Was going through an old hard drive the other day and came across my copies of Roam and Seasons by The Collective, and I remembered that I absolutely loved them.

I’m going to rewatch them this weekend, but I’m wondering if movies like them are still a thing, and if they are, what should I be looking out for?

And I’m equal opportunities – is there a roadie equivalent, or generally just any good films/documentaries about people riding bikes that I should be checking out?

From a British perspective, Deathgrip, and Peaty’s Gamble film, and Slice of British Pie. 👌

Movies like Roam etc dont really happen anymore.

Since everyone walks about looking at their smartphone film makers cannot create a big impact on a tiny screen.

Also everyone has a 30 second attentions span, so no one will watch a movie for 30 minutes.

Advertisers know this, so moving pictures are all created as tiny 10 second edits to cater for the smartphone viewer digesting YouTube etc.

Social media / forums etc are now channeled through a smartphone, which while handy, is a really poor viewing device for impact and for spending time engaged.

Unreal is quite good.

Life Behind Bars is quite a good series and all available on Youtube, it’s more of a lifestyle piece and not just a string of 30-second ‘sick’ edits thrown together.

There’s some good free stuff on Redbull TV as well.

Patagonia and Specialized both make nice “lifestyle” type movies although not that long.

Since everyone walks about looking at their smartphone film makers cannot create a big impact on a tiny screen.

Also everyone has a 30 second attentions span, so no one will watch a movie for 30 minutes.

Advertisers know this, so moving pictures are all created as tiny 10 second edits to cater for the smartphone viewer digesting YouTube etc.

But people will spend 30 mins watching 100 film clips on youtube / instagram!

As with many many things in life, this is not ‘giving the consumer what they want’, it’s telling the consumer what they need and giving them easy access to that.

Humans are just ****ing lazy and corporations prey on this.

World. Hell. Handbasket.

Grumble.

Also everyone has a 30 second attentions span, so no one will watch a movie for 30 minutes

and yet the huge popularity of long-form TV drama and continuing appeal of movies suggests that actually people do have the attention spans to absorb more than a few seconds of content at a time. As they say : ‘go figure’

edit :  UnReal is a good, fun watch and I’ll second RedBull TV has some great stuff in many sports.

Also everyone has a 30 second attentions span, so no one will watch a movie for 30 minutes.

Oh, that’s such rubbish.

You lost me there, my mind had wondered off for a moment.

Check out Blood Road on Red Bull TV, not quite like Roam or Seasons but an interesting watch

Blood road is amazing. Def watch that

‘The Collective’ became Anthill Films and are still making great, feature length MTB films, although it might be 2/3 years since the last one.

I seem to recall they have been struggling to make it pay, when so much stuff is free to view now.

As for stuff like their stuff, Deathgrip is very good, great visuals without some of the slightly blithering voice-over stuff Collective / Anhill do “travelling is about destination, but in mountain biking isn’t about the destination” or so other meaningless nonsense.

As far as I can tell the British Pie thing is nothing like it, it just seems to be Lads, Lads, Lads, lots of mud and crashing to everyone else giggling. It’s filmed hand-held at the trail side by someone who bought a fisheye lens once and insists on using it at every opportunity. It’s like Roam like Street Hawk is like Easy Rider, because Motorbikes. That’s not to say it’s not good, it’s just not like Roam et al.

Not exactly what you are looking for, but The Moment is well worth a watch:

https://www.thisisthemomentmovie.com/

North of Nightfall is probably the closest thing I have watched recently.  It’s very good!

The modern equivalent of Roam…………well gee thanks for making me feel old. I still think of Roam as being a modern film. (-:

That said I haven’t watched it in years so may go find my copy, put on my slippers and settle down to watch with my Horlicks.

Much to my surprise I searched on the forum for “Deathgrip” and actually got a result.

Anywho, minor PSA that Deathgrip is available on Netflix.

Really nicely shot, lots of interesting locations, worth 53 minutes of anyone who liked “Roam” and “Seasons” time

I miss the sweary northerners more than any of those seasons type nonsense.