Bike Vessel on PBS
Kitty Goursolle
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/bike-vessel/
Review from Roger Ebert: “Bike Vessel” is a film about perseverance, a story concerned with structural racism, and a tale of heartwarming achievement. In Eric D. Seals’ documentary, Donnie is a retired IBM engineer. A survivor of three open heart surgeries, he has recently taken up cycling to regain his strength. Over two years, he moves from taking truckloads of medication to live to biking tens of miles. To commemorate five years of cycling, he and his son Eric (the film’s director) decide to ride 350 miles from St. Louis to Chicago.
Their journey is touching, beginning with their training for the race. Eric is a novice cyclist compared to his veteran dad, and both father and son have strong personalities. During their rides, Seals jumps back in time by virtue of VHS footage of family holidays to track the moments and causes of Donnie’s surgeries. The film illuminates two major factors as culprits for the shorter lifespans African Americans routinely experience compared to their white counterparts: the unhealthy culturally specific diets most Black folks hold over from slavery—foods based on fat and salt—and the stress of needing to succeed against the racism of corporate America.