‘Autumn Gold’ masters track documentary to debut in Toronto
Jan Tenhaven
Toronto folks are lucky ducks! They get to see the North American premiere of “Herbstgold” (“Autumn Gold”), the German-made masters track documentary that includes a lot of footage from Lahti worlds. It’s not the first masters track movie (that honor belongs to the American film “Racing Against the Clock,” which I reviewed five years ago.) But “Gold” could be the best. Alfred Proksch, the M100 Austrian thrower at Lahti, is featured in the film — and stars in the quickly made trailer below. (An “official” trailer is still in the works.) Watch for Alfred painting. (He’s a lucky duck, too!) Other athletes profiled are W90 thrower Gabre Gabric, M80 sprinter Jiří Soukup, W85 thrower Ilse Pleuger and M90 sprinter Herbert Liedtke. Written and directed by Berliner Jan Tenhaven, the documentary made the cut for the prestigious HotDocs film festival next month in Toronto. The film (detailed here) shows twice — 7 p.m. May 4 and 11:30 a.m. May 6. I expect a full report from you guys.
Here’s my quickie Q&A with director Jan (pronounced Yon):
Masterstrack.com: How was Toronto chosen for the pemiere?
Jan Tenhaven: HotDocs is a fantastic festival for documentaries (the biggest one in North America!) so we applied… and funny enough they picked the film out of many, many entries. We all feel very honored.
When will “Autumn Gold” be seen more widely?
The theatrical release date is July 1st in Germany and September 10th in Austria. Not sure whether it will hit the cinemas in North America. But we are working on a 52-minute international version with more English speaking protagonists including Nick Corish (M85) from Ireland.
Do you have a distributor in the United States?
Soon! The production company is in touch with some.
When will the film be available on DVD?
Yes, probably by the end of 2010. I will keep you posted.
Do any of the athletes shown share in the box office receipts?
Box office receipts? How do you spell that? No, seriously: In theory, yes, but in practice probably no. There are usually no huge profits in documentaries for the creative people after everybody else has been paid. There’s one rule of thumb: If you wanna make money – do not make documentaries!
Are all of the folks in your film still alive?
Yes. Very much so. Alfred Proksch, the now-101-year-old discus thrower, feels a bit weak though. Lahti was most likely his last and final world championships. I guess he deserves a break.
Have you shown the film to the athletes? What is their reaction?
Not all of them have watched it yet — but the ones who have seen it loved it. It’s about so much more than sports. It’s about the will power, the positive energy, the determination that stands behind masters athletics. So the film is very warm, positive, humorous and life-affirming – a true feel-good-movie in its best sense. So far everybody has confirmed that it is by no means a “freak show” — we never ever make fun of the old folks.
Jürgen Winkelblech did wonderful editing! How long was he in the cutting room? Give him a raise!
We both sat in that tiny dark room for about half a year. And yes, Jürgen Winkelblech has done a fantastic job! We had about 150 hours of footage — not an easy task to cut it down to 94 minutes. I think he and Marcus Winterbauer the cameraman plus Christian Beetz the producer who had very early seen the potential of the story are the most important people. But there are so many more great people behind the scenes who helped to create a wonderful project, really, everybody loved it from the beginning. I think the extraordinary spirit of our heroes added a lot to this positive karma.
How many people do you list in the credits?
I didn’t count them… Some are listed under > Team > Credits on our website www.autumngold-movie.com
What will you wear to the Academy Awards in 2011? And may I be your guest?
Guess I’d need to buy a suit or at least something other than my usual blue jeans with trainers – and no, that will be my wife I’m afraid. Sorry, Ken.
May I say something? I wish to extend a warm thank-you to all master athletes — especially to those who have been in Lahti and who might have been annoyed by our cameras. We really appreciate their cooperation and hope they will like the result of our work.
Here's director Jan chatting with M100 thrower Alfred Proksch after the Lahti discus. Alfred won! (Photo by Ken Stone)
7 Responses
Looks like a great film!
Great selection of athletes for the film. Let’s hope it’s a big success.
To put a couple of these folks into historical perspective…Alfred Proksch and Gabre Gabric competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics…Hitler’s Olympics…the Olympics in which Jesse Owens won four Gold Medals.
Although she competes for Italy, Gabre was born in Austria-Hungary, which doesn’t even exist any more. But then again, Yugoslavia doesn’t exist any more either, which was where her hometown was located after Austria-Hungary split up. Today, her birthplace is located in Croatia.
And Gabre just goes on and on..a gorgeous lady of 95 who competes in full make-up and jewelry.
Herbert Liedtke SWE and I ran a couple of 200m warm-ups at indoor training today.
Rob, your historical perspectives were great. Here is another. Herbert Liedtke was born 1916 in the Imperial German Prussian city of Danzig. Following WWI Danzig became the German-dominated Freie Stadt Danzig in 1919. Hitler incorporated Danzig into the Third Reich 1939 and Herbert Liedtke left Danzig for Sweden in 1939. Following WWII Danzig became the Polish city of Gdansk in 1945.
Herbert Liedtke will be 94 on April 29.
And a happy birthday to Herbert. He and so many others prove that you scratch a Master’s Athlete and you get a lesson in history.
What was particularly interesting at the Lahti World Championships were the numbers of athletes from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who in their younger days had competed for the Soviet Union when their countries had been part of the USSR.
Must be quite a feeling to finally represent your own independent country.
“Autumn Gold” was very well received at the screening at Hot Docs last night–a standing ovation for the director, Jan Tenhaven. The film is charming, funny, and the senior athletes are real characters. They are not just in shape physically, but mentally, too. Sharp, vital, active, and with a real competitive spirit. The film is a delight and I wish it much success.
My photo of the director addressing the audience following the screening: http://twitpic.com/1l4g6e
http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/autumn_gold
Guten Abend,
hier sind noch ein paar Oldies.
Friedegard Liedtke aus Berlin und Doris Hoser geb. Liedtke (1934,Essen)aus New York sind zusammen im NY Marathon gelaufen. Wir waren zusammen 150 Jahre alt, Friedegard aus Berlin trug dazu 96 Jahre bei und ich den Rest.
Friedegard lebt in Berlin und ich jetzt in Miami,Florida.
Ich wuerde mich freuen, wenn ich eine Telefon-(oder e-mail)Adresse von Herbert Liedtke bekommen koennte . Dann wuerde ich gerne mit Herbert Liedtke Kontakt aufnehmen, denn der Vater meines Vaters stammte auch aus Danzig. Ich laufe immer noch Halb-marathons in Miami in einer Gruppe aus alten Freunden.
Hoffentlich finde ich mit dieser Notiz ins Universum ein Echo.
Doris Hoser, Miami Fl.
Sure would like to find a copy of this movie on dvd or download to purchase. It’s near the end of 2012 now and still can’t find it available for sale. Any ideas?
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