Go Grandriders Screenings and Tour through California

Would you still dare to dream when you’re 80 years old?

On average, they are 81 years old but possess dreams only 18-year-olds would have. They would tell you, through life-long experience, “Miracles do happen as long as you continue to dream!”

In Go Grandriders, a group of 17 senior citizens, many of them learn how to ride a motorcycle for the first time, embark on what may be the most daring adventures of their lives: a 13-day-entirely-on-motorcycle tour around the island of Taiwan. Among these 17 Grandriders, two have had cancer, four need hearing aids, five suffer from high blood pressure, eight have coronary disease, and every one of them has symptoms of joint degeneration. However, at the youthful age of 80 plus, they dare to ride on scooters and feel the land they have lived all their lives.

Challenges officially begin when they decide to hop on their scooters: fighting objections from family members, taking driver license test at an old age, aching bodies and every possible poor weather and road conditions along the 1178-kilometer (732-mile) journey. The day prior to the start of the journey, the captain suffers from ulcer and declining red blood cell count, how will he lead these Grandriders to the goal they have aspired to achieve?

The trip brings harrowing escapes (riding on narrow coastal highway with gusty wind and a steep cliff on one side, and intimidating big trucks speeding by on the other), pure exhilaration (including a gleeful romp in the waves when riders reach Taiwan’s beautiful east coast), and somber reflection (as riders recall their youths fighting in the Sino-Japanese War). Defying society’s expectation, the Grandriders’ journey will inspire and delight audiences both young and young at heart.

VISIT THE WEBSITE: http://gograndriders.com/

SCREENINGS:

Northern California: August 16 to 22, 2013
Blue Light Cinemas
21275 Stevens Creek Cupertino, CA
408-255-5002

Southern California: August 23 to 29, 2013
AMC Atlantic Times Sq.14
450 N. Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA
626-407-0240

Coming into Town — Grandrider’s 2013 USA Miracle Tour

Titled “2013 US Miracle Tour”, this 4-days-3-nights road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles is organized by Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation, the very same not-for-profit organization that initiated the Grandriders project in 2007. Back in 2007, Hondao recruited a group of 17 Taiwanese senior citizens who averaged 81 years old to pursue their dream of circling Taiwan on motorcycles. Despite illnesses and infirmities, the Grandriders completed the 730-mile around-the-island motorcycle tour in 13 days.

Their inspiring tale was captured in the documentary “Go Grandriders”. When the film was finally released in Taiwan and various neighboring countries in Asia in 2012, it quickly broke sales records everywhere and became the highest-grossing documentary in both Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2012!

Spread the “Bu Lao” Spirit

Since the film’s debut, the “Bu Lao” spirit, which means forever young, has become a movement in Taiwan and has spread quickly and feverishly around the world wherever it has been shown.

To inspire senior citizens everywhere to live fulfilled and active lives, and to reshape the public’s perception of aging, Hondao is bringing 10 of the 17 original Grandriders on a 12-day trip to the US this summer.

The Grandriders, with assistance from enthusiastic American volunteer motorcyclists from the BMW Club of Northern California, will ride as passengers on motorcycles from San Jose to Los Angeles in conjunction with the first US theatrical debut in several California theaters. They plan to meet with fans and visit nursing homes along the way in order to continue spreading the Bu Lao spirit!

Routes and Schedule

8/20 (Tue) San Jose to Monterey
8/21 (Wed) Monterey to Cambria
8/22 (Thu) Cambria to Santa Barbara
8/23 (Fri) Santa Barbara to Los Angeles

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