PA filmmaker’s ‘Lust For Gold’ documents search for treasure
Robert May isn’t the only movie producer headquartered in Northeast Pennsylvania, but he’s easily the most successful one.
May, the former owner of a security company called
Triple A Protection, founded the Dallas, Pennsylvania-based SenArt Films back in 2000 with hopes of “turning out meaningful movies with true quality and commercial viability.”
So far, May’s hit the jackpot with a number of releases including “The Station Agent,” a character-driven drama which gave Peter Dinklage his first starring role; “Fog of War,” Errol Morris’s acclaimed doc about Vietnam War architect Robert S. McNamara; and “Kid For Cash,” May’s directorial debut which looked at two Luzerne County judges convicted of imprisoning teens for their own financial gain.
Now, May is back with “Lust For Gold: A Race Against
Time,” a documentary about Robert Kesselring, a retired missile scientist who, years ago, grew convinced that treasure is buried inside the most restricted area of federal land deep within Superstition Mountain, Arizona.
As soon as May heard Kesselring’s saga, he was hooked.
“The story fit into our objective of telling character-driven stories,” says May of the movie which will be released theatrically in June.
“For us, we were presented with a man in his mid-60’s, a retired missile scientist with two patents to his name, who could not let go of his childhood dream of finding treasure. It
seemed to have all the qualities of a good story.”
After meeting Kesselring, May decided to film the scientist as he attempted to locate and possibly heist the gold bullion. It was the opposite of an easy shoot. Without cell phones, electricity or running water, May footed the bill for satellite phones, five solar generators and a water filtration system, all of which needed to be brought in on horseback.
“Power was necessary to recharge camera batteries, laptop computers and drives needed to transfer daily footage,” notes May. “We filmed in 4k resolution, which meant
that our digital file management would be difficult. We filmed almost every waking hour of our subjects, so we had a great deal of footage to sort and file every day. “
While “Lust For Gold” is more action-oriented than many of May’s other movies, the film is grounded in its one-of-akind characters.
“[The movie] is not a socially important story like ‘Kids
For Cash’ but I do hope that the takeaway is: Never throw out your childhood dreams. Instead, embrace them, venture out and realize them if
you can. After all, life is really an adventure. We all know it ends; we just don’t know when or how.
“I admire those depicted in our film because they’re not in the spring of their lives and they haven’t stopped living. They have struggles that most of us experience as we get older, but that doesn’t stop them; they keep enjoying life — an adventure at any age!”