After screenings at the Santa Barbara Film festival, at the European Filmfestival in Lille, France and in Oslo, Norway, Citizens for Safe Cycling, Ottawa’s bike advocacy group since 1984, is excited to bring the Canadian premiere of the Dutch short documentary, Mama Agatha, to the Nation’s Capital.
About the documentary
Mama Agatha runs a bicycle training program for migrant women in Amsterdam. A self-described ‘community mother’, she is a 59-year-old Ghanaian woman with the spirit of a 20-year-old. With the help of her bicycle training assistants, Mama Agatha supervises weekly classes in the colorful Southeast district with a large population of people from Africa and the Middle East.
Over the course of 10 weeks, Mama Agatha teaches a group of 15 women from all corners of the world the most basic Dutch skill: cycling. Mama Agatha’s summer course ends in a colorful graduation ceremony where the migrant ladies receive their diplomas and take to the streets of Amsterdam on their brand new bicycles and find their own way into Dutch society.
The documentary will be shown at our 2016 Spring.Bike.Ottawa event on April 2 at McNabb.
Read the interview with Fadi on Citylab