One day not too long ago Lisa Wolfinger watched with keen interest as some people she was working with set fire to a house. Within minutes it was engulfed in flames.
For a producer of documentaries, this is the kind of thing that comes with the job, and Wolfinger--who not only produces but also directs and writes for Lone Wolf Media, a company in South Portland—didn’t bat an eye. About the only thing that flustered her that day was that some of the people involved in the shoot stayed in the house longer than they should have as the flames leaped higher.
Lone Wolf’s latest project is a non-fiction series for the Smithsonian Channel called “America’s Hidden Stories.” The house was set ablaze for an episode on Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, as part of an investigation into whether Union soldiers plotted to burn the city of Richmond, Virginia, to the ground. It’s not a story you were told about in your high school history, not an experiment you got to carry out in science class.
How does a filmmaker go about bringing these stories to life and telling them in a visually compelling way? Watch our interview with Wolfinger to find out.
And finally, a correction. In our on-air interview with Lisa Wolfinger, we called the show “America’s Hidden Secrets.” Its name is “America’s Hidden Stories.” We regret the error.