From start to finish, Jon Kasbe’s documentary Blood Rider is an absolute ride of a film, in every sense of the word. Premiering during the We Are One: A Global Film Festival, an online celebration of film supporting COVID-19 relief efforts, this thrilling, emotional short seeks to spread awareness surrounding Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate due to blood shortages. A veteran documentarian, Kasbe’s immersive approach and fearless dedication to storytelling, makes Blood Rider a riveting watch that will have you on the edge of your seat for its entire 17-minute duration. 

This high stakes film follows a heroic motorcyclist named Joseph, one of many skilled “blood riders”, nicknamed for the role they play in racing against the clock to deliver life-saving blood to expectant mothers in need. In short, Kasbe takes us on a life or death, ride or die journey as Joseph zigzags through gridlocked traffic risking his life to save a stranger – at least to him.

“The overwhelming tension of blood riders racing to deliver lifesaving supplies spoke to my filmmaking ethos”

The power of this film lies in how Kasbe forces us to get to know not only the rider, but the mother – Deborah – who Joseph has the potential to save. No longer are these women nameless to us and knowing the identity of this one mother makes the gravity of the situation that much more dire. As Kasbe introduces us to Joseph’s world of motorcycling and what it means to him, we learn that compassion is far-reaching for these exceptional risk-takers and in many ways, the insight offered throughout the short works to renew a little faith in humanity.

“I learned that due to stigmas in Nigeria around the perceived dangers of blood donation, there are drastic shortages, and blood is stored in central banks rather than at local hospitals,” Kasbe tells Short of the Week when discussing the film’s inspiration. “The combination of the pressingly important issue of maternal mortality with the overwhelming tension of blood riders racing to deliver lifesaving supplies spoke to my filmmaking ethos. I had also spent a number of years working on four projects in Kenya including my feature WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS, and one in the Central African Republic, so I felt a strong connection to the region.” 

The sheer logistics of this film made for a truly intricate and sometimes dangerous process to execute. Kasbe had to work closely with LifeBank, the organization that pairs tracking technology, doctors, and blood riders together to save lives. “It became clear that there was a distinct chain of events each time a doctor sent in a request for blood that we could use to somewhat anticipate where to be to capture the process,” explains Kasbe.

“We filmed the blood riders as we rode backwards on separate motorcycles”

Describing the risky experience of shooting the blood riders as “chaotic, shaky, uncertain, and unique”, before filming any deliveries Kasbe and his team rode along to get a small sense of what the experience felt like. So that feeling of riding alongside Joseph, as he anxiously risks his own safety, was altogether translated onscreen by Kasbe’s willingness to immerse himself in the craft at his own expense, too. 

“We were filming on very fast-moving vehicles while never slowing them down – we filmed the blood riders as we rode backwards on separate motorcycles, squeezing our legs together to hold onto the motorbike, which gave us the most freedom to operate the camera handheld, ” Kasbe reveals of his experience with fellow cinematographer David Bolen (who also shot S/W picks Date Nite & Divine Children). Kasbe’s verité approach wasn’t without risk but it allowed him to embrace each sudden acceleration or sharp turn of the rider as they navigated Nigeria’s dangerous traffic. The result is gripping and Blood Rider certainly wouldn’t be as impactful without its ability to inspire such genuine empathy for the ride. 

Lifebank also connected Kasbe’s team with hospitals they delivered to and so began the lengthy process of meeting pregnant women expecting to give birth in two to six weeks. Ten of the forty women they met felt comfortable enough to be filmed and Kasbe, feeling that it was important to introduce these mothers on screen, moved between the hospital and the women’s homes for a month, patiently waiting. Of course, not everything would go as planned and they missed some births by minutes or filmed others that went fortunately smooth and did not require blood. By chance, Joseph ended up delivering blood to one of the mothers they had been filming, Deborah, who urgently needed it and the cross-section of their stories became the heart of Blood Rider. 

Kasbe’s hope for the film is that it brings more attention to the challenges LifeBank faces daily in addressing Nigeria’s complicated healthcare system, maternal mortality rate, and ongoing blood shortage. Ever the global storyteller, Kasbe is currently working on a feature about a robot in Hong Kong and another feature about a spiritual teacher in Costa Rica.