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1/13/2008 The Restorers to Air on ND PBS Prairie Public TV will air The Restorers on January 24th, 2008 at 9 pm. This airing will broadcast in North Dakota on the following channels: KFME 13 Fargo, KGFE 2 Grand Forks, KBME 3 Bismarck, KSRE 6 Minot, KDSE 9 Dickinson, KWSE 4 Williston, KJRE 19 Ellendale, Winnipeg Cable Channel 3, Brandon Cable Channel 2
10/18/2006
The Restorers, a documentary film about warbird and vintage aircraft restorers will air on PBS this fall. The independently produced hour-long film has traveled nationwide to examine and document folks of varying backgrounds who devote a major portion of their life and finances to restoring rare, antique aircraft. Most of the older aircraft one sees at an airshow were found as wrecks and heaps of rusting parts. Only after devoting years of mostly volunteers’ time and a lot of cash do these planes become flight worthy once again. These people can range from ordinary working folks to businesses that specialize in warbird reconstruction. The hour-long film will air on PBS stations nationwide starting this November. The first stations to air the film are as follows: KNME – Albuquerque, NW KRWG – Las Cruces, NW KUED – Salt Lake City Utah KUHT Houston, Texas KUSM – Bozeman, Montana KVIE – Sacramento, California NCAR – Research Triangle Park, NC NDAK – Fargo, North Dakota NEWJ – Trenton, New Jersey WCEU – Daytona Beach, Florida WMVS – Milwaukee, Wisconsin WSBE – Providence, Rhode Island Contact one of these stations for broadcast times and dates. Other stations may be added in the future. The film is also available on VHS and DVD. To find out more about The Restorers, contact Adam White at (216) 496-5013 or visit our web site at www.therestorers.com. Mailings can be sent to Hemlock Films, 1929 W. 71st Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44102 9/26/05
being broadcast by PBS WEAO 45/49 during the summer of '04, the film became eligible for an Emmy award. Well, the film won. Specifically, The Restorers has won Best Special Programming 2004 in the Cleveland Regional chapter of the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences Emmy Awards. A special thanks goes out to WEAO for broadcasting the film, as well as to everyone who has supported the film throughout the years. Thanks.
8/22/04 Distribution!! The process has been months long, but the deal was finally worked out last week. The Restorers has now signed with a distributor. Solid Entertainment in Santa Monica, CA has agreed to represent the film and spearhead all domestic and international broadcast sales. Now, this does not guarantee the film will air nationally or internationally. This does, however, give The Restorers the best chance possible to reach a much wider audience. Solid Entertainment’s sales efforts will begin immediately and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. To find out more about Solid Entertainment, visit them on their web site at www.solidentertainment.com. New Museum Customers In the past week, The Restorers has been added to the gift shop racks at several museums. Among them are the Bong P-38 Heritage Museum and Planes of Fame in Chino, California. In addition, the film will now be carried in the catalog Historic Aviation. In memoriam
In May we lost an historic aircraft and a great man. Don Hinz was flying the P-51C Mustang named Tuskegee Airmen when it lost power during a show in Wisconsin and was forced down. Tuskegee Airmen was initially restored due, in no small part, to Don Hinz’s efforts. We celebrate the machine and especially the man. Don devoted much of his life to historical aircraft and he will be missed. The restoration of the aircraft has already begun in North Dakota by Gerry Beck and Bob Odegaard. For more information about the Red Tail Project or Don Hinz visit www.redtail.org. The Restorers on PBS Once is just not enough. PBS 45/49 had a great response after the first airing of The Restorers last month. Now 45/49 plans on airing the film once again on June 16th at 8:00 pm. This airing will coincide with the MAPS Airshow, held that week at the Akron-Fulton Airport. For those outside the Cleveland-Akron viewing area, we apologize. If you wish The Restorers to be show in your area, call your local PBS affiliate and ask them why they are not airing it yet. Festival Awards The Restorers has been awarded at the following festivals: Fargo Film Festival Worldfest Houston US International Film & Video Festival Summer Fun Last month EAA Sun & Fun had copies of The Restorers on sale to the public. In the coming months the film will also be available on VHS & DVD at several other airshows and aviation events. If you do not see an event or airshow listed that is near you, check our web site. The list will change often. 2004 May 7-8 Air Racing History Symposium - Cleveland, Ohio June 17-18 MAPS Air Expo – Akron, Ohio July 9-11 USAM Airshow – Ashtabula, Ohio July 27 – Aug 2 EAA AirVenture 2004 – Oshkosh, WI Aug. 7-8 Thunder Over Michigan – Belleville, MI 5/11/04 Summer Fun Last month EAA Sun & Fun had copies of The Restorers on sale to the public. In the coming months the film will also be available on VHS & DVD at several other airshows and aviation events. If you do not see an event or airshow listed that is near you, check our web site. The list will change often. 2004 May 7-8 Air Racing History Symposium -Cleveland, Ohio June 17-18 MAPS Air Expo – Akron, Ohio July 9-11 USAM Airshow – Ashtabula, Ohio July 27 – Aug 2 EAA AirVenture 2004 – Oshkosh, WI Aug. 7-8 Thunder Over Michigan – Belleville, MI The Restorers on PBS Once is just not enough. PBS 45/49 had a great response after the first airing of The Restorers last month. Now 45/49 plans on airing the film once again on June 16th at 8:00 pm. This airing will coincide with the MAPS Airshow, held that week at the Akron-Fulton Airport. For those outside the Cleveland-Akron viewing area, we apologize. If you wish The Restorers to be show in your area, call your local PBS affiliate and ask them why they are not airing it yet. Festival Awards The Restorers has been awarded at the following festivals: Fargo Film Festival Worldfest Houston US International Film & Video Festival 4/13/02 Sun & Fun, here we come! With the airshow season beginning, many plans are underway for the sale of the film. Individual copies on VHS and DVD will be available at several airshows this year. Two airshows of note will be Sun & Fun in Lakeland, Florida and Air Venture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Look for copies for sale at the EAA Warbirds of America booth in Lakeland. 4/13/04 The Restorers on PBS The first on-air broadcast of The Restorers will finally occur. On April 13th the film will air in the Cleveland /Akron area on PBS 45/49. The 10:00 pm broadcast will be only the first. PBS 45/49 has plans to air the film a few more times in the coming months. 4/13/2004 Fargo Film Festival Last month we traveled back to the beginning of the whole process; Fargo, North Dakota. Site of the beginning of our shooting schedule in 2002, we were the guests of the 2004 Fargo Film Festival. After kicking off the festival with a great screening, we accepted the Documentary Feature Runner-Up award. After a wonderful evening, we were afforded the chance to check out Gerry Beck’s latest projects; another P-51D and a new P-51A. For those keeping track, he finished the Zero from the film a while ago. 2/09/04 Return to Fargo Next month, The Restorers will be returning to Fargo! The Fargo Film Festival, held annually in Fargo ND, has selected The Restorers to be a part of their program for 2004. In addition to the film being awarded honorable mention in the documentary feature category, the film will also kick off the whole festival with a screening the evening of March 3rd. 2/01/04 The Restorers now in museums The film has now found its way into museums. The Yankee Air Museum in Bellville, Michigan and the Fargo Air Museum in Fargo, ND are now carrying The Restorers in their gift shops. Several other museums are considering the film for their shops in the coming year. Now Available on Home Video The film is now available on home video in two formats; VHS and DVD. The new DVD also includes extended features and deleted scenes. Also available are posters and production stills from The Restorers. For more information, visit the swag section of The Restorers web site or call at (216) 496-5013. Next Stop – PBS An agreement has been reached for The Restorers first television broadcast. PBS 45/49 in Akron, Ohio has agreed to air The Restorers in the month of March or April. The film will have multiple broadcasts, with the first being in prime time. Check The Restorers web site for more information on air times. 7/24/03 The Restorers Public Premiere This month the public received their first look at The Restorers. During the same week as the Dayton Airshow, the film publicly debuted at the Neon Movies in downtown Dayton. Some of the restorers in the film attended the screenings and fielded questions from the public afterwards. Running three straight nights, the screenings were well received. More folks would have attended were it not for the Dayton Airshow. The airshow was so well attended; many who wished to come to the evening screenings were not able to make it through the traffic snarl on I 75. 6/03/03 Dayton Premiere Approaches The Neon Movies in Dayton, Ohio has now added another show to our public world premiere during the Dayton Airshow weekend. The Restorers will now play at 7:15 pm on July 18, 19 and 20. For more information contact the Neon Movies or us here. 4/26/03 The Restorers Has Been Completed! Almost. The primary post production of the film has been completed with a sigh of relief. Now begins the arduous task of selling the product for broadcast. After which, some editing will be required again. This will mostly involve bringing The Restorers in line with the network’s timetable. Translation: allow for commercials. After this process, the film will get the hi-def treatment. Also included in this process will be an extreme high quality sound mix. The Restorers Premiere The film was officially unveiled on May 9th in Cleveland, Ohio. With a gathering of cast, crew, restorers and media, The Restorers was viewed for the first time in a semi-public forum. Around 80 hearty souls braved the stormy northeast Ohio skies to be at this special occasion. Many who were in the film were in attendance that evening. Local restorers Gretchen & Chuck Reed and Mike Cuy were on hand. Traveling from North Carolina was Cpt. Tanya Markow who piloted the Wright Glider in the film. Also going the distance was David Fields and Gene Colabatisto, both supporters of the film. David also flew the air-to-air camera plane during production. What’s Next? Our primary mission now is to find a broadcast home for the film. While the sales efforts continue, exhibition of the film will also occur. Plans are in the works for The Restorers to be screened for the public during the Dayton Air Show, July 17-20. The venue will be the Neon Movies in downtown Dayton. Exact times have not been resolved yet, but check our web site for updated information about the Dayton show and other upcoming screenings of The Restorers 4/23/03 Press Screening Announced
The Sprint to the Finish Line As we enter the final month of post-production, the workload is heating up. As those of you who work on aircraft know, many things come together during the final stages of a project. In the case of filmmaking, this is also true. Final editing, music scoring, sound effects editing, animation, legal paperwork and voice over recording all merge together into one eventful month. The film is having written for it a completely original score. Composer / musician Keith Nickoson has been tooling away, bringing a unique sound to each one of our Restorer stories. So many of the aircraft in the film have historical backgrounds. We have been working hard to reflect this in the storytelling of the film. To help out with the cause, The Restorers is receiving help from Wright State University’s Library Archives, The U.S. Air Force Museum, and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Through their collections of photographs and footage, we have been able to give a little background texture to our stories. In addition, our subjects have also given us access to photos, drawings, and documents, for which we are very grateful. 12/01/02 Plugging Away Now that filming is complete, we turn our full attention to the next two phases of The Restorers; Post-Production and Marketing. The editing of the film has progressed nicely. As expected, we have too much good material. Cutting it down to one hour will be the main challenge. As for the selling of the product, we’re well under way. Parties interested in the film have begun viewing material that has been assembled thus far. We’ll keep you posted. 12/01/02 Blue Skies, Joe…
We mourn the loss of our friend Joe Tobul. During an airshow performance this past month in his F4U-4 Corsair "Korean War Hero", Joe lost engine power. While attempting to make it back to the runway, Joe crashed. It has become apparent that Joe made extreme efforts to avoid coming down in a nearby residential neighborhood. Anyone who has met Joe is familiar with his outgoing persona and warm heart. We'll miss him. Through the course of the filming of The Restorers we have collected hundreds of feet of film and lots of nice stills (such as the one above). As a tribute, the above photo is available as an 8x10 enlargement . The only cost would be shipping. Contact us for more information. For more of Joe's bio visit The Restorers section of our site. 11/02/02 Back to Barnstorming Mike Cuy’s job has him right on the edge of technology. He’s in charge of new engine materials testing at NASA Glenn Research Center. During the week, he tests new engine parts and coatings for some of today’s most advanced aircraft. On the weekend, Cuy goes back in time. He is the owner/pilot of a 1930’s Pietenpol homebuilt plane. Flying his Pietenpol out of a Northern Ohio grass strip, Cuy enjoys the atmosphere of the old days. “It’s like a time machine. No control tower, no jets. Just enjoying aviation at its core essence. Flying low and slow, enjoying the view,” says Cuy. Cuy has won awards with his Pietenpol at many fly-ins across the midwest including the 1998 Bronze Lindbergh award at the EAA’s fly-in at Oshkosh, WI. 11/02/02 Pheasant Run Airport Chuck and Gretchen Reed have carved out a nice little hobby for themselves. Well, only if you define a “little hobby” as owning 21 aircraft, 12 buildings, and two working grass strip runways. Started 25 years ago when they purchased the property, the Reeds have applied a lot of effort over the years to make their airport what it is today: a not-so-mini flying museum. With 16 of their aircraft in flying condition, Chuck and Gretchen split their time between maintenance and flying engagements. Their warm weather schedule is usually packed with giving tours, flying at air shows, military service flyovers and working with local authorities doing search and rescue. After retiring from their careers (Gretchen was a school teacher and Chuck served in the Air Force), the two have settled into doing what they enjoy: playing with airplanes. When asked why they had so many airplanes when there is only the two of them, Chuck replied, “Well, you have to have toys.” 11/02/02 The Wrights Fly Again As the winds of Kitty Hawk, NC blew biblical amounts of sand into our filming gear this past month, others reveled in it. The Wright Aeroplane Company, led by restorer Nick Engler, brought their historically accurate 1902 Wright glider to these outer banks dunes to recreate the brother’s experiments from 100 years ago. Engler has committed himself Not only to building accurate replicas of all the Wright aircraft from 1899-1905, but to restoring the exact way the Wrights thought, worked and flew. Engler calls it “New Archaeology.” Helping them are experienced pilots from the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. After some practice, the pilots were able to coax some 200 feet of flight out of the antique design. 10/01/02
aircraft; the F4B-1, and a P-12B. In all, Rehm is doing 8 aircraft at once. Situated at the base of Jobs Peak in Nevada, Rehm tools away in his shop with a finish date of, “Two or three years from now.” 10/01/02 Reno, Baby. Reno. After last year’s cancellation due to 9/11, the Reno Air Races were finally back. Many folks took time out of their busy schedules in Reno to give us access and interviews for The Restorers. Maj. Gen Bill Anders, a former air racer and Apollo astronaut, flew his restored P-51 Val-Halla in the Heritage flight. Joining him was Planes of Fame director Steve Hinton in his P-38 Lightning. Hinton also flew his Lockheed T-33 as the pace plane for each Unlimited Class race all weekend. We also were able to catch up with brothers Dennis and Brian Sanders. Long time restorers, the Sanders brothers were in the competition with their fully restored stock Hawker Sea Fury Argonaut. 9/11/02 Flying with Gerry Although our shooting schedule continues, we are now starting to wrap up some of the stories we have been following this year. At the Cleveland Air Show we had the opportunity to film with Gerry Beck again. The last time we met Beck was in his Wahpeton hangers, surrounded by the North Dakota winter. This time we filmed Beck flying his Corsair in formation with his SBD flown by Warren Pietsch. The very next week we met up with Beck again at the Gathering of Corsairs at the Indianapolis Air Show. Beck got the opportunity to do something he has never been able to do: Fly his corsair in formation with other corsairs and an F-18. Our thanks go out to Gerry Beck and David Fields for allowing us the opportunity to do some air-to-air filming of Beck’s corsair from Fields’ Grumman Tiger. 8/15/02 Hard Work, Great Rewards July proved to be an exhausting month. We kicked it off with a three day shoot in Willoughby, Ohio where we shot with Joe Tobul and his Corsair. While there we also filmed the B-17 Yankee Lady and her crew from the Yankee Air Force (Willow Run Airport in Michigan). Two days later we were in downtown Dayton filming with aviation archaeologist Nick Engler. Engler and his crew are in the beginning stages of reconstructing the Wright flyer. We’ll catch up again with the Wright crew in October when they’ll visit Kitty Hawk, NC for a three day flying competition of early Wright aircraft. That same day we visited with the U.S. Air Force’s restoration group. They were kind enough to show us around their latest restoration project; a B-2 Stealth Bomber. After a short break, we were back in Dayton to film with Brig. Gen. Regis Urschler, pilot of the P-51 Mustang “Gunfighter”. The General put the Mustang through it’s paces and then capped the show with a heritage flight with an A-10 Warthog. Many thanks go out to our subjects for taking time out in their busy schedules to appear in our film. Thanks also to the United States Aviation Museum, the Dayton Air Show, and the United States Air Force Museum for aiding us in our filming. 6/1/02 Borman Rides Again Our main focus at the Amigo show was Col. Frank Borman and his P-51, Su-Su II. Col. Borman, a veteran from the Air Force, Gemini and Apollo space programs and Eastern Airlines, has been involved in restoring warbirds for over 10 years. He flies his rare two seat P-51 in southwestern airshows doing acrobatic demonstrations and heritage flights with an F-15C. Located in Las Cruces, NM, Col Borman has had a hand in the restoration of over 15 aircraft including a P-63 Kingcobra. Although he restores planes to be sold, he can’t help holding on to some. “My problem is that I fall in love with the merchandise,” says Borman. 5/25/02 From Ice to Fire Our last location shoot found the crew of The Restorers in Fargo, ND in below-zero wind chill conditions. This month we swung to the opposite end of the spectrum. We found ourselves in El Paso, Texas at this year’s Amigo Airsho. Our thanks go out to the staff and volunteers there for helping out whenever they could. A location film shoot is a difficult undertaking and Amigo did their best to accommodate us. Thanks! 3/11/02 Let the shooting begin!! Production on The Restorers has begun with our shoots near Fargo, ND. In white-out conditions, our crew interviewed both Bob Odegaard and Gerry Beck to find out what they're cooking up in their separate restoration facilities. Bob is busy working on two more Corsairs and a Mustang and preparing for this year's appearances for him in "57" . Gerry is putting the finishing touches on a Mustang and a Japanese Zero Model 21. 2/7/2002 Production start date set Shooting will begin for The Restorers on March 8th when the crew travels to Fargo, North Dakota. In Fargo, we'll meet up with Gerry Beck and Bob Odegaard. We'll take a look at their facilities and find out what these two veteran restorers have in store for the summer of 2002. 1/16/2002 Preproduction making headway. After the great success of finding folks who would allow their stories to be told, the project is now in the fundraising stage. Although fundraising is a difficult part of filmmaking, we have already had early interest with some folks already pledging financing. On the locations front, the paperwork is now being moved through, albeit slowly. Clearances are now being sought for our crews to film at some of the major airshows occurring around the country this year. The Corsair Gathering in Indianapolis this September has already agreed to have us out with every courtesy extended to us. Check back for more updates !
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