For the past decade, filmmaker and cyclist Daniel Leeb has been documenting the lives of bike messengers on and off the job in NYC. He's accumulated 500 hours of footage, which he's currently whittling down into what will be a feature-length documentary called Messengers. Here's the trailer for the project, which looks pretty darn interesting:
Leeb launched a Kickstarter for the project today; he's trying to raise $60,00 to complete a rough cut of his film, which he says tells "the true story of the world's fastest bike messengers racing each other and the clock in a dangerous underground urban subculture. They risk their lives for their clients - in the rain, sleet and snow, everyday from sunrise to sunset. And although they are as much a part of the city landscape as the taxis, they are largely invisible. They are looked down upon, ignored, and often cursed by drivers and pedestrians alike."
Of course, some of those "curses" unleashed by drivers and pedestrians aren't too hard to explain—as one bike messenger in the preview explains, "The red lights, they mean 'go faster.' " Eat your heart out, Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
