[American Motorcyclist Association] - Explosion of independent movies captures motorc

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Reviews by Rashmi Tambe



The world of big budget movies has traditionally had very little to offer motorcycle enthusiasts. Since the inception of cinema, there have been little more than a handful of movies that told our stories or represented motorcyclists accurately. This is why it is so exciting to see that access to affordable cameras, editing software and online distribution has finally driven motorcycling related film making out of the confines of Hollywood studios and into the hands of people who ride and build bikes and understand motorcycling best. We have seen an explosion of independent movies that capture all that motorcycling has to offer.

The Motorcycle Film Festival in New York was started three years ago by riders and film enthusiasts who wanted to showcase these movies and bring the community together for three days of high quality movies, interviews with film makers, and an opportunity to meet other riders in the city. This year’s selection of 35 films featured everything from slick productions with significant sponsor backing to amateur garage flicks. It was especially thrilling to see movies made by and featuring women and people of color, hitherto almost non-existent in popular motorcycling culture.

Here are reviews of my favorite films from the festival.

THE COAST TO COAST TRIAL
This is a five minute gem of a film about two men riding across England on completely inappropriate vehicles - Montesa Cota 315 trials bikes with 3-liter gas tanks, a top speed of 30 mph, and of course, no seats. They ride from Newcastle upon Tyne to the Irish Sea through rough single track trails, logging roads and frozen snowscapes with minimal gear - handlebar mounted packs, backpacks, and a homemade selfie stick. They take in their stride the various mishaps they encounter, ranging from overheated engines and flat tires to the inevitable running out of fuel.

The fun, upbeat score and the self-deprecating humor makes it impossible to watch this movie without a big smile on your face. By the time it's done, you want to grab your bike and go have a micro-adventure of your own. Filmmaker Greg Villalobos truly knows how to say more with less as he hits the magic formula to portray the joy of riding and having fun with your buddies. The movie took home the prize for the Best Short Documentary, and deservedly so.

The Coast to Coast Trial won the Best Short Documentary award.

DIRTBAG II: THE RETURN OF THE RATTLERThe premise of The Return of the Rattler is simple. Four men decide to participate in the Dirtbag Challenge held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area. The challenge involves building a chopper in one month for less than $1000. It needs to be a rideable machine that can run at least 100 miles without breaking down. They have a Yamaha XS650 to work with – the Rattler from the title – but they are complete novices to building choppers, with no prior experience with welding or fabrication. What could go wrong?

The movie is a riot of laughter as you watch the bike evolve from design to final assembly. Our protagonists cuss and laugh their way through all the unanticipated problems they run into. You laugh with them as they mess up, but you also see them learning from their mistakes, thinking through problems and asking for help when they are stuck. Somewhere down the line, you realize that they have passed on to you the secret to creating anything new.

Film maker Paolo Asuncion likens the process of building the bike to his own journey of questioning the belief system he grew up with.

"I was put together a certain way but the stock parts didn't work for me anymore." he says.

As with the Rattler, he had to figure out which parts of that system to keep, which ones needed to be swapped out with something different, and which ones needed to be created from scratch. Moments of reflection like these are interspersed throughout the movie, breaking up the laugh-a-minute ride and keeping it grounded.

You also get to see builds from other participants in the challenge - a Honda CM400 with modified beer bottles for headlamps, a 750 Monster with a girder front end - and understand how much the end vision can vary between builders. The one thing they all have in common though is that they want their bike to be like nothing else out on the road. They talk about how satisfying it felt to build something real and tangible, and to ride something that they built with their own hands. Their firm belief is that "Anybody can do this." By the end of the movie you start to believe them.

This is a movie with soul. You laugh, you learn, you grow, and you come away thinking it's time to go get a project bike and start wrenching. All you need is a vision, a garage, and a buddy or two by your side.

Dirtbag II: The Return of the Rattler won the People’s Choice award.

FIFTY YEARS OF KICKS
"Don't assume that because people are older than you, they're going to be slower than you." This line from 50 Years of Kicks summarizes the message of this twenty minute documentary. The movie follows 60+ year old dirt riders Paul Rodden and Larry Murray from Oklahoma and Ontario respectively. Each of them have almost 50 years of riding experience and many enduro championship wins, which comes across when you see them tearing through ruts, sand, mud, water crossings and hill climbs on their KTMs. They fall, drop their bikes, pick them back up and keep going.

They reflect back to the old days when Husqvarna manuals dedicated half their space to physical conditioning in the rider, paving the way for good workout habits that stayed with them for a lifetime. Habits that served them well in one of the most physical demanding sports there is, especially as your body ages and you lose core strength and balance. During one sober recollection, they talk about a close friend who died of a heart attack while riding on the trails with them. And of that being the best possible way to go - with a smile on your face minutes ago while doing what you loved best.

Motorcycling media tends to focus on young riders as their core target demographic. This leaves us bereft of older role models. It is harder for us to envision riding when we hit a certain age because we see nobody else doing it and doing it well. That's what makes this movie especially important. It drives home the fact that we don't have to give up our passion as we age. Here's hoping that 50 Years leads to more positive representations of old folks riding their bikes and showing the youngsters how it's done.

Fifty Years of Kicks

DISCOVERY
Discovery is part of a series of short films called Stories of Bike that explores the relationship between motorcycles and the people who ride them. This particular film showcases rider Kristen Reed from New York City, following her journey from first riding with an uncle in her home town in Oklahoma at the age of eight and resolving to someday get her own bike, to her purchase of a Triumph Bonneville in New York City many years later after tiring of her Manhattan to Williamsburg commute via public transportation. The movie is as much an homage to the city as it is to Kristen with its lingering shots that capture the essence of its neighborhoods and streets and the serenity of riding through them.

Reed is a natural in front of the camera. There is no posturing or pretense here. She talks with an easy confidence and quiet excitement about her journey into motorcycling, the mods she made on her bike, and the community she found with The Missfires, a local all-woman motorcycling group. Most riders will watch her and think back to their own early years of riding and recall that first glow of happiness when they began their own love affair with their two wheeled machines. That, after all, is great storytelling, isn't it?

The only thing that prevents this movie from being perfect is that Reed is never shown wearing any substantial riding gear. For the ATGATT among us, it can be uncomfortable to see her riding on busy streets in just a sparkly three quarter helmet and no other protective gear. For a movie that could inspire new riders to get into motorcycling, this could have been handled better.




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