Ride the Veins
Climb on your bike and meet us for a drink in the Central Eastside.
Portland has grown and changed over the decades, as cities will. But the Portland we love persists. We wanted to capture a version of it that locals would recognize, circa 2024. A summer afternoon. Getting outside, and getting together with friends.
Ten years earlier as part of a public art project here called “Orange Lining,” more than 100 fragments of text were stamped into the sidewalk along the path of TriMet's MAX Orange Line. All of text had been written and submitted for consideration by local residents.
Rosie, an art director at Sheepscot Creative and the cyclist in our short film, has on several occasions pedaled past “Knit the city bones / ride the veins.”
“What if we call the film ‘Ride the Veins?’” she suggested.
That sounded perfect.
Crowned “Best Bike Film” at the 2025 Better Cities Film Festival
“At just over three minutes long, Ride the Veins is pure exhilaration. With drone shots soaring over Portland and close-ups of a lone cyclist weaving through its streets, the film captures the joy, independence, and poetry of moving through a city on two wheels.
“Detroit audiences—many of whom had biked to the festival’s own cycling events—were especially delighted. One cyclist said afterward, ‘That’s exactly how it feels: people ask if biking in the city is scary, but really it’s joyful, freeing—even on the tough days.’ The film radiated that joy across the room. For embodying the playful energy of city cycling and celebrating bikes as essential urban lifeblood, Ride the Veins received the Best Bike Film Award.” —Better Cities Film Festival
