The Team
James E. Caron (Professor of English, University of Hawaii and Author)
At University of Hawaii Mānoa, James Caron’s areas of interest include 19th-century American literature, Mark Twain, comic art and literature, and popular culture. He is the winner of a 2012 College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature Excellence in Teaching Award.
Caron wrote the definitive book on Samuel Clemens in the West - Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter - the book was the foundation of our research.
We interviewed Professor Caron for several hours at his mother-in-law's home and he answered our questions with thought filled replies and filled in many of the gaps that our research was missing.
James Caron earned a BA from Loyola University in Los Angeles, and MA and PhD from the University of Oregon.
Caron wrote the definitive book on Samuel Clemens in the West - Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter - the book was the foundation of our research.
We interviewed Professor Caron for several hours at his mother-in-law's home and he answered our questions with thought filled replies and filled in many of the gaps that our research was missing.
James Caron earned a BA from Loyola University in Los Angeles, and MA and PhD from the University of Oregon.
Victor A. Fischer (Principal Editor - The Mark Twain Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California - Berkeley)
We'd been trying to schedule a visit to the Bancroft Library in Berkeley for months. Schedule conflicts kept coming up and it looked as though we were going to have to finish the film without any input or images from the Mark Twain Papers at the library.
When things looked darkest and we thought our cameras would never get to see Samuel Clemens Notebook #4, which Clemens started writing in January 1865, Victor Fischer came through. Kind, knowledgeable and patient, he showed our cameras the notebook, explained what was known about this period in Samuel Clemens life and added a lot of valuable, expert information to our film.
When things looked darkest and we thought our cameras would never get to see Samuel Clemens Notebook #4, which Clemens started writing in January 1865, Victor Fischer came through. Kind, knowledgeable and patient, he showed our cameras the notebook, explained what was known about this period in Samuel Clemens life and added a lot of valuable, expert information to our film.
Michelle Gordon (Assistant Professor of American Literature, University of Southern California)
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We were referred to Professor Michelle Gordon by one of her colleagues. We discussed her contribution and when we filmed her on-camera interview we did it in the faculty lounge at USC. She kicked off her shoes, made herself comfortable with a few pillows and started telling us about Samuel Clemens. We thought it was the modern day version of the Gillis boys and Clemens sitting around the fire in the Gillis cabin that winter of 1865. Professor Gordon gave us some great background into Clemens' psychology during his time in the Mother Lode.
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Tom Maguire (Actor and Voice Over Artist)
When we asked our actor friend Tom Maguire to be the voice of Mark Twain, he immediately agreed to take on the challenge of giving a voice to Mark Twain. There are no recordings of Twain's voice, but we knew we didn't want a Missouri drawl, as we would probably get it wrong. We asked Tom to put some "character" into his voice without dipping into a full out accent. If you are in the Sonora area, and have an opportunity to see Tom and Duende Productions, don't miss him.
Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties
It's unusual to make venues, scenery or locations a part of a film's team. But we believe the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada Foothills deserve it. We filmed this entire film on location where events happened in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties, (Except for the scenes we filmed on location in Virginia City, Nevada) and we feel it adds authenticity to our film. The verdant hillsides Mark Twain wrote about, the swollen creeks, the oak trees and the pastural landscapes are all still there just as they were when Mark Twain walked from Sonora to Angels Camp by way of Jackass Hill 150 years ago. We drove through these counties, flew above them and put our cameras into a creek and in the dust of a stagecoach's wheels. The Mother Lode is a star in this film.
