Liberty Cycles
“Then after buying my first motorbike, I soon discovered it needed new front fork seals. Although, I do most of the work on my bikes myself, there are certain things you can’t do, working out on the front sidewalk of an apartment block!”
“And so, that’s how I came to see Liberty Cycles for the first time. I was totally blown away by Adam’s place! Adam is a total character, so I knew from the first time I met him, I would have to do something on him one day.”
“While I was living in New York, one of the producers I had worked with in broadcast, went over to Etsy to jump-start their media department. Beth Levison gave me a call telling me Etsy were interested in a pitch about things that were handmade. They were looking at the bigger picture around American made goods, so the pieces didn’t necessarily have to be about Etsy sellers.”
“Adam and his thoughts about the loss of American can-do, immediately came to mind. This was all happening in 2011, when the US economy was still pulling itself out of recession. I figured that what Adam had to say was an important message. And, what it meant to make something with your hands was fast becoming a lost skill in America. So with all that in mind, I wrote up my pitch and sent it to Etsy. Sadly, they wrote back saying, it wasn’t really what they were looking for.”
“It just so happened, that I was back in Philly working on a job for Scott Whitham at this time. I had all of this rented gear with me, so it was easy to take a couple of extra days and shoot the piece I wanted to do with Adam.”
“Adam was totally up for doing this film. He knew that I loved motorcycles, so he felt comfortable in opening up to me, and ranting about how Americans couldn’t fix anything for themselves anymore. This wasn’t the first time we had that sort of conversation, so I didn’t need to do any sort of official pre-interview. Essentially, I had already done that, every time Adam and I had been at the coffee shop, a few years back!”
“I basically told Adam, that I wanted to hear his opinions about America becoming a disposable economy where nobody could fix anything anymore. I explained that my piece wasn’t necessarily about his shop, but more about the spirit of what he does for a living. And that seemed to excite him.”
“His garage in Fishtown is this big old lofty space in what was a pretty rough part of Philly. Nowadays, its one of the hottest neighbourhoods around. Adam can’t sit still, so he works on bikes for awhile and then he’ll totally rearrange the workshop.”
“It seemed to me that it was forever changing space, like this really cool art installation. At one time, there would be a random car or truck in the shop, and then a small scale helicopter hanging from the rafters! It’s one of those spaces that perfectly fits the character of the man.”
“After I finished filming, I figured I would try my luck again and send a rough cut through to Etsy. They came back saying they loved it and didn’t want to change a thing - and could they run it the very next week!”
“I feel, for better or worse, there has been an over saturation of craftsman style pieces these days. When I made this piece five years ago, it was a really fresh concept. And there weren’t that many voices out there saying the sorts of things Adam, was saying. It really was the right time and place to do this sort of piece on him.”
