Ron: 0:02

It was a movie that I saw when I was just a kid that opened my eyes to a magical world of motorcycling. That movie was called On Any Sunday. It was Bruce Brown's 1971 masterpiece about the joy of life on a motorcycle. And to this day, I appreciate those who can capture the spirit of writing on film, combining narration with sounds, with interviews, and with music. And that's why when I ran across an Instagram account called Real Writers, that's R-E-E-L, as in film, I knew this was going to be someone I really wanted to meet. And I did. And you're about to hear from him that Simon Josey in Germany, he turned out to be that guy. And I still enjoyed talking with him. Among many things we talked about in our conversation, Simon shares with us about the Adventure Motorcycle Film Festival that they are about to launch in the UK's Lake District. And also, if you've ever wondered what it's like to cross three international borders before lunch, or why some motorcycle films just feel right, this is the episode for you. You don't want to miss this. So, my friends, relax. Take a deep breath, and enjoy this relaxing conversation with my new friend in Germany, Simon Joseph. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned. Recorded in beautiful lovely color motto. Welcome to Peace LoveMoto, the podcast for motorcyclists seeking that peaceful, easy feeling as we cruise through this life together. Are you ready? Let's go. Here on the Peace Love Moto podcast, it's just a pleasure to interview people that I have gotten to know very remotely in some cases, and that is the case today. So Simon Josey is joining me today from Germany, and he is the uh the man in charge of running real writers, and that is R-E-E-L, Writers, as in film. So we found each other on Instagram, and it is a pleasure to have you today, Simon. Thank you so much for joining me.

Simon: 2:32

Well, um, hi Ron, and thanks so much for inviting me on your podcast.

Ron: 2:38

Well, let's just start from the beginning. And this is how I often ask those I'm being interviewed about where did it all start for you? This whole motorcycling connection, and then as it weaves into film, I'm very interested in that.

Speaker: 2:53

Okay, so motorcycling for me started when I was about 19. Um I uh come from New Zealand originally, and I I had moved away from home. I was working at Radio New Zealand, which is the uh publicly funded broadcaster in New Zealand, or it was at that time. And I just had itchy feet and I couldn't afford to have a car, so I went with the the next option, which was to get a motorcycle. And I did my license, I did a bit of advanced training so that I could speed up my licensing. You know, there was a sort of a two-tier licensing system, and I rode a motorcycle in New Zealand for about five years, and that was between like the ages of 19 and 24. And I didn't have an accident, I didn't kill myself, and that was for a young male of that age, kind of statistically miraculous.

Ron: 4:00

I was I was thinking the same thing. That is an adventurous age, risk-taking age, and then to jump into motorcycling at that age, yeah, that's a risk.

Simon: 4:10

Yeah, so it probably says a little bit about my cautious nature as well. Um I soon figured out within the first few days of riding a motorcycle that I was never going to be a super fast motorcyclist, but I could still enjoy at my level and at my speed. And so um yeah, I got through that five years. By the end of that five years, I was at that stage, I was at university and even poorer, and I basically had to sell the motorcycle. So I sold the motorcycle and I got a uh a mountain bike instead, which was much more affordable. And really, I didn't ride a motorcycle until about 2000. Uh I'm guessing here, it must have been around about 2017 when we were living in Singapore. That's when I started motorcycling again. Okay. And

Speaker: 5:06

the Singaporean government would not fully recognize my motorcycle license from New Zealand. And so they said, Oh, you've got to ride this little bike, it has to be no more than 200cc. I sort of swallowed my pride and said, Okay, well, if that's what it's gonna be, I'll do that. And then I did that for a number of months, and then I was allowed to go through a licensing system to go up to the next level of of motorcycle, which was up to 400cc. And I thought, oh, that'll be easy. You know, I'll I've ridden motorcycle for years, I'll so easily be able to do the test that's required. So I went along to the training because you had to do at least one mandatory training session. And and they looked at me riding, they said, uh, yeah, no, you come back next week, keep training. And I was kind of devastated by this. I thought, what did I do wrong? And the the way I describe describe this sort of training and this style of of riding in Singapore that you need to follow to be able to pass the test. I I um equate it with something like horse dressage, because you you had to ride in a very specific way. You you had to keep your hands off your clutch and brake lever unless you were using them, which was very alien to me.

Ron: 6:33

Yeah, they're getting a little technical there, aren't they?

Simon: 6:36

Well, absolutely. You when you were riding along, you had to keep your heel or your feet above the pedals, so the gear lever on the left-hand side and the brake on the right. And when you think about that, that's extremely uncomfortable and incredibly um impractical because no one keeps their their you know feet up like that. It's it's it's crazy, but you had to do it to pass this test. Um, whenever you stopped, you had to be in first gear. So whenever you came to a stop, you had to already be in first gear by the time you put your foot down. And of course, it meant that your right foot always stayed on the back brake, never, never left there, and your left foot, after you changed down to first gear, as you're rolling to a stop, you put your left foot down only. And so there were all these sequences of things that they had to do and all these rules that you had to follow, plus, you know, all the weaving in between cones, riding along a plank. You had to ride, you know, for you had to do the 10 meters, but you couldn't do it any faster than 30 seconds or whatever. So you had to go really slowly. So there are all sorts of tests that you had to do. It was really, really hard. And it took me about two months of training to get up to the level that was required. And I went through um, you know, what what are they it's the is it um Kubler Ross's seven stages of grief or something where you know you talk about rejection and you know, all these different levels, and then finally it's sort of acceptance at the end, right? And and I went through that all that range of emotions, like I hate you guys, you don't know what you're talking about, this is killing me. And I realized after a while that I just had to get in, you know, on on the page with them, follow their rules, follow their instructions, and um and eventually I was able to pass it. Um, and and I tell you, because because it's not the kind of thing like I would have been around about my early 50s when I did that. By that stage of life, you've kind of got over all those really big challenges like learning to drive, passing your driver's test. Um, I did a lot of diving when I was living in Asia. So I went through all my diving certification, you know, all these challenges associated. By the time you come to your early 50s, you know, it's like you're done with all that stuff. And so this was a really challenging thing for me to do, a physically challenging, mentally challenging thing for me to do. And I felt so satisfied when I passed the test. I was just like, it was like the biggest event of that year for me. It was it was amazing.

Speaker: 9:15

So I so I got back into motorcycling uh in Singapore, and then um my wife, Tina, she got a job here in Germany, and one of the first things that occurred to me is like, oh, well, I'll have to get a motorcycle in Germany. And okay, I we we came here in the middle of COVID in 2020, and I had to go through a mandatory language training course. So it was sort of early summer, May, I think it was about May or June when I finally picked up a motorcycle in Germany. And um, yeah, I've sort of haven't looked back. I've been riding all around Germany and even across the UK. I haven't gone that far actually. Um, I I need to do a lot more exploring, but um and what do you ride? I okay, so as I like to say to my wife, it's BMW's smallest touring motorcycle, and of course, their smallest touring motorcycle is uh BMW R1250 RT from 2021. The RT, so there's nothing small about it.

Ron: 10:21

Well, I'm I'm right there. Engine is uh right there with you in regard to engines. So I I ride a uh BMW uh R1250 GS adventure uh uh 2023, which uh I'm a huge fan of German engineering. My goodness. I love this bike. I'm riding I I am so glad that I bought the uh when I purchased the bike that I bought the platinum service agreement, which costs a fortune, but uh in two years I'm at 41,000 miles, something like that. So it's been well worth it. Uh my bike in the garage too is also European, uh Triumph Bonneville, the T1 Bonneville, which I also love. So I'm a huge European motorcycle fan myself.

Speaker: 11:11

Yeah, I mean, I I love my bike. It is a spaceship. I mean, my my biking buddies who are based mainly based in the UK, a few over this way, but but the people who I know and uh associate with bikes, they they you know they laugh at me, they say uh because it's white. They referred to it as a white uh elephant or a white monstrosity, but that's mainly because they're riding ADV bikes. When I when I picked it up, when I bought it, the BMW guy even said to me, Oh, why are you getting an RT? Why don't you get a GS? And I'd never thought about getting a GS, um, which okay, maybe I should have got a GS, but I, you know, I'm very happy with my bike. But I said to him, Oh, look, if I got a GS, my wife wouldn't, she would just laugh at me because she'd be constantly saying, When are you going to take it off-road? When are you gonna take it off-road? And you know, and it's just like that's a whole skill set that I don't have, and it takes a lot of time to invest in. Plus, also in Germany, there's no off-road riding, actually. You have to go to France, to Belgium, to um to the Netherlands, even. There's there's basically nowhere you can ride a bike legally off-road, unless it's a private, private area. So, you know, you've probably heard of the TET, the TET, the Trans-European Trail. Yeah, there's a little bit of TET at the very north of Germany, but I think it's really just a transition from the Netherlands to Poland or something. So, so yeah, there's just no, there's a lot of ADV riding, but they're all on the road. And um, I I don't know, I was just fixated with a touring bike. I I now see that for the kind of riding I like to do, which is actually getting onto the back roads, the small roads. Like I'm very because I'm in the western part of Germany, I'm very close to Belgium, Luxembourg. Um, and everyone goes, Oh, well, that's not exciting. But actually, Luxembourg looks lovely. The southeast corner of Belgium is is just gorgeous. Um, and then France is not that far away. I mean, I can get to France in a couple of hours as well.

Ron: 13:24

Oh my god, so that's mind-boggling to me here in the middle of the United States. I mean, right in the middle, and um, to go from one country to another is amazing. It takes all day, for example, to get across across Colorado, pretty much. It's a pretty much full day. But well, a quick note though, uh, in regard to your RT, one of my very, very good friends that lives nearby who I ride with, he has an RT and he we switched bikes one day to ride through the mountains, and I loved it. It reminded me very much of my Honda Goldwing, which I've had two of them. I had the 1800, and then the other one prior to that was a much older um 1200. But as far as a smooth engine and smooth shifting, oh, I the RT was amazing.

Speaker: 14:15

Yeah, I mean, like I say, it's it's a spaceship. Um, I I love it. I love all the baggage, you know. I can I can just throw so much stuff on it and I don't feel it, you know. Or when my son was here, he's now uh at university in New Zealand, but when he was here and he's you know he's enormous, he's much bigger than me, he'd sit on the back and it wouldn't affect the performance at all. Um yeah, it's it's it is a lovely bike. Um and it once it's moving, it doesn't feel as heavy as it is.

Ron: 14:46

It's um very low center of gravity, right?

Speaker: 14:49

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I I will probably keep it forever. Um, and I will not hear anyone say a bad word about it. But yeah, I I do love it. But I can see that I can see the appeal of smaller, lighter ADV bikes, you know. Actually, as I get older, you know, I could that that makes a lot of sense, actually.

Ron: 15:12

Well, it's the same for me. The the the 1250 GS, now of course they have the 1300, but it is a beast, and I have the fairly aggressive tire, 50-50 tires on it. Uh, and I and I do get off into the dirt, but um picking it up is something I'm not looking forward to. Yeah, I have not yet, not yet laid it over, but uh it is a heavy beast.

Speaker: 15:36

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Ron: 15:39

I wanted to ask you to tell me about real writers, R-E-E-L, and what you're doing with real writers. I found you on Instagram, but you also have a YouTube space there. And what was the origin of that? And what are you doing with it?

Speaker: 15:55

Okay, so I mentioned that at the you know, the my the first job I had out of school was working in radio, right? And uh behind, you know, basically, okay, we were called studio operators, but it was kind of like a sound engineering job, right? Pushing all the buttons, making sure everything works. And I loved that, but I did it for two years and only two years because there was no money at it. I was just it was depressingly poorly paid. And so I then went off to university, and then I had a whole career in um uh telecommunications infrastructure. However, despite you know, moving away from radio, I never lost my love for audio and particularly the spoken word, recording the spoken word. And then this whole podcasting thing started, you know, when the when the first iPods came out, if you can remember that, that's basically when podcasting started. And I started listening to podcasting, I can't remember when it was exactly, but but I was like I've been a massive fan of podcasting for 20 years. It's pretty maybe not exactly when it started, but several years after it started when I became aware of it. And I helped my son create a podcast. My wife and I, we did some sort of podcasting, but just for our close friends, you know, it wasn't publicly published years ago when we were living in the Philippines. And when I got to when I got to Germany and I had this time on my hands, I a couple of things happened. First of all, I started spending a lot of time looking at YouTube videos of motorcycles because I was looking around trying to decide what kind of motorcycle I wanted to buy. Plus, I didn't want to have one, and so I was kind of needed to experience in some way what it was like to ride a motorcycle through watching you know YouTube. And of course, this was during COVID, and so there everyone was making videos on on motorcycles um and releasing them during the COVID period. Um, itchy boots. I started watching itchy boots then.

Ron: 18:16

Oh, yes. My wife and I are huge fans of itchy boots.

Speaker: 18:19

Yep, yep. And at the same time, I I was finding it difficult to have a lot of human contact with people. I was pretty much stuck at home. Um my wife is going to work, um and not particularly well integrated into the local community. Uh my neighbors are great, uh you know, and and very friendly, and they speak good English and they tolerate my bad German. But I realized that my mental health was taking a bit of a hit, and so I thought, how can I get involved with something that allowed me to do it from home but still have some people contact? And so there was a podcast made by a couple of British guys living in Bavaria, and I started I found this podcast and I really enjoyed it because it was a weekly podcast, and they were talking about things from a immigrants, an immigrant's perspective living in Germany, which of course, you know, I was six months into living in Germany at that stage, and so I was very interested in trying to learn everything about Germany because it's you know, like any any place that you move to. And so I started listening to them and I loved this podcast. And these two guys were just natural sort of broadcasting guys, just brilliant podcasters, and so I reached out to them and I said, Hey, love the podcast, but do you want do you need a producer? Do you need someone? Do you need some help making the podcast? And I'd done this several times over the years, and I'd always sort of been knocked back. People had said, Oh, uh, thanks, but no thanks. These guys came back and said, Yes, please, straight away. Which which is kind of odd when you think about it, because they they didn't know me from you know Joe blogs down the road, and this was their baby, this was their creation, and and suddenly they you know they wanted to bring me into their creation. Anyway, so we got on a video call and started talking, and next minute I'm producing their podcast and did that for a number of years. We we only just finished it last year by mutual agreement. Three of us said, Oh, look, we've had an amazing run. We haven't missed a show for I don't know how many weeks, how many of a years it was in total. Um, but you know, we we want to go and do other things. But what this allowed me to do is to get back into podcasting, right? Um, not on the mic, just doing the editing, doing the production, the post-production. That was what I was doing. Actually, I eventually I did get on the mic on that podcast, even though I resisted it for a long time. I I didn't want to, but but eventually they they sort of dragged me onto the mic as well. But what this allowed me to do, getting involved with their podcast, was sort of to refresh all my skills and that I'd learnt 20 years ago, but which needed sort of updating with new technology, etc. etc. And at that time I thought I'd really like to make my own podcast. I quite I was listening to a lot of motorcycle podcasts, um, one in particular, this motorcycle life. I don't know if you've ever heard of this motorcycle life. Yeah. And and so actually I I reached out to Bruce, who is the host of this motorcycle live and said, Hey, do you need a producer? And he said, Look, you've sort of found me at a funny time. I'm kind of thinking about putting it on hiatus. And so when I when I contacted him, he was pretty much to at the end of his podcast because it's it's now finished. Um but he was, you know, we we've had quite a few emails over the years. He's been uh wonderful, he's connected me to the the motorcycle um film festival in Toronto, the the director there, and he he's just yeah, he he was a good contact to make. But I was looking around thinking, well, uh the problem with me starting up a motorcycle podcast is first of all, I don't want to be on the microphone. That was my first thing. Second thing is I'm not really I'm not really like I I couldn't I couldn't create a podcast about what we would call wrenching or what you would call wrenching and we would call spannering. You know, I like motorcycles, but I'm not the kind of person who can talk about motorcycles for for hours on end. I just don't have the technical knowledge. Um, and I'm okay, it's a bit of a secret. Don't tell anyone, Ron, but I'm I'm not that interested. I've discovered, I've gone to a couple of motorcycle shows, and I realize that motorcycling for me is a feeling. It's not, it's not, you know, I want to go motorcycling. I don't want to sit in my garage working on my motorcycle. I do I keep my motorcycle very clean, so I spend time with it that way. But I, you know, I'm not the kind of person who is excited about just being next to a motorcycle, sort of tightening things, loosening things. That's not me at all. I want to go riding, right? That's yeah, I that's what motorcycling is to me.

Speaker 1: 23:41

I'm with you.

Speaker: 23:42

Um so so I couldn't, so I thought, okay, I if I'm gonna create a podcast with a motorcycle angle, it's gonna have to be very specific. Now, as I said earlier, I was spending a lot of time watching YouTube, and I started to watch all sorts of different videos, motorcycling videos on YouTube, and I started to realize that some for me were really boring and others were really interesting. And I thought, why, you know, I tried to analyze this and try and figure it out, and I then I came up with the idea, okay, why don't I make a an audio podcast about filmmaking and motorcycling? Literally the the the you know the Venn diagram of where those two intersect. Uh-huh. Um, of course, everyone now would be thinking, well, you idiots, you're never going to be a massive big podcast because it's such a niche topic, which is fine, you know. But because it was a niche, it was a space that I was able to occupy, right? Because that was the thing. I I wasn't aware of anyone else doing it. I knew there were podcasts that would talk about films, but that wasn't the main reason for those podcasts to exist. They were talking about other aspects of motorcycling, predominantly occasionally they talk about films. And so I thought, okay, I'm gonna make this podcast, but I need to find a host because I don't want to be the host, because no one wants to listen to me. And I thought about this for six months, and then I realized after six months of not finding a host, no one is gonna want to do this free of change, you know, without being paid. So no one's gonna be as enthusiastic at me as me for this topic, for this kind of podcast. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to host it myself. And and I thought, well, maybe I can get around that by just excluding my voice from the podcast. Like I'd have a set of questions, I'd ask my guest these questions, I'd get their answers, and I'd build the podcast around that. But in the end, I gave up on that and I accepted, okay, I'm gonna have to put some of my voice on the podcast. And I started and I did the first five, and then I realized that I was just asking the same questions every time. I thought, okay, this is gonna be a problem. I I'm yeah, it took me about five and I realized, unfortunately, Simon, you're gonna have to put a put a bit of yourself into the podcast, which which is not my happy space at all, not my comfort zone, but a realization that if this is gonna continue, I'm gonna have to accept that I have to put a bit of my personality into the podcast, what little personality I might have. So I once I accepted that it sort of opened up a lot of possibilities about the kind of interviews I I was gonna have. I didn't have to follow such a strict structure. I could hone also my skills as an interviewer, you know, listening to my guest, not just reading a set of you know questions and going, uh-huh, uh-huh, next question, you know, but actually trying to have a bit of a conversation. Now it's a massive question. Have I succeeded at all? Whatever. I'm what I'm trying to convey here is that I'm aware that I needed to to sort of make that development. And so the first episode was published in December 2023. And I just published episode 45 a few weeks ago, um, from at the time we're recording this. And last year I did a pretty good job of getting an episode out every two weeks, but towards the end of the year, the end of the summer, I just ran out of ran out of time and energy. I had I was winding up this other podcast I talked about, and and so I just I thought, okay, I'm not gonna stress, I'll just put out an episode when when I'm able to. And that's always been part of what I wanted to do. Right from the beginning, I didn't want to make it a commercial podcast because I didn't want to exploit my guests. That may be oversensitive in some ways, but I you know, if I'm going after some quite big YouTubers or film directors, I I don't want them to think that oh you just you're just getting me on your podcast to draw attention to you so that you can, you know, make some money out of the situation.

Ron: 28:33

Yeah, I've seen that.

Speaker: 28:35

So so right from the beginning, I said it's completely commercial free, completely sponsorship free, and I found a way to rather sneakily avoid all costs associated with hosting as well. Now that that fell on its face eventually one day when I tried to upload to the site, and they said, Oh, um, you need to get more subscribers if you want to upload this. And I thought, okay. So so I have I have now I'm now with uh Buzz Sprouts. I paid for hosting and at the same time Buzz Sprout as well.

Ron: 29:10

Yeah, I've been very happy with it, yeah.

Speaker: 29:14

Exactly. Yeah, I I they're very good for independent podcasters, um audio focused independent podcasters. And and now because that costs me a little bit of money, I do allow people to buy me a coffee um and make donations, but it's really just to help cover operational costs. I make no money from this at all. Um, and I don't try and make money from this. Ironically, I do work part-time as a podcast producer and I do get paid for producing podcasts, but real writers, the the concept, the podcast is it's not about making money, it's it's a passion project. Um and it's as I say, commercial free, it's it's sponsor-free. And I try to be very open about that with my guests so that they know what they're getting into.

Ron: 30:03

Same here, same here. I I have not done a good job of tracking my cost, but I have no sponsors. I haven't sought any. I may at some point because I am spending money. But um, I don't know. Every once in a while, someone will reach out to me who's maybe seen one of my own personal stickers on my motorcycle and say, hey, sure like a sticker. So in fact, I'm gonna put one in another one in the mail when we're done here. I need to remember to do that. I I would like to circle back to one thing though, the the impact of film. The reason this is personal for me is because it was the 1973 film On Any Sunday by Bruce Brown that when I saw when I was 11 years old. And it was it was that film, literally that film, which turned me on to I've got to have one of those, even as an 11-year-old. And somehow I convinced my mother and dad to get me one of those lawnmower engine minibikes, and I have never been the same. It's been 52 years now.

Speaker: 31:08

Yeah. So that that film was quoted to me so often. Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be because I'm very honest and open person, I'm gonna say I haven't watched it. I haven't watched it yet. It's actually in my because you can watch it on YouTube, believe it or not. Yeah, um uh it's in my list of things to watch. Um, so you know, I don't even know if I deserve to run a podcast about motorcycles and filmmaking because I haven't seen that film. But it's just yeah, it's quite difficult. I will get there. I will get there.

Ron: 31:42

Yeah, yeah. But but just just this overall joy. Uh and then the follow-up uh by uh Dana Brown, his son, did a follow-up, and it's it's quite good as well. One other film I absolutely love as well is uh uh Why We Ride, I believe it's what it's called. Why We Ride.

Speaker: 32:01

Oh, yeah. Um, I have I seen that. I I know the film you mean. Um, I think I have seen it, or I've have I seen it. I certainly I know the film you mean. The problem is I see so many motorcycle films and videos, I start to lose track. Um, yeah, yeah. But no, I've I I know the film you mean.

Ron: 32:23

Speaking of films, I don't want to forget this. I have a big sticky note in front of me. Tell me and our listeners about the Adventure Motorcycle Film Festival coming up quickly. So I'm gonna get this published quickly, too, to hopefully help with the timing of that. But I'd love to hear more about it.

Speaker: 32:39

Okay, so uh do you want the short version or the long version?

Ron: 32:43

Whatever you're comfortable with, my friend.

Speaker: 32:46

Well, you you're the one who's got to edit this, so um I've I've probably spoken too much about too many things already, but so I started my podcast in December 23, 2023, and my very first guest was a guy called Thomas Hansen, who's Norwegian and has quite a big following um on YouTube. He's a very skilled, real craftsman when it comes to um filmmaking and and motorcycles. And he one of the things I like to do is ask my guests, you know, if they have any recommendations, etc. etc. And he he put me onto a British podcast, a couple of guys in England called the Trail and Adventure Motorbike Podcast, run by um a couple of guys, Clive Barber and Noel Tom. And I started following them on Instagram and not quite sure how we made contact. I think I teased them and said, Oh, if you send me one of your t-shirts, I'll send you one of mine. And and then Clive reached out to me and um, you know, he said, Oh, do you want to compare notes how we make podcasts sometime? And I and I jumped on that. I was like, Yeah, absolutely I do. Yeah. So we had a uh uh a video call because you know I'm here in in Germany, he's in um the north of England, and we just realized that we had well a real love of podcasting, a real love of podcasting as well as an interest in motorcycling. And through that connection, I ended up um appearing at a festival, something called the Lightweight Adventure Festival, in 2024 it was in the UK, where Clive and I we did a presentation about podcasting, and I did another presentation about sound and audio and how to capture it when you're riding your motorcycle. Um the festival got cancelled for 2025, but then Clive and I and Noel started thinking, why don't we do something ourselves? Why don't we put on a film festival? And okay, this this sort of this running joke about whose idea was it to put on a film festival. But we agreed that we would put on a film festival, and we found a venue basically where Clive and Noel live in the north of England in the somewhere called the Lake District, and we found this venue um which made the whole process very easy for us and quite low risk for us, and we then just figured out how to um run a film festival. I'd been to the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival in 20, must have been 24. Yep, in 2024, I'd interviewed um the director there, Caius, and I'd seen how our film festival runs over a couple of nights. Um so that helped me a lot when explaining to Clive and Nell, like these are the things I think we need to be aware of and to take into consideration. Um, but there's also this really good platform called Film Freeway Online, which is set up for people who are hosting, running film festivals, and it allows filmmakers to submit their films to a festival, it allows festival hosts or directors to manage all the submissions, go through a judging process. It's it's really tailor-made for film festivals, and and so that helped a lot. Um, and yeah, we we sold the venue out. Like if you want a ticket, I'm sorry, it's it's all sold out. Um, we've selected 12 films from all around the world. We had over 50 films submitted. Um, and you know, one of the questions I'd asked Kaius at um Toronto, I said, Hey, so typically how many films do you get submitted every year? And he said between 30 and 60. So the fact that we got over 50, we're like, okay, that's good. Um, we feel pretty happy about that. We uh formed a big judging panel, went through the whole judging process, and we're just over two weeks away from the festival day on the 28th of February at the Brewery Arts Center in Kendall in the Lake District of the UK. And yeah, we're we're still we've we've had to learn so much as you would expect. We're been converting all the films to the digital projection format um and just generating enormous files and sending those files from one country to the next. It's um yeah, it's been quite a logistics challenge process, but but really interesting sort of process to go through.

Ron: 38:06

So without being able to attend live, uh are there some options then after the event or whatever for um us to view some of those films?

Speaker: 38:16

I unfortunately not. At this stage, we are thinking of creating a YouTube channel where we will put up the trailers, but actually quite a few films are publicly available. Okay. So we, you know, people have released them on their YouTube channels or via Vimeo or things like that. So there are a number of films that we've selected are already publicly available or will become publicly available quite soon. So yeah, so I I think we're thinking of of um creating a YouTube channel where we can sort of consolidate all those um all those films. Oh, that'd be wonderful. We we're very much we're we're telling ourselves walk, walk, walk before we run. So, you know, we're we're not making much money out of this. This is not a a revenue generating um exercise. Uh, we want to go through the process, um, learn a lot, as I said, and then think about what we can do in the future. Now, for example, I know uh the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival, the TMFF, they tour that that festival around Canada. I think also into maybe into the States as well. Um, and so we've already had interest from some parties saying, Hey, are you gonna tour this? Um, but we need to we need to discover what that means, actually. Um, so so that's sort of already on the agenda um as as the next step. Um but yeah, that the other thing is you know, we're doing it over one day, which is maybe it's gonna be pretty long day, maybe unrealistically long. I think that's something we're gonna learn as well, possibly. So we then think about do we do we do it over multiple days? Do we have multiple screens? You know, so there's a lot of things to think about for the future. But this, but you know, we definitely are planning to do it again in the next year. So yeah.

Ron: 40:24

I think there's tremendous value, at least for me as a motorcycle rider, and again, getting introduced through to motorcycles through a film. Uh I think there's tremendous value in in film. Um are you familiar with the Vana film festival? B A B A H N A?

Speaker: 40:44

Yeah, so that's an interesting one because I noticed that for this year it's only open to filmmakers. I'm not sure whether it's just the just the US or if it's North America, but but they've actually put some restrictions on that. And I don't know, but I wonder if that's to do with the prize, because the prize, the prize they're giving away is like a a Triumph, uh, a new Triumph motorcycle. I can tell you that's that's not happening at the Adventure Motorcycle Film Festival.

Ron: 41:15

Well, it's wonderful that they've had support from Triumph uh with that. I wasn't able to attend last year, but my wife and I the year before did attend the uh the the filming, uh the Vana Film Festival in Denver, which is about 50 miles to the south of us. And it was wonderful. Oh my goodness. Something else I've been so impressed with with the Vana organization and those those folks who run that is they were publishing uh a uh quarterly magazine, which was I'm I'm sure I have one around here somewhere, but is the highest quality of of um of photography and poetry, literally. And uh the writing was just outrageously good. So I was just checking, actually, um yesterday, I guess it was, that uh it is coming to Denver in in the fall, I believe it is this fall. So very much look forward to that. I wanted to mention one other thing too, and and we talked a little bit about this before we started recording, but I do I do see a tremendous value in in film. Um, as you may know, the GoPro company has a motto, GoPro cameras, they have a motto, and it's be a hero, right? And so the general idea being that go and film yourself doing something wild, crazy, whatever you like to do, action-packed, and then you show it to someone else, and then you're the hero, right? And and I get that, I really, really do. Um, but the piece of it that I have spent my money on, and I'm so glad I did, that it was directly related to using GoPro cameras. As I'm as we were discussing, my wife and I went to New Zealand. This was a few years ago. Our daughter was serving at the time in the um in the US Peace Corps. She was on the island nation of Vanuatu as a teacher there. After she had been gone for a year, my wife and I really needed to see her. So we decided to fly to New Zealand, which was 17 hours for us, two or three hours for her. But what we have on film there that we bought that is a treasure to us is our ride on the shot over river speedboats ride, whatever that was. They had GoPro multiple GoPro cameras on there and uh incorporated aerial shots of going through the canyon at 50 plus miles per hour on these jet boats with 600 horsepower engines. We were flying terrified, but had a wonderful time. And the way they pieced that together. And put it with music and then offered it to us. I think it was 60 bucks or whatever for this film. That was money so well spent. We have watched that so many times and sent that to so many people, that three or four minute spliced together video. Uh, I just thought it was tremendous, just tremendous. And that's what I've also seen in the work that through the Vana Film Festival, some of their films are well, all of them that I saw were just tremendous, so inspiring. And I guess maybe to kind of wrap things all together too, and more in relating to the Peace Love Moto podcast. I I created this podcast for the purpose of hopefully being a positive input in the world, and as best I could as a reflection on the uh distinguished gentleman's ride that my wife and I have been involved with. And um what I've seen over and over again is those people like yourself and and others, especially those who can incorporate it into film, are sharing something that just we really, really love. It's just something about the whole motorcycling experience, the whole motorcycling community going into nature and everything that surrounds all of that. It just really makes us feel good. And I think for me, that's why this conversation with you and honestly with with so many other motorcycle riders is so easy because we we've been down the same virtual road that so many others haven't. And uh, I don't know where I'm going with this exactly, but I do love the idea that once it's put on film, this love of what we do, whether it's sharing a an Instagram video that we pieced together, I stuck one on there yesterday of a little ride I did. Um, but we're just sharing something we're very, very compassionate about. And frankly, to the to the piece, the the piece of mind thing, it it does good for me up here. And I'm pointing to my head. It does good to for my head, it does good for my heart. And then reaching out and being in contact with a global community like yourself in Germany and me here in the United States, it feels great. It really does make me feel good. It makes me happy to be involved in a community like this. So I don't know where I was going with that, Simon, but I will get off of the pedestal now.

Speaker: 46:27

I you know, one of the one of the first sort of themes that I wanted to try and explore was what was unique about motorcycling, and and had anyone succeeded in conveying the joy that I feel at motorcycling, and that joy I assume other motorcyclists feel as well. Has anyone captured that on film? That's kind of I still think I'm I'm searching for that. There are films that come close to that for me, but I'm not sure I could point anyone to a f uh a particular film and say, that see that film, watch that film and you'll know how I feel. And I'm kind of I like the idea that I haven't found that film yet, because I kind of like looking for that film if it if and I may never find that film, but on the journey, I'm constantly thinking, what is it about motorcycling that makes that that's work so well for me? You know, I I said earlier that I you know I don't really I don't really wrench. I I you know I have to say I have changed, I have checked my valve timings, uh the valve clearances. I you know, I have done some fairly serious things with motorcycles in the past. I'm not a complete, you know, useless in the in the garage. But what I recognized was as I said, mo it's actually the the act of motorcycling, which is the most important thing, and and it's the connection of riding and what it does to my head is I point to my head now, and making that connection is you know, I just when I every week in the summer, like I quite often get I usually get to ride on Sunday, and I will go off for a whole day, 10 hours, 12 hours, and all week up until that Sunday, I'm looking at the weather, I'm checking to see, and I'm so excited on Saturday night because I know what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow on Sunday, and I and I go for that ride, and when I come home from that ride, and and often it's not always great, but it often is marvelous and great. It's almost a bit sad I can't sort of express that joy, and and that joy will also have gone through you know dips and troughs and peaks throughout the day, whether it's just different bits I'm riding through, whatever. But I almost come home completely overwhelmed by that experience of all those things that have happened. And it's kind of this. I'm I'm that's what I'm looking for film to capture that, to convey that, to communicate what I'm thinking I'm feeling to other people, particularly to people who don't write. And yeah, that's kind of my quest in some ways. I don't know if that makes sense to you.

Ron: 49:53

It most definitely does. And one thing I'm sure you've I feel confident you've experienced this as well. You and I are so fortunate to be a member of a family where the family allows you to do this. I hear from so many guys like, oh, I would love to write, except for my spouse or my girlfriend or whatever. They just will not allow me to do that, and so I've got to do something else. But uh, I I feel very, very fortunate that it started so early for me, and it uh in my case, and just became part of my lifestyle. And it was one of those things that my wife knew going in that this is what I do, and uh went with that.

Speaker: 50:40

So, yeah, for me it because I picked it up again later. Um, but I I know my wife, she knows that that maybe during the week I don't have so many opportunities to get out, and a lot of that's connected to okay. I I don't mean to be diminishing here, but I refer to our dog as a special needs dog. We've got this dog that we we got from Singapore, and he's he's a lovely dog, he really is a lovely dog, he's basically a Singapore street dog, or his mother was, and he was a lovely dog in Singapore, and but when we brought him to Germany um during COVID, he was he had to fly by himself for 27 hours, and that sort of clicked a switch in his brain, and he's had a real separation anxiety, so he cannot be left alone for a minute, and so a big part of my life is making sure that I'm around for the dog, and that's why I've sort of built this whole other life that I wasn't expecting to have around podcasting, working part-time podcasting. I can do that all from home, I can take the dog out for several walks a day. Um, but also my wife knows that okay, you also need to get out, and and you so that's why I often get out on Sundays. Um she'll often work on Sundays and spend time with the dog because you know she loves the dog, and she knows that that's my time to to mentally recharge. So in in the summer, that's that's a big part of our lifestyle, which is um you know, I I get to go motorcycling on Sunday, but but it's because she recognizes how important it is for me for my mental health. Yeah, that's great. And I yeah, I I yeah, I'm uh likewise extremely grateful that that's an arrangement that works here well. Yeah.

Ron: 52:41

Yeah, yeah. Well, uh Simon, I'm so glad uh that I have met you. I I I'm very, very good uh coming from the IT world and you coming from the IT world too. I'm very good at bashing technology, saying that it keeps us in front of a computer too much, uh, the whole impact on youth with AI and and everything like that. I'm really good at bashing it. But had it not been for Instagram, I'm so glad that I found you on Instagram. And and I look forward to staying in contact. Um again, uh, I think we click in at least a at least a couple of places, certainly the motorcycle piece of it too. But I'm a huge lover and respect of animals and wildlife. I work, I have worked part-time in Rocky Mountain National Park as a tour guide before before I'll be back doing that again soon. Um, but uh yeah, it's it's people like you I really like and really enjoy spending time with. So I want to thank you for your time. And uh it's just a pleasure to meet you, and I very much look forward to staying in contact.

Speaker: 53:49

Absolutely. As I'd like to say my to like to my guests on my podcast, hey, you're part of the family now. You're my friend. We're we're in touch now. You you you didn't realize this? Well, you do now. But um thanks, Ron, for for inviting me on. And um, yeah, I I knew this would be an easy conversation.

Ron: 54:09

Me too. Me too. Simon, thank you so much. Good day, my friend. Well, a huge thank you to Simon Josie for joining me all the way from Germany to share his story and his insights. As I reflect on this conversation, I'm reminded of why I started this podcast in the first place. It's about the joy of life that Bruce Brown captured so perfectly and captured my heart back in 1971. A joy that still I find every time I put it into gear and head out the driveway. For me, that joy is deeply tied to mindfulness also. Whether you're crossing three international borders before lunch or just taking a quick sunset ride here in the foothills of Colorado, I hope that you find that moment of presence where the noise of the world fades away. And it's just you, your bike, and the road ahead. Hey, if you enjoyed this conversation, please head over to Instagram and check out Simon's work at Real Riders. That's R-E-E-L, Real Riders. And if you have a moment, I'd love for you to leave a review for Peace Love Moto on whatever platform that you're using. Really helps to grow our community. As always, thank you so much for joining me. I wish you peace, and I wish you love.