Why I Ride brings the art of low riding to the de Young

On Friday, September 3rd San Francisco's de Young museum will host the world premiere screening of Why I Ride Low and Slow a short documentary focused on the art and community impact of San Francisco's low-rider culture in the 1970's and 1980's as part of their Mission Muralismo series.

Co-creator of Why I Ride Low and Slow Vero Majano, a San Francisco Mission district native whose other films Calle Chula and I Reminisce will also be screened during the event, sat down with SW to discuss development of the film, and why brining it to the museum is a life-long dream come true.

SW: What inspired you to create the film?

VM: This film was really a collaboration.  But for me,  ever since my first film, Calle Chula in 1998, I have been working with archival footage from the Mission District in the 1970’s and 80’s with the intention of preserving a record of this community so that it is included in San Francisco history.  I was working with the Mission Media Archives, and it was my job to help Ray Balberan go through and catalog films that he had in storage. I was digging through all these films, and  I found a tin that just said “LOW RIDERS” on it.  I put it in the viewer and I couldn’t believe it.  It was totally the images of my memories of the Mission when I was 10 or 11 years old! It was such a trip to see your memories in a tin can.  At the same time Conscious Youth Media Crew  was starting to work on low-riders in the Mission as a project the youth were putting it together.   So I offered the footage to them to use.   But as you know, people have to move on to other things in their lives, and it never got finished. It just sat around.  So Debra Koffler the director of Conscious Youth Media Crew,  and I decided earlier this year that we had to get this made.

SW: So this film is very personal for you?

VM: Oh yeah, I totally knew the low-riders. The cast that is interviewed in the film are all people I knew, or saw around the time I was growing up.

SW:  Do you think low-rider culture in the Mission is something that could experience a renaissance now with this renewed interest?

VM: The low riders were works of art that came out of a working-class culture.  Everything about it, from the way people dressed to learning to just work with what you already have is a part of that working class culture. I don’t think now-a-days working class people can live in San Francisco.  Roberto Hernandez, one of the main people we were working with on the film, has recently been organizing Sunday low rider cruises around the Mission. I think people can come back and do the cruise but I don’t think they can afford to live in the community anymore.  As an artist I want people who live here now to see the films and understand where they are living.

SW: What would you like the outcome of Why I Ride Low and Slow showing at the de Young to be?

VM: I love witnessing people’s memories, and their nostalgia for the old neighborhood. I recently curated a show that featured old photographs of home-girls hanging out in the mission. It was wonderful to see the people who were actually in the photos come out and recognize all their friends and say “Oh my God there’s Tiny!” or “Oh my God there is Sleepy!”  As an artist I love being part of bringing that together.  But I also love the idea of bringing street culture into the museum.  I want to bring an audience together, people who were there who will be say “YA there goes Shorty, there goes so-and-so” together with people who aren’t even aware that this existed. I am really looking forward to the collective experience of witnessing this history.

Why I Ride Low and Slow will premier on Friday September 3^rd.  Admission is free.  For more info visit the de Young Online.