TAILWIND OF LOVE
a journey to overcome grief
A bike trip through memory, grief, and love.
Tailwind of Love follows Eli Beech-Brown, a recent college graduate biking across America in the shadow of a journey his father, Jeff, took decades earlier.
After Jeff passed away during Eli’s freshman year of college, Eli found a box of old journals documenting his father’s own post-college bike trip — mile by mile, town by town, person by person.
Years later, Eli uses those journals as a map.
What begins as an attempt to follow the same route becomes something much deeper: a way to understand who his father was before he was a parent, to confront the grief Eli has carried since losing him, and to discover how love can continue moving forward.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Two years ago, I was sitting on a porch talking with a close friend when she mentioned someone I had never met.
His name was Eli Beech-Brown.
She told me Eli was about to embark on a cross-country bike ride to retrace a journey his late father had taken decades earlier. Armed with nothing more than his father's journals, old photographs, and the stories he left behind, Eli hoped to understand the man he lost before he ever truly had the chance to know him.
The moment I heard that story, I knew I had to be there.
What followed was months of chasing Eli across America with cameras of every kind—cinema cameras, camcorders, GoPros, iPhones, and decades of home videos and archival photographs. Piece by piece, those fragments came together to tell a story far greater than a bike trip.
Tailwind of Love is a film about grief, memory, and the quiet ways the people we love continue to guide us long after they're gone. It's about discovering that sometimes the greatest journey isn't across a country, but toward understanding someone you've loved your entire life.
Making this film changed me. I hope that somewhere along the road, it changes something in you too.
— Hunter Smalling
Director
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS & SCREENINGS
STILLS
ABOUT PUZZLE WORLD
STUDIOS
Puzzle World Studios is a documentary and commercial production company dedicated to telling authentic, emotionally driven stories.
From feature documentaries to branded films and music-driven visual work, Puzzle World Studios focuses on projects built around real people, strong visual worlds, and lasting emotional impact.