ST PAUL, MN – Shannon Hunter, a local filmmaker, is working on her next project – a documentary featuring three “Dudes” and three 1973 Gran Torinos.
Dude is the self-applied name that Jeff Bridge’s character in “The Big Lebowski” goes by. The Coen Brothers’ film has become a cult classic and has even inspired the multi-city festival, “Lebowski Fest.” It is through this Fest, that this documentary was conceptualized.
Shannon and her assistant producer, Stephanie Hunter will be heading though the Dairy State and the City of Big Shoulders to bear witness to a caravan of three 1973 Gran Torinos (the car the Dude loved and lost and found again in The Big Lebowski). The engines will start in Indianapolis, gallop through Kentucky, make a left at Elvis, and follow the Mississippi down to the first-ever Fest in New Orleans.
Tom Esterline, Paul Niesen and Jeff Faith each bring a different story to the Dude. Tom hails from Indianapolis, IN where he lives with his special lady friend and their three children. When he's not attending a Colts game or traveling the states to Lebowski Fests, you can catch him mixing a caucasian for amateurs and achievers alike at his local bar, The Alley Cat or working a spade at the Eagle Creek Nursery.
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Paul has been teaching college English for thirty years, for four of them a-way out west in Arizona, the rest in his native Wisconsin. Paul's claim to be the first person to screen "The Big Lebowski" in an academic setting (Spring 2000) has yet to be disputed. His wife and him have two adult sons: one quotes the movie to beat the band; the other is stonewalling.
Jeff, a private pilot, keeps himself busy brewing beer or building a Pietenpol Air Camper from the ground up when he's not playing the upright bass or guitar with his wife in their hometown of Louisville, KY. In true Dude-fashion, he owns a 1973 Gran Torino with brown, rust coloration and the California plates: 376 PCE.
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This project is set to start shooting on the road trip to New Orleans in the beginning of November and the final edit to be completed by March of 2014. Besides having it available for those that wish to own a copy, Shannon would like to enter it in film festivals. These festivals are a great way to share her work with the community and see it shown at local theaters.
To help out Shannon and her crew, please consider pledging to their Kickstarter campaign by clicking here.
To follow along of the adventure until the documentary is completed, join us on social media Facebook and Twitter