Cast & Crew Interview – Hunter Weeks, Director: Where the Yellowstone Goes
By Sarah Hall
After a whirlwind of travel, I managed to track down Hunter Weeks, director of the upcoming documentary, Where the Yellowstone Goes. I cornered him on an Iceland Air flight from Reykjavic to Seattle. At 36,000 feet and nowhere to go, Weeks agreed to chat so long as I left him enough flight time to finish watching Avatar. We cracked open a couple of Tuborg Christmas Brew’s and let the reminiscing begin.
The director’s fourth feature release, Where the Yellowstone Goes came as a bit of a surprise to Weeks. It turns out that the only reason he was even able to direct the film was because he survived a backcountry trip with cast member/producer, Robert Hawkins. “I had the good fortune of meeting Robert while I was working at MercuryCSC, a creative agency in Bozeman, Montana. I fell in love with Montana and Robert took me out one afternoon to try my hand at split-boarding,” Weeks recalled. “It was touch-and-go for a while, but at the end of the day Hawkins and Weeks found themselves alive and well, chatting over a few rounds of sudsy mugs about the desire to float the entire length of the Yellowstone River.
“Whenever someone starts talking to me about a grand journey, my documentary film radar starts going crazy,” Weeks revealed.
When Hawkins expressed his desire to set his hand-built drift boat into the water just outside Yellowstone National Park and float until he reached the confluence of the Missouri River at Fort Buford, North Dakota, Weeks said the alarm bells were raging. In spite of minimal experience in the realm of boating and fishing, Weeks was hooked on the idea. In that moment, the two friends set out to make the dream a reality. Just over a year later, a crew of seven began a journey in Gardiner, Montana and spent the next 31 days floating to the confluence.
Weeks says every project begins with the right idea, lots of luck, and good people.
“There are a bazillion stories out there. I don’t know if a bazillion is even enough to come close to the amazing experiences people are having every day,” he enthused.
“Where the Yellowstone Goes is one of those projects that I recognized as a fun, unique idea,” he said, “There’s so much hard work that goes into a production like this, never mind the film, the logistics of this journey are immense. But that’s what makes this such a real experience. It was tough because we were having fun out there, we wanted to be having fun, but the work has to get done too. I’m happiest when the cameras are rolling, whether I’m shooting or someone else is. There are no do-overs out there.”
With hundreds of hours of footage, Weeks is confident the story is there.
“We shot so much. When there’s a camera in your face every day for a month, you get used to it. The story happens constantly. If someone’s fishing, cooking dinner, struggling with a tent, or having a great conversation with someone we met along the way, it’s all story,” said Weeks.
On the surface, Where the Yellowstone Goes is a documentary about a month-long float down the longest “undammed river” in the Lower 48, but audiences will find more depth than just a typical journey film.
“There were a lot of a-ha moments,” Weeks said, “I don’t want to spoil anything but I can tell you just the natural changes of the river meant a lot. Right down to how the fishing changed once we got downstream. The film is also about people and how we’re connected. Not just to each other but also through where we live and play.”
Beyond messages of conservation and preservation, Weeks hopes to engage viewers with a positive message about life.
“I want people to get out there, to live life to the fullest. I think it’s important to discover the world and uncover the things that are important to each of us. Once we do that, it becomes easier to take care of what truly matters,” Weeks said.
Where the Yellowstone Goes wrapped production in late September 2011 and is currently in post-production.
“We’re in edit,” Weeks began, “Well, it’s on-hold right now as I finish my honeymoon. The latest development is that we were able to secure a musician we met in England. He’s working on some original compositions for the film and we’re really excited to be moving forward on that. We’re also working on the distribution plan. We’ve got meetings with partners like Trout Headwaters Inc., so we can put together the strongest plan for the film’s release. It’s a really wonderful time right now.”
As I started to ask another question, Weeks smiled and put his headphones back over his ears. The flight was nowhere close to being over but Avatar is a pretty cool movie and anyway, we were out of beer. Where the Yellowstone Goes comes to theaters across the U.S. in the spring of 2012.