After The Storm

After The Storm reveals the remarkable story of diversity pioneer Aneela McKenna who has tackled racism and discrimination in her own life with the help of mountain biking and now asks the industry to do the same.

In 2017 Aneela McKenna broke. She'd reached the end of her rope and needed a timeout from life. At work, Aneela was embroiled in a racism tribunal against her boss. Anxiety and stress levels were at an all time high and her self belief, her self respect and consequently her personal confidence had plummeted to an all time low. Something was going to give. Despite her fragile mental health, Aneela determined she needed to take action.  That’s when she turned to her trusty mountain bike and her favourite place in the world - the Outer Hebrides.

Aneela took an extended career break and embarked on a solo mission in search of what she needed to mend and renew herself.  In this film Aneela, partnered by her husband Andy, revisits the Outer Hebrides, to ride and reflect on the realities which drove her to this unspoilt landscape; on the refreshed outlook and strength she returned home with and on the changes her sojourn sparked in Aneela and Andy’s lives and which they live by now.

Through the personal experience of husband and wife Andy and Aneela - After the Storm invites the audience to open their hearts and minds to what racial discrimination feels like.

Through the film, they ask society and their beloved sport of mountain biking to look in the mirror and face up to these tough topics and be the best, most enriched version of themselves.

After the Storm is the next chapter of a story which started with the highly acclaimed 2017 McKenna and McCandlish film This Way Up.  Selected to premiere at the renowned Kendal Mountain Film Festival in November, After the Storm is a beautiful, poignant rollercoaster where Aneela and Andy pedal their way through life’s ups and downs. Moments of pain, frustration, triumph, laughter and defiance are uncovered on the beaches, in the waves, over a bothy fireside dram and amidst the mountains where their connection to Scotland and one another is strongest.

Join the adventure to #rideoverracism and make mountain biking a more diverse and inclusive space. Beyond the Kendal premiere, After the Storm will be available via a ‘Diversity Tour’ for private screening to organisations within the MTB, cycling and outdoors sectors - combined with expertly facilitated discussion around diversity and inclusion, allyship, barriers to inclusivity and overcoming these challenges.

Special film guests, MTB stars and diversity champions:

Danny MacAskill, Eliot Jackson, Isla Short, Greg Minnaar, Nathan and Ruben de Vaux, StevePeat, Emma Neale, Phil Young, Jenni Gwiazdowski, Manon Carpenter, Lloyd Grose, Frit Tam, Kerry MacPhee, Jo Shwe and Rob Warner