A review of Find by Chris Lewis (Dirt lackey)

It was mentioned that this film might not be my cup of tea as it was a pretty chilled out film about riding the trail and not about tricks and extreme riding. So it was with apprehension that I sat down to watch with a beer and some twiglets. However, my fears were ill-placed and straight off the bat this film filled my eyes, ears and mind with inspirational content that’s unlike many other films about at the moment.

This film is about the joys of simply getting out there and blasting down a trail; it takes bike riding down to its roots and reminds us why we got into it in the first place. I myself haven’t been a trail rider for quite a few years and all the way through this film all I wanted to do was a grab a bike and get out exploring. Find manages to get the perfect balance of personal experiences from the riders involved, an amazing soundtrack and beautiful pictures to keep you interested for the whole 75 minutes (a long time for a bike film in the world of five minute wonders on the net).
There’s an extremely good mix of riding in this film and although its about hitting up the trail with your buddies. Mark Huskisson has managed to mix up the locations and the people enough to make it interesting. The location choice in this film is definitely a major factor in its ability to keep you entertained for the whole thing they range from farthest reaches of Scotland to the alps and Tenerife all over Europe, with each one being shot like it was in a Hollywood movie. Mix that with the stories and characters from each section, such as the opening one with Rob Lee who battles his way across the Scottish borders in 24 hours. The sections out in Europe showing of the vast variety you get out there. Pus an interview with the man behind the camera on ‘that’ YouTube video, all this equals a video that’s bound to have at least one section everyone will love.

My favourite part of the film has to be the Danny MacAskill section, because he is the same age as me and his enthusiasm for his new found fame and awe at having two of the biggest names in the sport, Steve Peat and Hans Rey, round his house just made me connect with him. I felt like I was sharing his experience as they were two of the main riders I looked up to most when I was a teenager. He just seemed to love every minute of it. Again this film had me feeling inspired yet reminiscent too of what got me into this sport, and I think it will have this effect on most people when it is released this winter and people will enjoy being reminded of good times last summer and getting psyched up for next summer.

On a technical note, the film impresses on a very high level. It appears to have been shot on DSLR cameras and even on a DVD this makes the scenery, which is a big part of this film, jump out of the screen. The slow-mo parts make the riding beautiful. The amazing riding and scenery warrant the very high production values of this feature, and it is very slickly put together. Another new release upping the ante of what we expect from the humble biking video, (and this one was produced by one man and his cameras). It is no longer good enough to simply go out with your mates and a few handy cams, as more and more effort is put into making glossy high quality full feature films. Whether this is good or not I leave to you, but in terms of this film it definitely is a good thing.
Overall, this is a visual delight and I urge anyone who has ever ridden a trail of any size to go out and buy this film, chill out with some mates and delight in its portrayal of the simple act of razzing through the woods.

Chris Lewis

Find -The Mountain Bike Film from ResetFilms.co.uk on Vimeo.

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