'The World's Fastest' Documentary Project
Two German Girls shoot The World‘s Fastest documentary.
When the Bonneville Speed Week takes place this August, on a huge salt lake in Utah, these two will be there: Alexandra Lier, director and photographer, and Laia Gonzalez, film producer. The two women from Hamburg want to shoot the world‘s fastest documentary – and are seeking support for their ambitious project on Kickstarter.
Anyone who loves car racing bows to the magic which famously takes place at the Bonneville high-speed race. Every year, in the middle of nowhere, on a vast dried-out salt lake under the blazing Utah sun, speed fanatics, tinkerers and purists unite for a race of superlatives. Nowhere else on earth have so many land speed records been set. And nowhere else can you watch so many living legends as they make history. Legends like Al Teague, Duane McKinney, Jack Costella and Dennis Varni.
Alexandra Lier and Laia Gonzalez will accompany these legends with „The World‘s Fastest“ on their way to what will potentially be their last race. McKinney and his colleagues are all over 70 years old – however, this is not an obstacle. On the salt, age doesn’t count, just experience and passion. And that is exactly what Lier and Gonzalez portray in their film, up close and personal.
„The World‘s Fastest“ is not just about speed. It is a film about time: record time, about a life time, about time remaining. So it’s not surprising that it’s precisely this topic which plays a decisive role in the production of the documentary film itself. Lier and Gonzalez have decided to bypass conventional and often protracted production processes – and instead to finance their film faster, via the crowd funding platform Kickstarter. „It is a race against time for us, in all respects. The salt layer gets thinner every year, so this story has to be produced this year, otherwise it may be too late“, says director Alexandra Lier.
To help the team achieve their financing goal in record speed supporters can, for instance, purchase a tuning workshop with Jack Costella, or become a named sponsor of McKinney’s custom Corvette. All this in addition to classic merchandise, such as T-shirts and posters.
If everything goes well and the Kickstarter goal of 58,000 Euros is reached, the small crew will shoot between June and August of this year. First back in the garages of the protagonists and later in Utah, out into no-mansland, in the middle of the salt lake, which crunches under the shoes like snow. For the legends of the Bonneville Speed Week, this might be the last race. But for these two filmmakers and their documentary it will only be the beginning of an exciting journey.
