It’s not often that one simultaneously thinks of extreme sports and political action. B.I.K.E. is one of those rare times as it presents the story of Black Label, a national hard-core bike collective built on a leftist anti-establishment ethos.

Building their own “tall bikes,” scraping meals together from restaurant dumpsters, and holding anti-car rallies on the bustling streets of NYC, B.I.K.E. shines a light on a growing underground society – led by Anthony Howard, a loose cannon artist/filmmaker who has been trying to join Black Label for more than a year.

Howard is not camera-shy. As co-director and subject, he reveals himself (warts and all) as an emotional, flawed, but ultimately strong human being. He bursts into tears when his girlfriend of seven years leaves him. He descends into drug addiction after a series of rejections. But, ultimately he pulls himself together to form a rival bike gang to Black Label.

In the end, the film does more than dissect a social movement – it evolves into a film about the internal conflict between utter independence and the comfort of fitting in.

B.I.K.E. is presented in cooperation with the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.