Craven Moorehead

One World Studios, Filmmakers Zack Coffman and Scott Di Lalla are becoming iconic. They’re just a couple of regular guys who love bikes and like to tell stories as they occur. While there are planned events in their work nothing is scripted, and often stuff does not go off a planned. The films are pure and rough—lacking anything that might make them seem contrived or counterfeit. This not to say the films are without sentimentality. There are some extreme moments in these works and there is the expression of deep respect and love between friends forged in brotherhood.

To experience the beauty of craft, the support of community, and the celebration of life these guys will carry you kindly to the place where the truth about us dwells.

Following are three reviews of documentaries from One World Studios. KC O’Dunn aka Chaplin Plato, Choppertown, The Sinners, a motorcycle fabrication documentary film by Zack Coffman & Scott Di Lalla

Over the last 20 or so years, since Harley got Malcolm Forbes and Mickey Rourke to be the centerpieces of their We-Ain’t-aWorkin’-Man’s-Motorcycle-Anymore, shift of market consciousness, one of the things that has been exorcised out of the motorcycle market and media is the hospitality of the working grunge machinist. Your local bike shop used to be a place where you could stop by on your way home from work with a 12 pack and share a beer with they guys who kept your life rollin’. You could sit in the petroleum thick air and BS about women and cars and women and fishin’ and huntin’ and cars and bikes and women and guns and. … The bike shop was a sanctuary.

Filmmakers Zack Coffman and Scott Di Lalla are good friends who love bikes and are insiders in the culture of motorcycle brotherhood in southern California. Over beers they decided the off-the-rack, buy-in mentality of the Sunday rider was eclipsing the truth and the authentic relationships of those who ride were being lost by distraction. There was a time when the denim jacket was enough to keep the wind at bay, or your work overalls would get you to the club with your good clothes under; but after a while the black leather jacket and vest became a badge of the masses. Conformity confounded the community and riding was reduced to a few highly organized bike nights through the week and a Sunday putt for some noble cause. ‘Nothing wrong with noble causes but noble causes comes in a variety of faces and need— meaning different things to different social circles. Sometimes the noble cause is helping a friend get his bike back on the road.

When the film was being figured out by Di Lalla and Coffman they fell into the perfect scene. They knew a guy who was a friend of a guy who was about to launch a build out of an Evo motor on a bobber frame using the support of junk yards and the collection of odd materials accumulated over the years by the Sinners. This guy

is a Sinner. The Sinners are what the riding life was and is still, but conformists would be very uncomfortable among them.

The Sinners are the ultra network of brothers who span hundreds of miles of California and support each other with everything a person might need; even haircuts. One of those rare republican societies where there is complete support of one another and the hierarchy is loosely defined but staunchly protected ... a sanctuary.

This is the sweet spot where Coffman and Di Lalla chronicle the love, the society, and the brotherhood. The meaningful details of wrenching and welding and dancing and singing and bar fighting and playing hard driving and soulful music.

This is a very good documentary and in fact has become the cornerstone of One World Studios. It was the European debut of this film that was the purpose of One World Tour Europe. The guys documented an amazing journey to the Old-World to show the film and to meet Europe’s underground rouges of custom bikes and cars. www.choppertown.net

Filmmakers Zack Coffman and Scott Di Lalla are good friends who love bikes and are insiders in the culture of motorcycle brotherhood in southern CA.

Angels are Real, Happy New Year

I had a yard sale this weekend. I put signs out on the main drag and the other streets to direct people in. Just before it got totally dark, I jumped into the old Dodge pickup to go retrieve the signs. I was at my 3rd stop (on RT 60 & Jerry Smith) when the truck ran out of gas. I’m standing in the turn lane realizing that I would have to walk back to the shop to get an empty gas can, and then walk back to the corner of Turkey Creek and 60 to get some fuel and then walk back to the truck. By this time it was dark. I swear to you, I could not believe what happens next. This isn’t Winslow Arizona – but a girl in a Ford Expedition rolls down her window at the stop sign and asks me “what’s wrong.” “I’m outta gas” I replied. So she says “Come on, I will give you a ride.” “Lemme see if I have my gas can.” After a short search, I realized that the can was not in my truck. Knowing that I had run out of luck, I just walked to the passenger side of this really nice truck and got in. Oh my God in heaven, I looked at her and she was absolutely beautiful!! Long blonde hair, perfectly dressed, hot body, and to top it all off she was within my wheel-house of maturity. I am really surprised that a woman of this stature and elegance would even stop and look at an old ‘scooter-trash’ looking dude like me much less actually wait around and piss people off at a busy intersection while I took the time to look for my gas can. But she did, and evidently she is very brave. After a short introduction and some small talk she asked me which gas station I wanted to go to – the RaceTrac or the Sunoco. So naturally I said, “RaceTrac.” She told me that after she picked up her friend on the other end of the road she would give me a ride back to the disabled hillbilly truck. She went out of her way to drop me off at the gas station, and I reminded her that she was truly an ‘Angel’ for giving me a ride. When I went inside the store, I searched for a gas can. Yeah, there was only one left. $12.99 plus tax which equals almost all I made in the last two days of the yard sale. But I was on a mission to get the truck back, knowing that the battery would be dead soon because I had left the parking lights on. Anyhow, when I get to the counter a girl that I’ve seen in my frequent visits to the store (which is also very cute and extremely nice) is wondering why I am buying a gas can. I asked “Do y’all rent these?” to which she replied – “No, they aren’t for rent.” But she would go check her car to see if she had one that I could borrow. This was yet another effort by someone to help me with a problem, with no expectation of recompense. She returned and apologized, which was not necessary and I paid for the can and headed to the gas pumps after telling her the story of the beautiful angel that had given me a ride. “I saw her drop you off and I thought maybe she was your girlfriend or wife.” “I wish” is all I could say, and we both laughed. I get a few dollars worth of gas and started hoofing it back down 60 toward the truck. A fellow in a pickup truck stops and says “Man, I heard the story about you running out of gas, and I actually saw that hot girl that dropped you off, so if you want me to, I will drive you back to your truck – just in case she doesn’t come back to get you.” I accepted the ride and the man even offered to hang for a minute just to make sure that I could get it started. I thanked him profusely and told him that I was very appreciative. We conversed about the ‘paying it forward’ thing just like the beautiful girl that brought me there did, and of course, I also told him that he was also an angel unaware. I poured the gas in the tank leaving just a little to dump into the carburetor for good measure. After grinding the battery to the point of death, she finally fired up and as usual the old worn out hillbilly Dodge didn’t let me down. It’s been a very long road with me and that truck. I picked up my signs and went home. This isn’t a fabrication or fantasy by any stretch of the imagination. This is a TRUE story that you should ALL take heed to. I don’t care if you believe in God or whatever deity it is that you worship. It’s none of my business. I can tell you this; there are good angels walking this earth, paying it forward every day that they live and breathe. Personally, I try to help people whenever I can, and I am not prophesizing or preaching here so don’t get the wrong idea. But do yourself one favor – help people if you can. Your reward may not come immediately, so have faith and push on. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, but you only take with you what you have put in. Here’s the kicker. That beautiful woman did come back to look for me, she slowed down, got into the turn lane and after seeing me pouring gas into the tank she just blew the horn and drove away. It is what it is, but I believe that you should take every opportunity that presents itself to you. Perhaps I should have been more patient and had a little more faith in humanity, but alas I did not. Sometimes it is hard to make the right decision based upon faith alone, but I did accomplish the mission and made it back home intact. My agent called to get me booked for some gigs coming up in the near future. I told her this story. She may not be impressed, but she questioned me about why I didn’t get this girl’s phone number. I should have. I learn something every day and my faith in people has been restored to a great extent. Angels are everywhere regardless of your religion. … Everything happens for a reason I suppose. But if anyone knows who this beautiful angel is, then let her know that she has a fan that would love to repay her in so many ways. Later that evening. … The woman somehow tracked me down. I was in my shop, working on an old computer when I saw a truck pull in. It was her! I went over to the window and she, in a sweet as sugar voice asked me if I would mind checking on what the strange ticking sound in the motor was. I of course obliged and after she opened the hood, I began examining the motor. The truck was so tall that I had to sort of get up on the front tire and lean under the hood. I had only been under there for about 20 seconds when something moving behind me startled me and I glanced over to see her standing behind me. All of a sudden, she began pulling on my leg, just like I’m pulling yours! CRAVEN