The Vintagent Trailers Premier: The Passenger

To say anything of 2020 would inevitably sound like an understatement.

In the midst of a worldwide shutdown with no end in sight, my longtime best friend Gentry Dayton and I, along with producer Brian Awitan, sought to make the most of this unprecedented pause, at a time when grief hung heavy in the ether. What began as a pandemic project rapidly expanded into a universal meditation on loss, despair, and transformation.

While many stories rooted in motorcycle culture have predictably tired macho themes, this film is a psycho-spiritual walkabout with a tour through haunted terrain into a cocoon leading to an unexpected rebirth. The Passenger invokes the foreign art house films of the 70s, while simultaneously celebrating the classic Americana of Easy Rider that highlights the raw, fragile texture of mental health with a marked gritty spirituality, where the essence of friendship is defined and nature is personified as both a merciless and healing force.

The film also features an original score by legendary underground artist Jarboe and her creative partner Kris Force, whose previous work on ‘The Path’ garnered a “Best Composition” Award at the Bilbao International Game Awards. Thor Harris, a member of Swans, also contributed his eminent talents to the soundtrack and, curiously, I have a Swans tattoo on my left arm – which makes for a truly synchronistic moment in time.