Filmmakers Steven Boettcher and Michael Trinklein have only one regret about
"The Gold Rush," their PBS documentary airing January
20, 1998. They would've loved to have been part of it all--in
1849 California--rather than reporting on it 150 years later.
"I love
adventure," Boettcher said. "And the California gold
rush was the ultimate American adventure--an epic journey followed
by the chance to get rich quick."
"If
we'd been 19 or 20 in 1849, we'd have been there," Trinklein
agrees.
Boettcher
and Trinklein have instead embarked on a different kind of adventure--careers
as documentary filmmakers. Along the way, the two have earned
dozens of awards, including four Emmys, but their search for adventure
continues.
"The
greatest documentaries ever produced began as great quests for
the filmmakers," said Trinklein. "We all seek adventure
and we yearn to tell the world about it."
An Early
Love of Film
Trinklein,
born in Chicago and raised in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, saved enough
money from mowing lawns to buy his first Super 8 camera at age
12. His first documentaries were inspired by the old "Wild
Kingdom" nature series. "I'd be Marlin Perkins, searching
the countryside for dangerous animals to film," Trinklein
said. "But since I couldn't drive yet, I was pretty much
restricted to the dairy farm next door."
Boettcher,
who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, had always been fascinated
with nature and the outdoors. When he was 14, he wrote to the
president of National Geographic, asking how he might prepare
for a career in documentaries. Much to his surprise, a response
arrived in his mailbox two weeks later. "It was an encouraging
letter, and I've kept it all these years for inspiration,"
says Boettcher. Now, the tables have turned and Boettcher takes
time each month to give advice to young filmmakers.
Boettcher
and Trinklein started working together nearly two decades ago,
while attending the University of Wisconsin. From the beginning,
Boettcher was the cinematographer; Trinklein, the writer.
"Every
other student in the film department was making dramatic movies,
but Mike and I would trek out on mini-adventures every weekend
to shoot our documentaries," Boettcher said. "There
were so many good real-life stories to tell that we didn't feel
the need to make things up."
Many of those
real-life stories ended up on programs like MacNeil Lehrer, the
Today show and CBS Sunday Morning.
2,000
Miles and 20 Years Later
Following
college, the duo stayed friends, but went their separate ways
professionally. Trinklein earned his graduate degree and became
a film professor at Idaho State University, where he continues
to teach today, while Boettcher became chief photographer and
produced documentaries for the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee.
It wasn't
long, however, before they started making films together again,
even though they now lived 2,000 miles apart. "It works better
this way," Trinklein said. "Technology keeps us in touch,
and the distance helps us focus on our respective tasks."
Over the
years, their work has taken them to Hawaii, Canada, Spain, Antigua,
Israel and the Apache Reservation in Arizona. Most recent works
include "The Oregon Trail," which aired nationally on
PBS stations in 1995, and "The Gold Rush," which will
air on January 20, 1998.
For "The
Oregon Trail," Boettcher and Trinklein traveled the exact
route of the entire trail. "We knew it would take months,
so we took our families along," Boettcher said. "At
one point, we got lost in the middle of the Wyoming outback. Finally,
we located our position on the map and discovered we had stumbled
onto a restricted uranium mining area."
While filming
"The Gold Rush," Boettcher, Trinklein and crew kept
crossing paths with modern-day prospectors holed up deep in the
California backcountry. "We met one guy who was convinced
his 'new' sifting device would be the key to instant riches,"
Trinklein said. "But he'd been up there for months, with
only 50 cents worth of gold to show for his efforts."
"Fortunately
for us, some things never change," Boettcher said. "There
will always be great adventures to seek and great stories to tell."
