I attended my first "Little 500" when I was 12 years old while visiting my brother's fraternity in Bloomington. The grandiose nature of the entire event was almost too much to absorb all at once. I have since never been back, but was left with a nostalgic reminiscence of the event. Somewhere between the romanticized vision of "Breaking Away" and this documentary entitled "One Day in April" exists a cultural perspective that perfectly defines all that is "Little 500" weekend.
"One Day in April" follows several different teams (both men and women) to provide an all-encompassing perspective. As any Hoosier will attest to, Indiana is probably best known for corn, basketball, and Indy Car racing. "Little 500" is as engrossed into Indiana's cultural schema as its much larger racing counterpart, but it takes place within the confines of a college town enriched with its own racing traditions.
The documentary itself is fairly straight-forward in terms of filmmaking aesthetics; it's a combination of first-person perspective interviews and composite stock footage from year's past. The story far outweighs the doc's style, with a building interest in riders that you get to know personally. The perspective was equally focused on both the men's and women's game, both of which featured unique trials and tribulations.
I'm a big fan of documentaries and "One Day in April" is a solid piece of local filmmaking. I would recommend it to fans of midwesterners everywhere and/or fans of regional traditions and small town aesthetics. "One Day in April" simply oozes with Hoosier pride.