Restored print from the Academy Film Archive

Will Hindle was a Bay Area legend - a powerful, intensely brilliant
personality and an exacting artist and filmmaker of considerable vision
and skill. Between 1964 and 1973, he produced a steady stream of
commanding and singular 16mm films, winning numerous awards and
establishing himself as one of independent film's major figures.
Hindle had, according to Gene Youngblood, "an uncanny ability for
transforming unstylized reality into unearthly poetic visions." Richard
Corliss famously described Hindle's 1968 film Chinese Firedrill as
"essentially an overwhelming, disturbing unique emotional experience. I
can't tell you how beautiful it is."

Following a move to Alabama at the dawn of the 1970s, Hindle made the
wonderful and strange Pasteur3 (1976), which for most would seem to be
his final film. For several years, continuing to live in the South and
eventually teaching at the University of South Florida, Hindle made no
films, and suffered for it. Film was a vitally powerful and emotional
mode of expression for him, and his engagement with the medium was
deeply felt and even instinctual.

In the early 1980s, thanks to the encouragement and support of Shellie
Fleming, Hindle began work on a new film. It was a difficult and
troubling process, and the creation of the film was drawn out over a
long period of time as Hindle struggled to find its form. The edit was
finally completed around 1985, but Hindle then threw out the entire
soundtrack (a piece of composed music), deeming it inappropriate.
Between 1985 and 1987, he created an entirely new soundtrack, finally
completing the film in early 1987. It was a difficult labor, and
although Hindle was still not utterly satisfied with the film, he
decided to release it. He communicated his plan to Canyon Cinema to
send the new film there for distribution in Spring of 1987, but the
print never made it, as Will Hindle very suddenly and tragically passed
away on April 7 of that year.

The film, Trekkerriff, remained in limbo for 24 years. The only people
to have ever seen it were a few handfuls of Hindle's and, later, Shellie
Fleming's students. Working from the only surviving print and Will's
original magnetic sound masters, the Academy Film Archive has restored
the film. Additional Will Hindle films are also in the process of being
restored. (Mark Toscano)