“The General Grant: Where It Isn’t” won Best Documentary at the inaugural Hollywood DV Festival, Hollywood USA, in 2003. In 1866 the General Grant sank off the remote subantarctic Auckland Islands, with 2576 ounces of gold on board. In 2000 two kina divers and a one-legged tractor driver headed south on a quixotic quest for the buried treasure. The unlikely lads reckon they know where the booty is (despite it eluding 15+ previous search efforts). Their mission turns out to be rugged, illegal, and possibly clueless (as their homespun theories are tested), but that doesn’t deter the spirit of the adventurers. First time filmmaker Samuel Richards and co-conspirator Gavin came along for the fool’s gold ride.
There is plenty that conveys the peculiar Kiwi sensibility of stubborn optimism in the face of failure. – Olivia Kember in a 31 January 2004 Listener article on the film
Content either created, produced, filmed, edited or all of the above by Gavin
