New Year’s resolutions become a key topic of conversation in that week between Christmas and New Year’s. By the time late January rolls around, we’re lucky if we even remember them—much less make demonstrable change in our lives.

My 2026 New Year’s resolution is to host two gatherings a month at home.

I want to make memories here with the people here, and that means bringing people into my home: dinner parties, garage days, movie nights, the annual May gathering… you get it.

January is a tough one as we’re all tired from the holidays. It’s dark, cold, and often wet in this part of the world. The couch and the fireplace call pretty loudly this time of year to just veg and press buttons on a TV remote or a phone. Been there? Yeah, me too. I’m a motorcycle rider involved in a few different communities, so I figured I’d start with the motorcycle riders. The problem is not many people here want to ride a motorcycle when it’s cold, dark, and wet.

Enter TMFF

Motorcycling is inherently a solitary thing. On rides you’re mostly in your helmet, alone. Lunch is an hour at most and then you’re back in your helmet again. That’s why I love complementary events like tech days. R has been excited about the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival for quite a while. Unfortunately, we missed the Vancouver showing—but fortunately, a good portion of the library is available for streaming, both free and low cost.

Then it clicked: host a movie night featuring the content from the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival. I started digging through the catalog to see what might work for a January gathering when people are craving a reminder that riding season will come back around.

It took some work to find videos that were available online, where to find them, and how to stream the content. I’ve saved you, my reader, some work to find good flicks to stream. I simply used AirPlay to stream them to the TV from my phone vs having to search for them on the TV’s app.

I set up a system: if a film turned out to be bad, anyone could call “rotten tomato.” If someone else agreed, we’d move on. I hadn’t previewed any of these films, so I wanted to give the audience agency rather than forcing everyone to sit through something nobody wanted to watch. Turns out I way over-programmed—I had nearly three hours of content lined up when 90 minutes is the sweet spot. I showed the entire content library in a program in case anyone was passionate about a particular film. It turned out everyone was happy to just follow the program.

Here’s what we saw combined across two nights.

Honorable Mentions we didn’t see

The TMFF library is massive, but some of the content isn’t available for streaming and leads to dead ends. I did the legwork to find what’s actually watchable. Here’s what I curated but didn’t have time to show—all vetted, all streamable, all on the list for future movie nights:

I wanted to have options so that we’d have some flexibility on what we saw. Turns out everyone was happy to watch my suggestions up to about a limit of 2 hours of content. If I do another movie night, I’d lead with Southbound as it appears to be an adventure epic with the highest production quality for a group viewing, but I’m interested in each of them.

The Two Nights

The first night brought five riders, many of whom I’d known for years. We ordered pizza and worked through the lineup. The group gravitated toward The Big Scoot—which surprised me for a motorcycle club, but the film delivered. Laughter rang out as we followed 182 riders crossing the country on tiny scooters.

Hey Kid was my favorite film of all the ones we showed. I showed it on both nights. It’s deep, it’s raw, and it made me tear up each time. But I could tell I was on an island with that reaction—it resonated differently for the others.

After the films wrapped, people stuck around. The conversations shifted from movies to riding—what it means to us, why we keep coming back. It got real in that way it does when you’re in someone’s living room instead of standing in a parking lot or getting rushed out of a restaurant.

The second night brought eight riders from a different club. I’m the new guy here, still finding my place. We started later, so I knew time would be tighter. We ordered Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake, which was a first for me—I’d easily go that route again.

This group instantly gravitated toward The Rider—the BMW documentary about heritage and lineage. You could feel the room lean in. Different vibe, different energy, but same outcome: everyone left happy.

What I Learned

I way over-programmed. I had too many titles to choose from and tried to show too much. People just wanted to show up, socialize a bit and watch some films. The sweet spot is 90 minutes—enough to scratch the itch without people getting restless. I’m targeting 1.5 hours for the next gathering.

The hour before the films matters as much as the films themselves. Watching movies is like riding—solitary, in your own head. The connection happens beforehand, over pizza, before anyone hits play.

January might be dark and wet, but it turns out it’s a pretty good time to gather around a screen and remember what’s waiting once the days get longer and the roads dry out.

Two gatherings down in January. Twenty-two more to go this year. 😃