A few nights ago I saw a post on FB about D ick Wilmarth, the first Iditarod champion being very ill and not expected to live, and while going through some websites I stumbled across a failed 2017 kickstarter campaign for a Rod Perry project of doing a major film about First Iditarod and the people who participated in it at every level from conception to running. Rod was lamenting the fact that many people of the first Iditarod are no longer with us, and most survivors are nearing 80 or older. He wanted to film and document these people and their stories. I had never heard of the film or the kickstarter campaign and I emailed Mr. Perry about whether he was still attempting to do the film and if he would mount another kickstarter campaign in the future. Mr. Perry wrote back:
“Hi Brian,
We are indeed pulling out all stops in the making of our documentary motion picture entitled, TRAILBREAKERS—The Men of Seventy-Three.
There is no other (with filmmaking background) with first-person involvement running and writing about the ‘73 race, who has fixated on original founding Iditarod details like I have. My collaborator on Men of ’73 is Buzz Rohlfing, Academy Award nominated for “Best Documentary.” With such abundant and rich foundational tools, Buzz and I have every expectation of turning out an award winner that will blow even those who THINK they know Iditarod beginnings history out of their socks.”
Rod said his first goal is get a following for the film going.
“I think that you and your Iditabuds network can help. We need to spread word of our film through not only Iditarodia, but the entire sled dog mushing world, both among participants and fans. There are literally millions worldwide, and of those, there are thousands who are connected via active Iditarod and other sled dog race networks. Many Iditabuds are likely part of other networks. We should be ready enough before our next foray into crowd funding that our campaign is poised to go viral right from its launch.”
Rod said that his next goal is to set up a website dedicated to the film.
“We don’t want to even stick a toe into our next campaign without a pre-developed following, and a super website centered on the film is a way to attract folks and hold them. We want something sophisticated, not some barely thrown together minimum that reflects poorly on us as artists. I suspect that somewhere out there in the vast Iditarod (and other distance race) family there is a professional website designer who would be attracted to donating the work and expense of setting it up, just for the advertising on the site and a spot in the film credits.”
So I thought I’d post this here to help spread the word of this project before Rod gets his next Kickstarter project going. He said he would let me know when that next step would happen. So I think this is something my fellow Iditabuds may want to help spread the word on. Also if there are any web designers in our circle interested in helping Rod out in that aspect of his project, please contact Rod at rod@rodperry.com Any thoughts, ideas or questions about the project, please feel free to contact Rod as well. Please put The Men of Seventy-Three Film in the subject line, as he deletes unknowns.