Interview of two vintage bike lovers, Arthur and Clément The Greasy Hands Preacher DocumentaryHe who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist. St Francis of Assisi Thus begins the teaser of the motorcycle documentary shot on the world’s roads by two young French, Arthur and Clement. The tone is set for the film featuring various enthusiasts of old motorcycles, travels and encounters. The philosophical maxim of the religious man of the 12th century illustrates the current trend well: a desired and assumed step back towards manual work; the mechanical one, and the creation of legendary motorcycles.Yes, bikers sometimes have a philosopher’s soul deep down! And we have proof: the craze that sparked the shooting of the documentary and brought together many (and famous!) passionate riders. Blitz, Deus Ex Machina, Vincent Prat… all participated in this project and the result promises to be both attractive and exciting.We go back on the filming of this documentary in an interview with Arthur and Clement, the dynamic and very involved directors of The Greasy Hands Preacher documentary. INTERVIEWCan you quickly introduce yourself? How did you meet and how did you decide to work together on this project?Clement: Arthur and I are childhood friends. We started working together about 5 years ago to make a clip about Blitz. Then we made a second short film and a then third… and finally started working on this feature film last year as we felt a true passion for the subject.Arthur: Clement and I come from different worlds: he graduated from a school of cinematic arts and is more involved in the staging and everything related to art. For example, he always searched and finds small musical gems which fit perfectly in our films. I studied business and am naturally more involved in all human relations that must be established for the shooting of a film. You can say that I find the different talents, the different protagonists of the film. How did you get the idea for this film? What is the subject precisely? That do you put forward? What’s the message?Arthur: Contrary to what one might think, this film is not just a film about motorcycle travel. We mainly tried to focus on the issues of returning to manual labor that is more and more observed in developed societies. Today, we see the white-collars getting back to the blue-collar, managers that graduated from the best schools getting rid of their tidy lives to dedicate themselves to their passion, mechanics, and dedicate themselves entirely to the pleasure of putting their hands in the grease. How long have you been working on this project and how long did the shooting last?Clement: We started to work on the project only 1 year ago. In the end, everything went very quickly. We found our three major sponsors BMW Motorrad, Bellstaff and Motul in the first few months and were able to start filming directly. We have travelled quite a bit for this one: California, Utah, Nevada, France, Scotland, Spain and Indonesia. We just finished filming this month! Who is starring in the film? How did you meet all these people? What motivated them to participate in the shooting?Arthur: Blitz, Deus Ex Machina, El Solitario, Roland Sands, Shinya Kimura… Only guys that are passionate about mechanics and the relationships that one can create through motorcycling. It always came back in our discussions: travelling on a motorcycle is an outstanding way to build relationships with people. And being able to repair your own bike changes everything. We met them during our various trips to the shooting locations of our short films. For example, we have been friends with the guys from Blitz ever since the shooting of our first documentary, Riding September, 5 years ago.Clement: We really have the same philosophy and the same interests, so it makes it easy to bond. Today, thanks to this film, everybody knows each other. The central theme of the motorcycle somehow made it possible to transcend all cultures and languages only to focus on our shared passion. How and when will the film be released?Arthur: Private screenings will be held in London and New York this summer… and we also hope to appear in some festivals, but nothing is sure yet… stay tuned!Do you have any anecdotes or fond memories of the shooting?Arthur: It’s quite difficult to separate the anecdotes from the shooting and those of our private life: we were so involved in our making that our whole life revolved around it. But I do remember a moment in Scotland with Blitz on the Isle of Skye. We had driven all day and had done so many takes that we were completely exhausted… Until we learned that the bar of the hotel we were staying in that night was in self-service. I can tell you that we forgot the day’s tiredness very quickly! Clement: There was always a good vibe during the shooting but we still remained super concentrated. We were shooting with reel, which is a finite and expensive resource. There was always a sort of pressure that settled when we could hear the sound of the film-roll. Suddenly every shot has to be the one: you have to choose the right light, think the framing through, make choices. It is a completely different philosophy of creation where you must decide on the spot and where you cannot wait for the post production to make choices.So now what’s next?Arthur: We still have to finance part of the film, through our Kick Starter community. We’re a few thousand dollars short, and these will particularly be used to cover exceptional expenses such as music rights.Great, thank you very much for sharing… we’re now eagerly awaiting the result! If you want to participate in the Greasy Hands project or learn more, go to the kickstarter page or visit the official facebook page of the film.
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