A Simple Machine

A Simple Machine, the award-winning debut feature film from Mark Alan Hoffman, makes its way to The Regent Theatre! Shot entirely in Portland in luminous black and white, A Simple Machine is a deeply human story about economic independence, personal freedom, and the cost of wanting less in a culture built on more. In a time of housing instability, digital saturation, and cultural polarization, Hoffman’s film offers something rare: a grounded, thoughtful counterpoint rooted in the textures, contradictions, and creative resilience of Portland, while offering universal resonance in its thematic content.

Inspired by Evan P. Schneider’s novel A Simple Machine, Like the Lever (Propeller Books), a modern cult classic within Pacific Northwest literary circles, the film follows Nick Allander (Richard Blackmon), a recent college graduate drowning in debt who quietly dismantles his own life in pursuit of radical frugality and self-reliance, but without telling the woman he loves. What begins as a private experiment in minimalism becomes a reckoning with identity, responsibility, and the meaning of freedom in a market-driven world.

Central to the film’s visual and philosophical language is the bicycle as symbol and instrument. For Nick, the
bike becomes both a practical solution and quiet rebellion: a tool of economic independence, mobility without
debt, and a form of technology that enhances human agency rather than diminishing it. In a city where cycling is
cultural currency, A Simple Machine reframes the bicycle as something deeper: a deliberate choice toward
simplicity, dignity, and embodied presence.