“Red Gold,” a documentary about the proposed Pebble mine project is an attempt to not only give a face and voice to the region, but an effort to look at both sides - pro and con - of a complicated issue the filmmakers say has garnered little attention outside of Alaska.

Felt Soul Media, a Telluride, Colo.-based film company, partnered with the Alaska chapter of the nonprofit conservation group Trout Unlimited to make the film.

According to Alaska Director Tim Bristol, Trout Unlimited is not an anti-mining organization, but does oppose the Pebble project.

“We have not taken a position on any other mine in the state,” he said. “But we're concerned about Pebble because it's going to be at the headwaters oft the greatest remaining wild salmon fishery in the world.”

Rummel and Knight met Bristol at a fly-fishing retailers' show in Denver in September 2006. The pair had recently completed a fly fishing documentary in Baja, Mexico, and showed a five-minute clip at the show. After seeing the clip, Bristol approached them about his organization's desire to produce a fair, balanced and comprehensive film that would “go beyond the fish and the mine and the battle between the two interests,” Bristol said. “Our concern was really capturing the heart of the community.”

Bristol said the pair was already known within the fly-fishing industry for taking a grassroots approach to documentary filmmaking.

“We weren't interested in making what we refer to as Ôfish porn,'” Bristol said. “We wanted to focus on Bristol Bay, that fishery and the people who depend on it. These guys understood that.”

Rummel said he and Knight realized covering the Pebble issue would be a more-involved project than they had attempted in the past. Their budget was bigger, too. “Our first film had a $1,000 budget and our second film was made for $15,000, so a budget of $100,000 was a big jump for us,” Rummel said.

After developing a production schedule, packing their gear (“I wanted to bring a back-up pair of sunglasses,” Knight said, “but there was no room”) and being grounded by a “windstorm from hell” in transit, the pair arrived in Alaska on June 15, 2007. They stayed in Bristol Bay almost exclusively over the duration of the 68-day shoot.

The pair lived in the Peter Pan Cannery, slept in cargo containers on boats and camped out in the rain, all while lugging around 300 pounds of camera gear. Knight recalled an incident when a Bush pilot picked them up from an unsuccessful seven-day boating trip.

“We only got one clip of two moose standing on a riverbank that actually made it into the film,” Knight said. “When the pilot picked us up, we had so much stuff that I literally had to stuff my tube of toothpaste in his glove compartment. It was scary as hell trying to lift that heavy plane off the ground.”

Treacherous air travel experiences aside, Knight said the most challenging as well as the most rewarding part of the process was “finding the people who embodied what it means to be a fisherman on Bristol Bay. We just had to find those people audience members could relate to, the ones with kind hearts and good eyes. It was challenging to find those people but once we did, it sort of clicked instantly.”

Two such people were Nushagak Point set-netter Dylan Braund and Dillingham commercial fisherman Peter Andrew.

“(Andrew) took us into his house and his wife fed us salmon chowder, pickled salmon and canned salmon with these jalapenos in it,” Knight said. “They were so sweet to us and so appreciative of what we were doing. He had us both nearly in tears because he's so passionate about the place. When Travis and I left there, we didn't say anything to each other for miles. We were just floored.”

Knight and Rummel said that those involved with the Pebble mine project in Iliamna generally refused to talk on camera. This was even more of a challenge for the filmmakers since the documentary is interview-driven.

More forthcoming were the executives at Northern Dynasty, which owns 50 percent of the Pebble prospect. The company's open-door policy made it possible for the filmmakers to tell the pro-mining side of the story.

“Northern Dynasty was amazingly welcoming to us,” Knight said. “I think it says something about the mining company that they'll let journalists come in and film - it means they're not hiding anything. They obviously don't want to do anything that would have an adverse environmental impact. I think they're very genuine.”

The filmmakers were also able to track down a man in Nondalton who was willing to speak to them.

“He said he didn't think the state would allow a mine to be permitted that wasn't safe. He thought it was an awesome opportunity,” Rummel said.

Some 60 million fish return to Bristol Bay every year. According to the Pebble partnership, there are $350 billion to $500 billion worth of minerals in the ground.

The filmmakers said that after spending more than two months in Bristol Bay and hearing both sides of the issue, they are against the mining proposal.

“It's the absolute worst location (for a mine) possible,” Rummel said “If it was a mile in either direction, it wouldn't be half as bad.”

But they were cognizant of showing both sides of the complex issue, they said.

Knight said he's been unimpressed by all the biased environmental films he's seen so far.

“We are keeping our own politics out of the thread of the film and trying to have the Pebble story tell itself,” he wrote in a blog entry dated June 30, 2007. “The pro (mining) side has been difficult to get in with as most of our interviewees are very skeptical about our motives, which I don't blame them for given our sponsors and interestsÉ Regardless, we are doing our best to approach this holistically and keep it as neutral as possible.”

Knight said he could “go on forever about the parts that weren't enjoyable,” but it was also “the best summer of my life. We just finished editing the film and I've never been so proud of anything in my life.”

The film will debut at the MountainFilm festival in Telluride, Colo., in May. Rummel said they plan to show the film in Dillingham in June, and in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks this fall. For information, visit www.FeltSoulMedia.com.