May 13, 2011 at 12:10 PM
filed under In the LAB, Mountain Projects
Tagged 23 Feet, Allie Bombach, Allison Otto, American Rockies, Banff Centre, Bernadette McDonald, Canadian Rockies, Carole Snow, Colorado, Elizabeth Hawley, Mountain Film, Wolves
Religion. Nature. Mountain Film. The three prongs of RealLab.
I wanted to tell you about the other projects coming to the helm as we push onward with our cornerstone project Soul Winners. In November I had the opportunity to study at the Banff Centre in Canada complete with a student ID that said ARTIST in big bold letters. What a thrill to be in the heart of the Canadian Rockies with other filmmakers dialoguing and eventually as we fanned back out all around the world– collaborating.
There’s a duality of equal love in my life as a creative person. I’m fascinated by religion and I am fascinated by nature. In January I set to work with my new creative partner Matt Lauterbach, a local editor for Kindling Group, Kartemquin and the Chicago History Museum to piece together the beginnings of a nature documentary. While I can’t yet tell you the details we decided we were fascinated by wolves and a particular story that is beginning to surface all over again. Combined with his love of historical research and my fascination with the Rocky Mountain region of North America we have quietly been meeting over crepes and Orangina piecing together our next moves, hitting the library and traveling with camera in hand throughout the duration of our unseasonably, bitter cold Midwestern spring.
I am really excited to be collaborating with Matt and we certainly balance each other out with our skill areas, it’s been a magnificent time idea running to say the least and I hope to have you updated soon on our next move. So think wolves– because we are.
In early May I traveled to the Rockies again for a pre-screening of the delightful doc 23 Feet with my Banff Centre roommate Allie Bombach at the helm. Excited to see her Airstream (traveling home/editing bay) touch down in Boulder, Colorado I linked up with a third classmate from Banff, Lonely Planet and freelance Outside Television Producer Allison Otto. Over tacos we talked about who was fascinating us lately around the mountain buzz and both agreed we wished we could carry on Everest historian Elizabeth Hawley’s self-made job. Fascinated with her work, we wondered if anyone was pursuing a documentary on her life in the aftermath of a media buzz. After several exchanges with mountain culture historian and author Bernadette McDonald, we decided to pursue the documentary. On Thursday morning while I was on a 16 hour shift for Northwestern University’s Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS) I received the gleeful phone call from Allison that Hawley had indeed accepted our proposal to travel to Kathmandu and document her. Tentatively our working title is Keeper of the Mountains. So stay tuned for more news about this fantastic documentary.
I hear the word thrilled a lot in this business. But I am thrilled. We are thrilled.
Our goal is to go into production with a crew of all women traveling to Kathmandu so we have begun the process of courting our favorite women who shoot with big rigs. As you can imagine, we have a lot of interest! And we’re glad for that.
Finally I have been editing a fantastic festival short entitled Boys of Winter you can read about it on our Projects Cooking page. I’m excited to release this fun and often deep tale into the mountain film circuit. It’s been a blast working with these six young men this year. They all bring a lot to the table and are some of the wittiest suburban adventurers I know. There’s a lot sacred in the film, and by sacred– I mean bacon.
Cheers and bacon,
Carole Snow
PS: Boulder– happiest place in America.
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