NewEnglandFilm.com

Mike Latino has a home in a rural area of Western Massachusetts where he likes to fish and do some hunting, but he never experienced the woods like he did when he followed Ernie Beckwith with his camera to film, Trapping with Ernie. Beckwith was a legendary trapper and hunter from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Latino’s film is a character study of a man who loved to hunt and trap and wanted to share his knowledge and skill.

"He took me places I never would have gone, nobody would. The places were in Great Barrington, and Lee and Otis. They are near town, but people just don’t go there, it’s all swamps," he laughs.

Latino spent one entire trapping season (November to April) filming Beckwith as he set his beaver traps and then returned to retrieve the beavers for their skins.

"He sold the skins," Latino says. "He caught 175 that year, which was probably a record that year. He set three traps a day, and these are 50 pound traps — it’s not easy. He would say, ‘If I were younger, I’d do more.’"

In total, Latino shot 17 hours of footage, "A lot of footage, a lot of problems," he says. "My son was very young and he would carry the tripod, but we’d be wading through swamps. After a while I thought, ‘What am I doing following this guy in the woods who was 75 years old?’ and I could hardly keep up with him."

Latino first met Beckwith when he bought wood for his woodstove from him. "I owed him money, so I went to his house to pay him. His wife said he was skinning beaver in his shop so I went to the shop. I didn’t know anything about it, but I could tell he knew what he was doing. I thought this would be a great thing to do a movie about. People used to do this a hundred years ago, but nobody does it now. I thought it was something people should see.

Latino grew up in Westfield, Massachusetts and attended Pratt Institute where he studied film and photography. After graduating in 1983 he began working in film and television. He travels regularly to New York City to work as a cameraman. "After the planes flew into the World Trade Center, work slowed down a lot. I have a home in Sheffield and I said, ‘It looks like I’m gonna have a bunch of time, why not do it?’"

Latino says that Beckwith was very well known in the area, especially for his hunting and trapping skills. "He had won the Trapper of the Year Award and the Sportsman of the Year Award. His family is very pro-hunter, they advocate that way of life." Latino feels that one of the reasons Beckwith agreed to do the film was to show what trapping was all about.

"When you meet people later in their life, they want to pass on what they know. Ernie said, ‘Let’s do it.’ He liked the idea."

"He was very funny and very smart," Latino says of Beckwith. The two men became close during the making of the film. "Eventually, I ended up leaving the camera home," Latino says. "I just wanted to go out with him and listen."

The filmmaker wants the audience to listen to Beckwith as well. For the soundtrack of the film, Latino chose to not include narration, preferring to let Beckwith’s words tell the story. "A person watching the film has to pay attention or they’ll miss it," he warns. "[Viewers] aren’t used to people speaking in their own words. After the first 10 minutes people key in that they have to really listen. It’s very powerful; he has a way about him.

"One day we were way deep in the woods and Ernie said, ‘If anything ever happens to me, you could come in and get the animals out and get the traps.’ I didn’t know what he meant, but then I realized he was thinking about his own mortality."

Sadly, Beckwith died of cancer last year. "We went to the funeral and we waited over two hours just to get into the building. He has a huge extended family. I can’t say enough about the character of the family. It was very moving," Latino says. Beckwith didn’t live to see the final cut of the film but he saw most of the movie and was pleased with it. "He got a kick out of seeing himself," the filmmaker says.

After the footage was shot, Latino edited on Final Cut Pro. "It took me 2 and a half years. I cut it in between jobs."

Latino enjoys fishing and hunting, but says he didn’t have an agenda when he made the film. "I didn’t make the movie as a hunter trying to make a point," he says. "When I met him [Beckwith] I was fascinated by what he was doing and I wanted to show it." The final film is 30 minutes long.

The filmmaker says he has shown the film to both hunters and non-hunters. "I’ve gotten the same reaction from both. After seeing it they see it’s about this man and this way of life. The film doesn’t take a side either way, it lets the viewer decide."

Trapping With Ernie will be shown on May 12th, the opening night of the Berkshire International Film Festival, as a part of the "Berkshire Shorts" program. Latino will attend the screening.

Early in his career Latino made a documentary titled A Man’s Race, about "a group of guys that go up to New Hampshire to race motorcycles." Latino says he made the festival rounds with the film, but then decided to pursue a steady income. "Docs don’t make money," he says. "It’s hard to keep that ball rolling."

It may be hard, but it still has appeal to Latino who is contemplating another documentary project on the Holyoke, Massachusetts public school system. He has done some preliminary research, but is stalled on what route to take to film in the schools. He says he would welcome any advice that readers could offer him.

Meanwhile, he will take Trapping with Ernie on its own journey to festivals and audiences around the country.