By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    Lisa and Kirk Wolfinger aren’t orthodontists and
they don’t do wedding videos. They do, however, own and operate an
independent television production studio on 10 Cottage Road in the
heart of South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood. 

    Lone Wolf Documentary Group produces and develops
high-end documentaries for clients that include The History Channel,
Discovery Times, National Geographic, Turner, National PBS, and Nova.
Despite this impressive list of clients, South Portland residents seem
to know very little about the business of Lone Wolf. The Wolfingers
recalled times when people would come in to the studio and without a
word, take a seat, as though they were waiting to see a doctor or a
dentist. 

    Lisa and Kirk have been operating out of their
current studio for ten years. Lisa said they chose South Portland
because they believed that the area was “on the up and up and more
businesses were going up” all the time. She added, “It’s a great place
to have a business,” although the area needs “a good sandwich shop and
a good coffee shop.”  This thought produced a brainstorming
session about possible locations for a coffee shop complete with an
area for customers to charge their electric cars.

    Lisa and Kirk have been married for 17 years and they have worked together for 15 of those years.

     “There are probably only 20 companies in the
country producing documentaries on the same level (as Lone Wolf),” said
Kirk. The company consists of “15 people working here or around the
country.” Included in the count, are independent producers and editors,
working out of Los Angeles and Boston. Kirk said technology has made
working out of South Portland “doable,” but living in this area “would
be hard” for someone just breaking into the business. 

    Lisa and Kirk now call Cape Elizabeth home, but they
lived in Camden for several years before opening Lone Wolf. Kirk worked
as a producer and director for Varied Directions International.
Although Kirk and Lisa didn’t grow up in Maine, they both had fond
memories of time spent in Camden. Lisa grew up overseas, moving around
Europe because her father worked for an international bank and attended
college in the U.K. As a girl, however, she spent many summers in
Camden and North Haven. Kirk grew up in New Jersey and then later moved
to New York where he worked as an actor for the National Shakespeare
Company. During the summer, Kirk worked in summer stock, or summer
theatre, in Camden. Their decision to leave Camden was based on the
fact that the location was no longer convenient to their lifestyle.
They had three infant boys at the time and Kirk was always on the road.
Kirk said it was inconvenient because “it was a two hour drive just to
get to the airport.”   

    Over the years, the Wolfingers have built a
reputation for producing quality work. Lisa said they started out doing
projects for Nova and WGBH, Boston’s public broadcasting affiliate. For
the first few years, they worked exclusively with Nova. Lisa credits
Kirk’s body of work for helping them expand their clientele. With more
than 23 years in the film industry, Kirk has won two Emmys, received
five Emmy nominations, a Peabody award, the Independent Documentary
Association award, and the American Film Festival’s Blue Ribbon for a
PBS special, “Black Magic,” about a girls’ Double Dutch team from
Hartford, which is shown in several film schools. Recently, Kirk was
offered a position as Vice President of Production at National
Geographic, but in addition to requiring a move to Washington D.C., the
job would also require Kirk to join a corporate environment. He would
be supervising others and “making them make films, instead of
collaborating on them.”       

     Lisa has built her own reputation as well,
having worked on several award winning and Emmy nominated films. She
won a 2004 Cine Masters Award for her work on The History Channel’s
“Fire on the Mountain,” which is based on John Maclean’s account of the
Storm King Mountain. Another project, “Conquest of America,” received
two Emmy nominations. 

    “(The Emmy experience is a) nightmare because of the
anticipation, the moment of relief when you realize you don’t have to
go up there, and then the depression over not winning,” Lisa
said. 

      When asked what it was like to work with
one’s significant other, Lisa and Kirk agreed that they complement each
other well in that Kirk can calm Lisa down when the stress starts to
get to her and vice versa. Kirk said he enjoys running the company
together because it’s “much more of a partnership.” It helps, Lisa
said, that they spend the majority of the time working on different
projects. Kirk works as a producer and director on adventure films,
which may involve following caving and diving expeditions. Most
recently, he worked as an executive producer and director for the
History Channel’s “Deep Sea Detectives,” which follows a team of divers
as they explore dangerous wrecks.  Lisa works mainly on marquis
specials, high profile series that the major networks spend millions to
promote. Her most recent project was directing and producing,
“Desperate Crossing,” a special for the History Channel that became the
network’s most watched program of 2006.

    Despite working on different films, Lisa admitted
that they can “bore themselves silly” sometimes because they spend a
lot of time talking business. Kirk said that if one of them was a
doctor or a lawyer, he wonders if they would have anything to talk
about at all. 

    “There is an element of risk,” he added, “when we’re
counting on the same business to succeed.” He then joked that if need
be, they can always fall back on wedding videos. 

     A major perk of co-owning Lone Wolf is that
they are able to travel together and call their own shots. With four
boys, making their own schedule is a necessary part of their lives.
Lisa said two of their boys are on the Cape Elizabeth football team and
if the boys have a game, “it’s nice to be able to leave at three” to
watch it. The boys have a special perk too in that they have up close
access to history. The boys have accompanied Kirk on shoots and they
have also appeared in several of Lisa’s films. The boys are part of a
group called the “Lone Wolf Players,” which consists of family and
friends who participate in insert shots when needed. These insert shots
are filmed locally and then added to the film as supplements to the
location shots. Lisa recalled an insert shot for her film about the
Salem witch trials entitled: “WitchHunt.” Enlisting the help of a Lone
Wolf player and a neighbor, she set up a hanging scene complete with
period costumes. 

    “Here was someone hanging from the bough of my
neighbor’s tree and a police cruiser comes by and the policeman,
obviously perplexed, just sat in his car and watched.”  For Kirk’s
History Channel special entitled: “Titanic’s Final Moments: Missing
Pieces,” a group of people dressed up as though they were passengers on
the ship and then splashed around in the pool at the local Howard
Johnson. Although it looked a little strange at the time, Lisa said the
scene looked very realistic in the film. 

    Currently, the Wolfingers are working on films about
Jamestown and cave exploring in Guatemala. Later this month, Lone Wolf
will receive the “Get Reel” award at the Tenth Annual Maine
International Film Festival. According to the festival’s website, the
award “recognizes a Maine-based individual, team, or organization for
exemplary work in documentary film.” 

    Kirk and Lisa appreciate this local recognition. As
Kurt said, “we’re not here just because Lone Wolf is here; we’re here
because we like Maine.”