Kamloops documentary maker wants to take project to the next level; a TV series | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Kamloops documentary maker wants to take project to the next level; a TV series

Jess Rothenburger, left, and Warren FitzGerald are working creating a TV series after finding success with their documentary film Gringos in the Garbage.
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KAMLOOPS - After a successful run with their documentary, including international screenings, the guys being Gringos in the Garbage are turning their project into a TV series.

Jess Rothenburger, of Kamloops, and Warren FitzGerald are pursuing a series after their documentary about El Limonal, a community located near a garbage dump in Nicaragua. The original documentary was about the pair’s experience in the community; the series will be aimed more at the people who live in similar situations.

“We’ll be going to developing countries,” Rothenberger says. “Finding out how they tick, how they survive and then relating the experience to our own.”

Rothenberger and FitzGerald plan to actually live within communities while shooting the series, participating in the day-to-day life and relating that experience to western norms.

Where the series is shown is still to be determined, but Rothenberger is certain there’s people interested in the subject matter.

“There’s an audience out there and their hungry for meaningful content,” he says. “We want to make this happen.”

Three seasons are already being sketched out, with five or six episodes each. Each season would focus on a country, with Sri Lanka, Peru and Rwanda likely spots as they know people in those locations.

“I’d like season one to be coming out at the end of 2018,” he says. “Our goal is to start shooting in 2018.”

The duo aren’t movie makers by trade, the documentary feature was born out of the two wanting to help the community and needing a way to engage people at home.

“Gringos in the Garbage was a means to an end,” he says. “It was a crazy amount of work, but rewarding.”

The film, book and experience of the duo behind the project have been used to raise money with people in Kamloops sending money to El Limonal through a vareity of projects.

The feature length documentary was made on about $8,000 using a Kickstarter campaign to fund it. Rottenberger says the intention for the series is to find a producer to help deal with funding and broadcasting while Rothenberger, FitzGerald and their editor focus on the craft.

“We have a lot of irons in the fire,” he says. “It’s a matter of when, not if.”

A website has been launched for the project.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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