The connection between human and machine lies at the heart of riding a motorcycle. The machine brings you places, physically, and emotionally that you alone could never reach alone. The same is true for independent filmmakers. The machines (cameras, recorders, computers) allow us to capture a vision, shape a story, and, if we’re lucky, move someone.
But harmony between humans and machines is what gives each their power.
When the balance is right, we humans reach further and the machine carries us faster. When the balance tips too far toward the machine, as we’re seeing with AI, something essential is lost. It becomes like riding a motorcycle on autopilot. You arrive, but you weren’t truly there.
And yet rejecting the machine isn’t the answer either. If we refuse the tools of our time, we move too slowly for the world we’re trying to reach. We get left behind. What we’re reaching for is balance, harmony, and soul.
Nowhere is that tension between independent filmmaking and motorcycle, between human and machine more clearly captured than in this Raindance Seven. Here are two cultures that quietly share the same DNA. One rides the open road, the other rides the open screen. Neither ask for permission. Yet both embody the notion that freedom is earned.
On the surface, motorcycles and indie films seem worlds apart, one smells of petrol and leather while the other smells of coffee, printer paper, and late nights. But scratch beneath the aesthetics and you’ll find something deeper: a shared philosophy of earned freedom.
That’s why the brand values of Royal Enfield align so naturally with Higher Calling, the powerful documentary by Ben Forman. In fact, the Royal Enfield motorcycle was a mission-critical ingredient to the story. The vessel for the story. Neither the motorbikes or film are about speed but both are about presence, purpose, and the long road.
Check out the Higher calling website
Here’s the Raindance Seven that connects them.
1. Freedom Isn’t Where You’re Going, It’s How You Go
Modern motorcycling culture is often sold as horsepower and acceleration. Royal Enfield rejected that narrative decades ago. Their bikes aren’t designed to win traffic-light drag races but instead are designed to take you somewhere that doesn’t exist on a map… somewhere in your heart.
Indie filmmaking is the same. True independence isn’t about churning out content faster than the algorithm can blink, it’s about choosing why you’re making something and who you’re making it for. Direction and purpose beats velocity.
Likewise, Higher Calling doesn’t rush. It’s a meditation and observation whose meaning emerges over many, many miles… not minutes.
2. The Machine Must Serve the Journey
Royal Enfield bikes are famously “understated.” There is an intentionality and approach that is engineered into serving the riding experience. Enfield’s don’t seek to dominate roads or mountains but offer an invitation to collaborate with them.
Indie filmmakers learn this lesson the hard way. Cameras, lenses, drones, AI tools – none of them are the point. The point is the journey you’re taking the audience on. Stories come from inside and when the machine becomes the star, the story dies.
Higher Calling uses the simplest tools possible, because the human experience is the engine.
3. Independence Is a Daily Practice
Buying a bike doesn’t make you a rider. You become a rider by riding, by learning, by falling, and getting back up. You ride through bad weather, wrong turns, mechanical headaches and all.
Not dissimilarly, indie filmmaking isn’t a label you wear. It’s a set of daily choices: not waiting for permission, not polishing the soul out of your work, not outsourcing responsibility for your voice.
Ben Forman didn’t make Higher Calling to fit a commissioning brief. He made it because the story demanded to be told. And he did not quit until it was. That’s independence.
4. Community Beats the Crowd
When Royal Enfield riders wave at each other, there’s a quiet nod that says: you chose this road too.
Indie filmmakers thrive in the same way: Not through mass audiences (see Harley-Davidson) at first, but through communities. People who understand why you made the thing, even if it’s imperfect.
Higher Calling resonates because it doesn’t shout. It speaks directly to those already listening.
5. Authenticity Leaves the Scars In
Royal Enfield bikes carry history. Weight. Imperfections. They feel lived in the moment you ride them.
Too much indie cinema today is terrified of rough edges. Colour-graded to death. Sound-designed into sterility. The result is films that look expensive and feel empty.
Higher Calling leaves the scars in. The road dirt, the emotional fatigue, the unpolished truth of loss… that’s where authenticity lives.
6. The Long Road Is the Point
Royal Enfield motorcycles are built for endurance. They are designed to carry you further than you thought possible. While many view their bikes as sparring partners, Enfields are like dance partners. You can go further together.
Indie filmmaking is a long road too. Forgive the trope, but the destination is the journey. There is no finish line where someone hands you a crown and says, “You’ve made it.” There is only the next project, the next audience, the next honest attempt.
Higher Calling understands this deeply. The journey doesn’t resolve into a neat third act. It simply continues, because that’s life.
7. Meaning Comes From Motion
A motorcycle parked in a garage is just an object. A film sitting on a hard drive is just data. Purpose only arrives through motion: through riding, through screening, through sharing.
Royal Enfield’s philosophy is simple: ride more. Raindance’s philosophy is the same: make more, but make it mean something.
Ben Forman didn’t wait for the perfect moment to start Higher Calling. He moved… and meaning followed.
Why This Matters for Filmmakers Now
We’re living through an era of “make it and maybe” filmmaking:
- Make the film
- Submit it everywhere.
- Wait and hope somebody with power notices.
That isn’t independence. It’s roulette.
The motorcycle world understands something filmmakers often forget.
- Build something solid.
- Know where you’re headed.
- Expect rough weather.
- Keep riding anyway.
Real freedom, whether it’s on the open road or on a cinema screen, comes from taking responsibility for your own direction. The moment you stop waiting for permission, your work changes. So do you.
That’s the spirit behind Royal Enfield. It’s also the spirit running through Higher Calling. And maybe that’s where independent filmmaking goes next, if enough filmmakers are willing to stop chasing approval and start creating their own road forward.
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If this way of thinking resonates, don’t just nod… move.
Freedom is a choice and it’s built mile by mile.
Dont miss Higher Calling at Raindance
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand. It started as a rebellion: film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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