Special Documentary The Restorers: They Were All Volunteers

On April 18, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle led a daring bombing raid on Honshu that gave a much-needed boost to American morale and caused the Japanese to doubt the infallibility of their leadership. This locally-produced documentary, dedicated to all those who volunteer, chronicles the 2010 reunion of 17 bomber crews from the mission and the particular journey of a B-25 named Miss Mitchell. It will be screened for Sunday with the Friends at 2 p.m. on April 21 in the Main Library Auditorium. Filmmakers Adam White and Kara Martinelli will be on hand for this special screening, and Martinelli took some time out of a busy filmmaking schedule to talk about this extraordinary documentary.

What made you want to make The Restorers?

The Restorers is a documentary film made in 2003 by Hemlock Films, featuring stories about people who restore and fly antique aircraft. After the film came out, the Director, Adam White, had a stream of people suggesting new stories to him. So he came up with the idea to make it into a TV series. The Restorers - They Were All Volunteers is our pilot episode for that series.

Adam and I both have a love for history, specifically aviation history and WWII. So our passion for keeping these stories alive and teaching them to a younger generation has been our drive to make this TV series.

Did it surprise you that these volunteers have such a strong and dedicated bond even after all this time?

I’d say we were more excited than anything. To have people be so dedicated, especially the younger ones, to keeping history alive through flying a 70-year-old bomber to different cities to tell the stories of WWII and the sacrifice that those airman made during the war. There is a young lady in the documentary who runs the Minnesota Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, and she got involved because her grandfather used to work on B-25s and he brought her to the hanger when she was a child. And now she is in charge of the whole wing, volunteering all her free time to help maintain and run the museum.

What is one especially funny/special story that stood out for you while interviewing the subjects of the film?

When we filmed the Doolittle Raider Reunion, we hired freelance filmmakers to help us shoot it. They didn’t know anything about the Raiders or that part of history. After interviewing the Doolittle Raiders, one of our camera operators went down to the gift shop in the Museum of the US Air Force, and bought “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” and a few other documentaries about WWII.

You specialize in “aviation” filmmaking. How do you explain this special brand of documentary filmmaking?

While Adam White and I are both freelance filmmakers, our passion is history and aviation. Adam has been doing aviation related filmmaking for a decade now, so he’s had time to really hone the craft of air-to-air filmmaking and telling a good story. Our documentaries are about the stories of the people who flew the aircraft and those who dedicate their lives to restoring them and keeping that history alive for younger generations. Rather than just telling the story of the airplane.

Have you ever been in a dangerous/scary situation while filming?

During the Doolittle Reunion, they had a 17-ship formation flight of B-25 bombers fly over a ceremony to honor the Doolittle Raiders. I was the lucky one thrown into the bomber from Minnesota, Miss Mitchell, to shoot the formation flight from the air. We were in the back of the formation, I think at position 15 or so. It was really awe inspiring to see all of those ships flying together. It really gave me a sense of what it must have been like during the war when they would have massive formation flights to fly over a target, though this flight didn’t have nearly as many planes as they would have for a mission during the war. It was an amazing experience and I’m very lucky to have had that opportunity.

Did you expect to win two Emmys for this film? What was your reaction when you found out?

Whenever we start on a project, we expect to do a top-notch job. We go into it aiming to have the quality of work that could earn an Emmy award. And we hope that it will be recognized that way when we have finished the project. I think a lot of that comes from our desire to do the best job possible, and our love of the subject. We want to appeal to as many people as possible so that these stories of history and the people who created it, can live on.

When we found out that we were nominated in three categories, I was very excited to see that our hard work and the money that we put into it was receiving recognition. This was the first time I had received an Emmy nomination, let alone three of them. Adam White has received several from past aviation and non-aviation related projects, so I don’t think it was as exciting for him. Though I know he was very happy that we won the awards for Technical Achievement and Writing.

After a screening of your film, what do you hope the audience walks away talking about?

We hope that they walk away wanting to see more episodes. After our screenings, we always have a long Q&A session, because so many people want to talk about the history. My favorite comment was from a 10-year-old boy who stood up and wanted to know when he could see more. That is exactly what we are aiming for. To get more people, especially young people, interested in history and aviation.

We are currently in production for the rest of our 5 episode season of The Restorers. We have enough investors to start production, and we are looking for more investors to bring our project to completion when we have finished filming at the end of the year.

For more information about this event and all the exciting events going on at Lakewood Public Library, please visit www.lakewoodpubliclibrary.org.

Read More on Library
Volume 9, Issue 8, Posted 9:37 PM, 04.16.2013