Not Exactly ‘The Office’, But Former UW Professor Documentary Airs on PBS
There's no tales of Michael Scott or Dwight Schrute appearing on this documentary that PBS is airing, but it does involve a former University of Wyoming professor in his pursuit of tracking down a historical rock in the Rocky Mountains. The documentary film is called 'Morfar's View of the Winds' and PBS aired it tonight (October 11th), and will air it Tuesday, October 19th at 9:30 p.m.
Conrad Smith (Morfar) is a former professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Wyoming. The director was Mark Pedri, who is also a master's graduate in Communication. He followed Smith in his journey of searching for the exact rock where Charles Preuss sat within the Rocky Mountains as Preuss sketched the first published image of the mountain range. Preuss drew the sketch in 1842. Checkout the social media post Pedri made for the premiere of the film below.
The sketch by Preuss, along with reports from John Fremont during their travels are credited for helping with the Great Western Expansion of 1850. The expansion included such historic travels, such as the California Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail, and the Mormon migration to Salt Lake City.
Pedri spoke highly of Smith's journey in making the film:
We thought Conrad was a great character, very charismatic, and his journey was intriguing to us. Kind of a bit of an obscurity, but the fact that he’s this older person going deep into the mountains, there was an adventure element to it.
Smith was joined by his daughter and granddaughter on the expedition to locate the spot so that they could duplicate the image in photographic form, all of 177 years later.
'Morfar's View of the Winds' was an Official Selection at the Breck Film Festival and also the winner for Best Wyoming Documentary at the 307 International Film Festival. Check out the trailer for the documentary film below.
Credit: Burning Torch Productions via Vimeo
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