Braking AIDS® Ride Case Study

CLIENTS

HOUSING WORKS is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Their mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain their efforts.

GLOBAL IMPACT PRODUCTIONS has been producing challenging AIDS related events and other worthy causes since its inception in 2003. They give socially conscious, grass roots, not-for-profit groups the tools to raise funds for causes that make our world a better place. Global Impact Production’s events create a caring community that moves together from one place to another, often over several days. People feel good about themselves when they’re cared for, and when they’re given the opportunity to care for others as well. There’s a halo effect, and the beneficiary is the organization and the community it touches.

CHALLENGE/REQUIREMENTS

My partner Monica and I incorporated Black Watch Productions on May 1, 1989. Almost exactly one month later, my younger brother David succumbed to the AIDS virus he’d been fighting for only a little over a year. Back then it wasn’t a fair fight, and the HIV/AIDS diagnosis was essentially a death sentence. What struck us was how little we knew about HIV/AIDS at that time, and by 2002, we took on the challenge to learn more and find ways to get involved, raise awareness around the HIV/AIDS many-leveled crises by using our skills as Filmmakers and activists, and ultimately, raise the visibility of organizations fighting for the victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

SOLUTION

The best solution was to join—to become participants in the event itself as riders and fundraisers as well as filmmakers. With our skill set, we chose to document the ride as an event, but more importantly, tell the personal stories of those who were riding, crewing and organizing. This Ride event began in 2003 and continues to this day, and Black Watch has been a part of each Ride for every one of those 22 years. Since 2010, we have also fielded Team Black Watch, whose members have raised over half a million dollars for this cause.

CREATIVE/CONCEPT

Monica and I were drawn to this Ride because we have both suffered extreme personal loss to the AIDS epidemic. For a time, before and after John’s brother David died, we felt that our entire social life revolved around funerals and memorial services due to Monica’s career in the theatre and music communities of NYC...it was unbearable. In 2002, we found the Northeast AIDS Ride and rode in what turned out to be the last Team Pallotta Ride, a four-day Ride from NY to Boston. There were 1600 riders, which made the production logistics mind bending— 1600 people pitching tents, semi-trucks tricked out as mobile showers and lines for food and medical that went on forever—it was an amazing experience.

Shortly thereafter, the Pallotta production group collapsed, and we heard about a new Ride called Braking the Cycle, which would benefit the LGBTQ+ Center in New York City. This new ride was being produced by Global Impact Productions, a team that created a much smaller Ride (100 riders), with more community and awareness-building intentions. The smaller Rider group allowed us to stay in hotels, eat meals together and get to know each other—we liked the sound of that and signed up to ride even though the minimum funds we were required to raise went from $1200 for the Pallotta Ride to $3500 per person for the Braking the Cycle Ride.

Meeting with the Global Impact recruiters and seeing their materials and outreach capabilities, we could see this new ride didn’t have the budget for glossy fundraisers and ad campaigns with a big reach. The producers were also determined to keep their overhead low and the returns to the recipient not-for-profit groups high—we also liked the sound of that! We offered our video production services, which were gladly accepted, and Black Watch has provided them pro bono ever since.

For the past 20+ years we've been active partners with Global Impact Production's annual 300- mile bike rides, bringing visibility to the efforts of the LGBTQ+ community and all our Allies, Housing Works in particular, in the fight to bring an end to HIV/AIDS and homelessness locally and globally. We have produced, shot and edited video used on the Braking the Cycle and Braking AIDS® Ride websites and fundraisers—cutting reunion films, recruitment films, PSA’s as well as fundraising and individual Rider pieces for social media and personal awareness campaigns.

LIVE ACTION SHOOT

Black Watch creative director, Monica Anderson has directed the entire enterprise, even as she was participating as a rider for most of the years we’ve done this Ride. Her unequalled interviewing expertise has resulted in the recording of hundreds of incredible stories, from happy to heartbreaking, as participants open their souls to her and our cameras.

We bring a dedicated crew for each ride, starting with the orientations the night before the start of the Ride. Each day starts before dawn and ends after dinner, with very little down time between interviews and capturing b-roll on the road. Some years, we’ve had multiple cameras-on the first Ride, we had our main camera mounted in the bed of a pickup truck and on the 20th anniversary Ride in 2023, we had three cameras and a drone on the route from Saratoga to New York City. For many years, it’s just been Monica, a cameraperson and a driver, and this Ride has become a life-changing event for them as well. It all adds up to hundreds of hours of footage across a variety of formats, from Mini DVs to DVC Pros, to DVHD to camera files and hard drives.

Each year is a new logistical challenge, as the routes are never the same. Scouting with the camera car driver and a DP is a must as we find the best vantage point to show hard, vertical uphill efforts and sweeping downhill runs. We are often on back roads and bike paths where the camera car cannot go, so it’s not unusual to walk equipment in a mile to get that great shot of the bike path overlooking the Croton Reservoir. Dynamic shots can be difficult to get without compromising the safety of the Riders, but with our talented shooters we never lack for amazing vistas and dramatic scenes. We work closely with the Ride organizers to maximize our presence while we minimize our impact, and, while every participant signs a waiver before the event, we always respect wishes for privacy, should that be requested.

The stories we’ve gathered over the years form the bedrock of our documentary in the making, “And So We Ride—Stories from the Road to the End of AIDS”, a journey through the last twenty-plus years of the AIDS crisis through the eyes, hearts and sore butts of the purposedriven participants of this great event.

Timeline

This project began in May of 2003 and has continued to this day. The first Ride started in Perryville, Maryland during a hurricane, and has, over the years had ride outs from Gettysburg, Boston, Cooperstown, Fishkill NY, Saratoga and Philadelphia, always ending in New York City. In 2012, The beneficiary of the Ride became Housing Works and they continue to be so. The 2025 Ride will be from Philadelphia to New York on the weekend of September 13th.

Results

This Ride has persevered and flourished through different and difficult political and social climates, periodic horrible weather, the Covid 19 pandemic and AIDS fatigue. Because of the dedication we see all around us, this event has become a life-changing force in our lives, building a family that has enriched our existence while changing our world for the better. The Ride has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for Housing Works’ relentless advocacy efforts as well as their life saving programs fighting the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works has long served the most marginalized members of our community, and that mission will be more crucial than ever given our present political situation.

Our deep-rooted passion and the reason we started down this road, is the on-going fight to end the AIDS pandemic for good. Honoring my brother David and all our friends who passed in the early AIDS pandemic, we get on our bikes and behind the cameras. With our footage we create recruitment films, *PSA’s and *social media content for Housing Works. In return, the hundreds of hours of footage we’ve collected will come together as a feature length documentary, “And So We Ride-Stories from the Road to the End of AIDS”.

As JFK once quoted “A rising tide lifts all boats.”, it is our goal to bring this fight to the attention of a larger audience and give our community of dedicated humans the lift they need to see that goal achieved.