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Peter von Puttkamer
Gets Lost in the Amazon
Andy Dittrich
its way back into the
headlines. David Grann’s
critically-acclaimed 2009
book, The Lost City of Z, hit
number one on The New
York Times’ bestseller list,
with a planned feature
directed by James Gray set
to hit theaters next year.
Von Puttkamer has known
the story all his life, since
his mother helped to raise
Fawcett’s granddaughter in
Switzerland just after World
War II.
Created for the PBS/
WNET “Secrets of the Dead”
series, the TV documentary
features real-life adventurer Niall McCann as he
searches for clues to solve
the Fawcett mystery. Von
Puttkamer, McCann and
l to r: Andy Dittrich, Rubin-Bakairi, Fernando Garcia, Peter von Puttkamer, Jon Ritchie, Andre von Thoronyi, their crew traveled from the
Todd Southgate and Niall McCann investigate the mystery of percy fawcett in Brazil’s Mato Grosso.
hallowed halls of Britain’s
Royal Geographical Society
to the Torquay Museum
in Devon before going in
search of secret Fawcett
family documents in Wales. From there,
Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” in Venezueocumentarianthey flew to Brazil to find a 250-yearla and filming in the Amazon jungle for
adventurer Peter
old lost city treasure map in the Rio De
Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey, a
von Puttkamer is
Janeiro archives, then moved on to the
History Channel project on the discovmaking a habit of
scorching plains of Brazil’s Mato Grosso
ery of hallucinogenic plants.
following legendary
and, finally, explored newly found lost
Now von Puttkamer is in search of
explorers into farcities in the Northwest Amazon.
Percy Fawcett, the real-life Indiana
flung corners of the
Working with cinematographer Todd
Jones whose legendary exploits mapworld. The awardSouthgate, the team traveled across
ping borders, shooting giant snakes,
winning moviemakfive of Brazil’s states. Southgate (who
fending off disease and befriending
er’s latest project is
helped film James Cameron’s latest, a
hostile natives made him a legend
the PBS documendocumentary on preventing Amazon
around the world. In 1925, Fawcett distary Lost in the Amazon—The Enigma of
destruction) proved indispensable to
appeared while looking for the lost city
Col. Percy Fawcett, about the mysterious
the production. Beyond his camera
known as “Z.” His fate went unknown,
disappearance of an Amazon explorer.
skills, Southgate’s expertise with local
until now.
Von Puttkamer is no stranger to maklanguage and culture made filming
The mystery surrounding Fawcett’s
ing movies about exploration, having
in Brazil’s often dangerous backwater
disappearance has recently made
previously gone in search of Sir Arthur
Moviemaker goes in search of the real Indiana Jones
D
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towns much easier.
Von Puttkamer used
the Panasonic AJ-HDX900
to document McCann’s
journey. “In general, tape
is the way to go on these
expedition films,” says
von Puttkamer. “There’s
usually not enough time
or the weather conditions
are terrible or there’s no
the crew contends with ferocious jungle bees while trying to make a washed-out road drivable.
access to power to make
file downloading posBrazil. Along the way, the crew filmed
sible.” Still, a small, file-based Sony
crew drove several hundred miles south
in native villages that Fawcett had
PMW-EX1 was used as a B camera and
from Dead Horse Camp to film amidst
visited, were forced to rebuild a bridge
was handy to use whenever events took
the wildlife of Brazil’s Pantanal—one
in order to cross a giant river and drove
an unexpected turn and fast shooting
of the world’s richest exotic animal
across scorching, dusty deserts.
was required.
habitats.
One of the key goals of this movieThe crew also found some unique
Here in the diverse Pantanal, von
making adventure was to find Fawcett’s
uses for the Canon EOS 5D, with both
Puttkamer could film in the places
last camp as well as a mythical waterfall
a Canon 17mm or older 35mm Leica
that Fawcett actually crossed—through
mentioned in the explorer’s written
lenses. Following McCann and an
massive savannahs, rivers, thick jungle,
logs and in a 1753 manuscript. To
expert jungle survival guide across
marshes, gallery forests and more.
locate Fawcett’s final Dead Horse Camp,
hundreds of miles of former jungle—
Shooting from small canoes with the
the team was equipped with a modern
now dusty soybean fields—the 5D came
EX1, McCann was filmed catching
GPS, Fawcett’s own secret coded direcin handy for capturing conversations in
ferocious piranha—a creature Fawcett
tions and the assistance of locals.
the car by mounting it onto the dash
himself encountered often and whose
It was with great emotion and excitewith the 17mm lens, on a flexible manown boatman lost a finger to the deadly
ment that the team eventually tracked
frotto arm, suction-cupped to the windfish.
down Fawcett’s last camp—after crackshield. Later, the Canon helped lend a
From there, the last leg of the journey
ing the secret code for directions that
cinematic look to dramatic re-creations
was to document the newly discovered
Fawcett had left with his wife and son.
shot in the swamps and forests of Bra“lost city” sites in Acre, Brazil. Using
His Dead Horse Camp—where he had
zil’s protected Pantanal reserve.
a giant crane, the crew was able to
written a final letter to his wife telling
The filming challenges were sigcapture high angle aerials of “geometric
her “You need not have any fear of
nificant—from lighting a colonial-era
earthworks”—huge mounds and shapes
failure”—had been found.
library in Rio to documenting McCann
that were part of ancient religious sites
“The crew was really pretty emotionin planes, automobiles and boats across
and a 2,000-year old city covering a
al when we finally
vast expanse of land.
got to the camp,”
The filming of Lost in the Amazon
says von Puttkamturned out to be a thrilling, life-changer. “It was eight
ing expedition for all those involved.
grown men feelNot only did they capture amazing
ing like kids on
sequences in high-definition for the
a treasure hunt,
PBS special, but they also experienced
and we found the
for themselves the “thrill of the hunt”
treasure... It was
that Fawcett himself must have felt
important to capevery time he went out to map another
ture that enthusiborder or locate yet another lost civiliasm on camera.”
zation. MM
Covered with
dozens of bites
Lost in the Amazon will air on PBS’
from stinging
“Secrets of the Dead” series on April 20,
bees, mosquitoes
2011.
and disease-ridden sand flies, the
von Puttkamer films the rare Bakairi Indian Kapa Dance in Brazil’s Mato Grosso.
Lost in the Amazon
Andy Dittrich
pg
how they did it
Andy Dittrich
SPRING 2011
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