Just because the Sedona International Film Festival wrapped up Sunday, March 1, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more world-class, thought-provoking films lined up in Sedona, or any more festivals, for that matter. World Ride Movie Night will spin off the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival at Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Thursday, March 5 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The women’s mountain bike movie night will feature seven movies about women mountain bikers from around the world, and there will also be a raffle for biking gear and other prizes.
The Sedona Mountain Bike Festival takes place Friday, March 6 to Sunday, March 8 at Posse Grounds Park with a festival, skills clinics, bike demos, group rides, presentation, yoga, movies, live bands, a beer garden, food trucks, gear vendors and more. While pre-sale tickets are sold out for the festival, 300 passes will be sold at the door.
For World Ride Movie Night, tickets are a $15 donation in advance at world-ride.com and $20 at the door, with all proceeds going to the World Ride 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to empower women mountain bikers globally.
World Ride founder Julie Cornelius chose Sedona to be one of the organization’s first ever locations for the movie night event. She founded World Ride in 2017 as a way to help out the Nepalese after massive earthquakes that took place in the mountainous Asian country wedged between India and Tibet.
“I was going to travel there before the earthquakes happened, and then there was a big earthquake there and I wanted to travel there to do something to help out,” Cornelius said of the April 2015 quake and subsequent aftershocks, which left nearly 9,000 dead.
Before the quake, Nepal was known for its breathtaking snow-capped peaks, bright blue endless skies and off-the-beaten path mountain biking trails. When Cornelius visited she noticed only men leading the renowned mountain bike tours there, and in fact, she didn’t see too many Nepalese woman riding at all.
She set out to change this with World Ride, starting up bike clinics for Nepalese women, some who had only brushed their foot to a pedal once or twice before.
“We helped teach them skills and get them riding,” Cornelius said. “Now there is a group of about 40 women or so that do weekly rides.”
Besides the recreational benefits, Cornelius noticed changes in the women’s self-confidence.
“I think, especially, mountain biking is a really empowering sport,” she said. “It varies for each woman, but just that feeling of doing something that they thought they might not be able to do — it challenges you.”
Through World Ride, Cornelius was able to get the Nepalese women training in first aid, leadership and guiding tours. Several women from the clinics have even branched into leading mountain bike tours, typically a male-dominated field in Nepal.
“The women over there still face a lot of challenges with [gender stereotypes] and it’s just not a widely accepted part of their culture for them to be doing that,” Cornelius said of Nepalese women mountain bike guides. “Many men in the community don’t want women guiding and don’t think women are capable of it, so they’ve made up stories to say that the girls had issues while they were riding or weren’t strong enough or good enough.”
Cornelius will be able to share three Nepalese women’s stories at the screening of her documentary, “Moksha,” at Sedona’s World Ride Movie night. Other women’s mountain bike films that will be shown at the event will be “It’s Just Like Riding a Bike,” a documentary of the inspiring story of Markella and her journey training for and participating in the British Columbia Bike Race, “On Her Terms,” starring professional mountain bikers Manon Carpenter and Monet Adams in Iceland, “Blue,” about women fat-biking in Valdez, Alaska, “My Last Day of Summer,” on 13- year-old shredder Julia, “Pedal” on Hera Van Willick’s mountain bike trip around the world and “When Looking Back,” about how ladies “shred” time in Moab, Utah.
Not only will the audience be transported all over the world while watching the women mountain biking movies, their donations will also fund equipment, supplies and training for women in upcoming World Ride clinics.
World Ride’s latest venture was to Guatemala, where Cornelius said many of the 60 women who participated in the community ride, or travesía, that they hosted expressed how much they loved it.
“It was a really cool, good atmosphere. Everyone was really excited and it was a fun day,” she said.
Along with the social rides, World Ride organizers are able to add a bike library in each of the countries they partner with so women can borrow bikes, as well as host leadership training, racing and more. Next on the list for World Ride is Peru and Lesotho.
There will also be a raffle at World Ride’s movie night with $5 for one ticket, $20 for five tickets, $50 for 15 tickets and $100 for 35 tickets. Prizes will be bike gear and gift certificates to local restaurants and hotels.
Cornelius is still looking for financial, product and promotion sponsors for the events that will be featured on their marketing material and more. Those interested can contact her at Julie@ world-ride.com.
