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Tackle fear with Darren Berrecloth’s movie, Reverence
With his movie now available on Red Bull TV, we chat to Darren Berrecloth on the making of the movie and its subject, fear.
Allow us to quote: "Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence."
1 h
Reverence
This film delves into the psyche of elite mountain bike athletes in a bid to understand their motivation.
Berrecloth has spent most of his career camped at the frontier of freeride, meaning he's spent the majority of his career making sense of his relationship with fear.
Though the narrative of fear is understood with bikes as the mediator, the Berrecloths’s put this movie together not just with mountain bikers in mind.
Reverence is now available on Red Bull TV, so dive into a conversation with Claw himself then be sure to check out the movie in the player above.
What was the genesis for this movie for you and your brother?
It started with my brother. Builder was his brain child. He did with that Pinkbike and the film went really well. Me and my brother are super close. We like to work together on stuff and we enjoy this type of work, so we just wanted to do a film together and use my contacts to help line everything up.
What’s your relationship with fear like?
It’s something that’s very close to my heart. I’ve been dealing with letting go of fear for the last eight years of my career. It’s been the most prevalent emotion that has hindered me from winning every single contest I step foot into.
How has your relationship with fear changed over your career?
When you’re a kid, you think, “Oh yeah, I’m scared.” But you’re not actually scared because you’re still full of confidence. Your experiences are limited with pain, suffering, and everything that comes along with those big injuries and the possibility of not riding a bike again. Those emotions aren’t there because you don’t have the experience.
Is there anything you’d tell your younger self?
I wish I did a lot of things differently. I can think back to instances where I got really hurt when I really didn’t need to do that jump or trick at that point in time. There’s very few times where you got really hurt when you were just messing around. There were big moves that I didn’t need to hit twice or hit it even at all during that day.
It sounds like your relationship with fear matured with experience. Is it possible for an athlete to know the lessons of experience at a young age?
It depends on the personality. If you’re the type of person that needs to learn for themselves, like I do, then you’re just going to have to take the beats and learn the hard way. Or if you’re the kind of person that really listens to people, which I don’t know any young 18-year-old punk that actually does, then you can definitely benefit from an older mentor.
Darren Berrecloth hits a drop for the making of Reverence.
© Red Fern Media
Darren Berrecloth pauses for a footy review.
© Red Fern Media
Darren Berrecloth gets ready to call his drop.
© Red Fern Media
Darren Berrecloth sizes up a feature for Reverence.
© Red Fern Media
Does how you process fear change if there’s no physical risk? Outside of your career in biking, you’ve taken on challenges that surely have elements of fear to them — things like starting your restaurant, Trail’s End.
It’s the exact same process. And that’s the cool thing about this film, why we feel passionate about it and why it relates so much to everyday people. It’s the exact same process: a professional athlete scared shitless about to do a crazy trick and working through it is the same process as starting a restaurant — any of the above.
Everyone brought an incredible story into this movie, but Matt Macduff’s involvement felt like it had a particular weight to it with the scope of the injury he was recovering from. How did his involvement come about?
It was Ryan’s idea. I was weary just because of his injury. And I knew that if we went on this journey, it would be “Ok, let’s try to do something sweet.” I knew he was going to want to push his limits. That loop — the full massive one — scared the shit out of me even from the very beginning.
Did you grapple with that with the other athletes? Putting them against their fears?
No, because I knew that this was what the film was about. We chose the athletes because we knew they were fully capable of overcoming their fears and that they were going to be interested in overcoming their fears. So it’s not like we put somebody up to a task that they weren’t willing and ready for.
How do you rectify the relationship between fear and physical risk?
I think once again, it comes into experience. Managing what you should and shouldn’t do gets blended into one. That comes with experience.
