The Films
Balancing Act
- Year 2023
- Country United States
- Runtime 16 min
- Director Nic Genovese
Set in Marquette, Michigan and Virgin, Utah the film follows Brandon Semenuk as he sets out to win his first American Rally Championship while also defending his Red Bull Rampage Title all within one high-stakes week in 2022. It’s a true balancing act of skill, strategy, logistics, and determination.
The Last Damn
- Year 2022
- Country USA
- Runtime 38 min
- Director Nicholas Kapanke
Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere
_The Last Damn _explores the origin and sociocultural impact of The DAMn, set against the backdrop of its final rendition in 2021.
The DAMn is a 240 mile, 24 hour, point-to-point gravel bicycle race also known as the Day Across Minnesota. The event starts at midnight in Gary, SD and riders have until midnight the following day to reach Hagar City, WI traversing Minnesota’s gravel roads from west to east in the process.
The Last Damn captures the physical endurance and mental stamina needed by those willing take on the DAMn. As a meteor shower streaks overhead, Nick Grabis explains his “Meteor Theory” for cycle racing, while poet Ben Weaver shares his philosophy of using a bicycle as a time machine. Chase Wark sets out to break his own course record, while planning a surprise at the finish line. Beth and Cory Rood attempt to finish the DAMn on a tandem…and you know what they say, wherever your marriage is heading, it’ll get there faster on a tandem. And the “Brooklyn Three” escape the city to ride under endless sky and alongside the miles of cornfields of southern Minnesota, a landscape that is completely foreign to them.
While hundreds have attempted the DAMn over the years, the final running stays true to its name and raises the stakes to test riders in a way they’ve never experience before on Minnesota gravel.