mate initiative, which was co-founded by the director of this film. And just like the bike rides, this original documentary by Martin Mareček, which uses elements of animation and home video, became a phenomenon itself after a while. It depicts a civic initiative that fights against the predominance of cars over pedestrians in the Czech capital and which is committed to making it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to get around Prague. Auto*Mate is a playful and deeply personal film about people "who woke up one morning and decided to change their city."
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