The Vintagent Trailers: We Ride

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

WE RIDE (2022)

Run Time: 14:00
A Film By: Romain Thomassin
Editor: Angelita Mendoza
Key Cast: Jane Love, Agata Dabkowska, Lanakila MacNaughton

FILM MAKERS

Romain is a French director and producer living in San Francisco. He started his filmmaking career in Brooklyn where, for 10 years, he shaped a keen eye for subcultural movements and authentic human stories inspired by artists, musicians and designers for whom he directed film portraits, short docs and music videos. While in Brooklyn, Romain also worked at Vice Media for four years, where he developed a raw, visceral yet entertaining approach of storytelling and learned a motto that he often makes his own: “make serious stupid, make stupid serious”. Amongst multiple Vice projects Romain wrote and creative-directed Encore: a Never-Ending Story, a short doc about the history of the encore tradition at music shows (feat. Dolly Parton, Har Mar Superstar, Grouplove, Mac DeMarco, Michael Stipe and many others). He also co-wrote, along with director Laura Herrero Garvín, the short film Borrando la Frontera following contemporary artist Ana Teresa Fernández “erasing” the U.S.-Mexican border wall. The film premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 2018. In 2019, Romain founded Saturated, a Brooklyn and SF-based production company focusing on nonfiction cinema, social media videos and branded content. Saturated produced videos for Parrot Drones, New York Fashion Week, IDEO, WantedDesign, Jellysmack and French Embassy’s artist residency: Villa Albertine. Romain’s latest short film We Ride, draws a parallel between Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels and a new generation of women motorcyclists. It premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2023.

We Ride will be releases for view online in 2024. Stay Tuned!

SUMMARY

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels is given new meaning when compared, contrasted and appropriated to describe the hell-raising antics of groups of fierce and free-wheeling women who hit the road on their own custom bikes and their own terms.

Motorcycles have long been considered the property of men. Amongst them: the outlaws from the Motorcycle Clubs, once described with surgical precision by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in his first book: Hell’s Angels (1967). But a new generation of women riders is hitting the road, low in the saddle of the Harley choppers. Fueled by a passion for speed and mechanics, they created riding collectives, motorcycle camps, clothing brands, custom shops and garages… embracing the codes of iconic biker culture but also revolutionizing it from within. From the streets of New York to the pine forests of Oregon, they transform the horsepower of their engine into a force for personal empowerment. Juxtaposing Hunter S. Thompson’s writings about male biker gangs in the 60s, with contemporary stories of women motorcyclists, We Ride questions the persistent stereotypes in motorcycle culture, ultimately proving that riding has no genre. “Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on…”

*’We Ride’ was granted the rights to use Hunter S. Thompson’s cult classic Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (Ballantine, 1967) by his estate and his wife Anita, who created the Gonzo Foundation dedicated to promote literature, journalism and political activism through the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson.