The connection between human and machine lies on the coronary heart of using a bike. The machine brings you locations, bodily, and emotionally that you simply alone may by no means attain alone. The identical is true for unbiased filmmakers. The machines (cameras, recorders, computer systems) permit us to seize a imaginative and prescient, form a narrative, and, if we’re fortunate, transfer somebody.
However concord between people and machines is what offers every their energy.
When the steadiness is correct, we people attain additional and the machine carries us sooner. When the steadiness suggestions too far towards the machine, as we’re seeing with AI, one thing important is misplaced. It turns into like using a bike on autopilot. You arrive, however you weren’t actually there.
And but rejecting the machine isn’t the reply both. If we refuse the instruments of our time, we transfer too slowly for the world we’re attempting to succeed in. We get left behind. What we’re reaching for is steadiness, concord, and soul.
Nowhere is that rigidity between unbiased filmmaking and motorbike, between human and machine extra clearly captured than on this Raindance Seven. Listed below are two cultures that quietly share the identical DNA. One rides the open street, the opposite rides the open display screen. Neither ask for permission. But each embody the notion that freedom is earned.
On the floor, bikes and indie movies appear worlds aside, one smells of petrol and leather-based whereas the opposite smells of espresso, printer paper, and late nights. However scratch beneath the aesthetics and also you’ll discover one thing deeper: a shared philosophy of earned freedom.
That’s why the model values of Royal Enfield align so naturally with Increased Calling, the highly effective documentary by Ben Forman. In reality, the Royal Enfield motorbike was a mission-critical ingredient to the story. The vessel for the story. Neither the motorbikes or movie are about pace however each are about presence, objective, and the lengthy street.
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Right here’s the Raindance Seven that connects them.
1. Freedom Isn’t The place You’re Going, It’s How You Go
Fashionable motorcycling tradition is usually offered as horsepower and acceleration. Royal Enfield rejected that narrative a long time in the past. Their bikes aren’t designed to win traffic-light drag races however as a substitute are designed to take you someplace that doesn’t exist on a map… someplace in your coronary heart.
Indie filmmaking is similar. True independence isn’t about churning out content material sooner than the algorithm can blink, it’s about selecting why you’re making one thing and who you’re making it for. Route and objective beats velocity.
Likewise, Increased Calling doesn’t rush. It’s a meditation and remark whose that means emerges over many, many miles… not minutes.
2. The Machine Should Serve the Journey
Royal Enfield bikes are famously “understated.” There’s an intentionality and method that’s engineered into serving the using expertise. Enfield’s don’t search to dominate roads or mountains however supply an invite to collaborate with them.
Indie filmmakers be taught this lesson the exhausting method. Cameras, lenses, drones, AI instruments – none of them are the purpose. The purpose is the journey you’re taking the viewers on. Tales come from inside and when the machine turns into the star, the story dies.
Increased Calling makes use of the best instruments potential, as a result of the human expertise is the engine.
3. Independence Is a Day by day Observe
Shopping for a motorcycle doesn’t make you a rider. You turn into a rider by using, by studying, by falling, and getting again up. You journey via dangerous climate, fallacious turns, mechanical complications and all.
Not dissimilarly, indie filmmaking isn’t a label you put on. It’s a set of every day selections: not ready for permission, not sharpening the soul out of your work, not outsourcing duty to your voice.
Ben Forman didn’t make Increased Calling to suit a commissioning transient. He made it as a result of the story demanded to be instructed. And he didn’t give up till it was. That’s independence.
4. Neighborhood Beats the Crowd
When Royal Enfield riders wave at one another, there’s a quiet nod that claims: you selected this street too.
Indie filmmakers thrive in the identical method: Not via mass audiences (see Harley-Davidson) at first, however via communities. Individuals who perceive why you made the factor, even when it’s imperfect.
Increased Calling resonates as a result of it doesn’t shout. It speaks on to these already listening.
5. Authenticity Leaves the Scars In
Royal Enfield bikes carry historical past. Weight. Imperfections. They really feel lived in the second you journey them.
An excessive amount of indie cinema right now is afraid of tough edges. Color-graded to dying. Sound-designed into sterility. The result’s movies that look costly and really feel empty.
Increased Calling leaves the scars in. The street filth, the emotional fatigue, the unpolished fact of loss… that’s the place authenticity lives.
6. The Lengthy Highway Is the Level
Royal Enfield bikes are constructed for endurance. They’re designed to hold you additional than you thought potential. Whereas many view their bikes as sparring companions, Enfields are like dance companions. You possibly can go additional collectively.
Indie filmmaking is a protracted street too. Forgive the trope, however the vacation spot is the journey. There isn’t a end line the place somebody palms you a crown and says, “You’ve made it.” There’s solely the following mission, the following viewers, the following trustworthy try.
Increased Calling understands this deeply. The journey doesn’t resolve right into a neat third act. It merely continues, as a result of that’s life.
7. That means Comes From Movement
A bike parked in a storage is simply an object. A movie sitting on a tough drive is simply knowledge. Function solely arrives via movement: via using, via screening, via sharing.
Royal Enfield’s philosophy is easy: journey extra. Raindance’s philosophy is similar: make extra, however make it imply one thing.
Ben Forman didn’t look forward to the right second to begin Increased Calling. He moved… and that means adopted.
Why This Issues for Filmmakers Now
We’re residing via an period of “make it and perhaps” filmmaking:
- Make the movie
- Submit it in every single place.
- Wait and hope any individual with energy notices.
That isn’t independence. It’s roulette.
The motorbike world understands one thing filmmakers usually overlook.
- Construct one thing strong.
- Know the place you’re headed.
- Anticipate tough climate.
- Hold using anyway.
Actual freedom, whether or not it’s on the open street or on a cinema display screen, comes from taking duty to your personal path. The second you cease ready for permission, your work adjustments. So do you.
That’s the spirit behind Royal Enfield. It’s additionally the spirit operating via Increased Calling. And perhaps that’s the place unbiased filmmaking goes subsequent, if sufficient filmmakers are prepared to cease chasing approval and begin creating their very own street ahead.
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If this mind-set resonates, don’t simply nod… transfer.
Freedom is a selection and it’s constructed mile by mile.
Dont miss Increased Calling at Raindance

Picture Credit score: Bertie Watson
I based Raindance Movie Pageant in 1993 as a result of the British movie trade was closed, well mannered, and congratulating itself whereas shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Unbiased Movie Awards in 1998 as a result of British indie movie deserved greater than a shrug, a pat on the top, and a Tuesday evening screening.
Raindance didn’t begin as a model. It began as a rise up: movie coaching with out gatekeepers, a pageant with out permission, and a group constructed by filmmakers who weren’t ready to be invited in.
Later, we took it international: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, as a result of unbiased movie doesn’t belong to 1 metropolis, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ quick movies and 7 options, together with Lethal Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which gained the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not as a result of somebody “found” us, however as a result of the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books utilized by filmmakers worldwide as a result of too many programs taught compliance as a substitute of survival.
In 2009, I used to be awarded a PhD for providers to movie schooling, ironic, given that the majority of my profession has been about tearing down the foundations that schooling insisted you observe.
I don’t imagine in ready for permission.I imagine in making work, constructing techniques, and forcing the trade to catch up.
Specialties: Unbiased Movie (the actual form) · Producing · Writing · Movie Training · Festivals · Breaking Damaged Programs
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