Production Notes: Ernie Salgado Interview

Ernie was interviewed for the documentary. He was also a member of The Border Crime Task Force. When he joined he was already a Vietnam veteran and was quickly put in charge of the weapons training for the task force prior to going out into the hills. He was also an integral part of the team. Thanks Ernie! 

- Robert

Production Notes: Renee Camacho Interview

Renee was interviewed for the documentary. Renee was a member of The Border Crime Task Force.  Thanks for your time, your insights and your recollection of some of the events was amazing. You were called an integral part of the team and I can see why.

- Robert

A Visit to The Border

With the permission from the Chief of Police of San Diego we had the opportunity yesterday to visit several areas of the San Diego/Tijuana Border. The purpose was to visit areas where some of most famous exploits of The Border Crime Task Force occurred and document them. Along with the production crew in attendance was also Ernesto Salgado, Carlos Chacon and Eddie Cervantes - all original members of The Border Crime Task Force.

The experience was surreal. To be able to actually visit the areas you read so much about and where so much suffering occurred is just beyond words to be able to explain. So much has changed along the border since the project disbanded in the mid 1970's. Today, two huge walls which stretch for miles separate the U.S. and Mexico but back then they did not exist. People were able to move freely back and forth if they so desired. Nevertheless, today if you visit this border you can picture what it must have been like with hundreds people moving north on a nightly basis and in the pitch dark canyons the bandits waiting for them....

Special thanks to Ernesto Salgado for arranging all this and for the rest of the gunslingers who showed up and shared their memories with us.

Onward.

- Robert

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES.

Looking for Funding

It's been a while since the last post but rest assured we are busy behind the scenes working on the documentary. To tell this incredible story the way we feel it should be told of course requires some funding so we are busy looking for it.

Stay tuned ......

- Robert

Production Notes - 3/13/10

We were in San Diego last week interviewing a few more people for the documentary.

Colleen O'Halloran (producer) took the reigns this time and did the questioning. It was fascinating to hear the exploits and what these men went through to help others.

We also re-interviewed Manny Lopez. He was the leader of The Border Crime Task Force. Thank you Manny for your time and we also thank Tony Puente and Richard Medina.

- Robert and Colleen

Manny Lopez

Tony Puente

Richard Medina

The Last of The Gunslingers Store is Open!

Dear Friend,

We are excited to announce the launch of our online store in support of the documentary in-progress, "The Last of The Gunslingers." All proceeds from the sale of any item in this store will go towards the production of this documentary. We truly appreciate your support in helping us to bring this incredible story to life.

This online store enables us to produce pretty much any thing we want with any wording we want. If you don't see anything you want or if you have an idea for an item, shoot us an email and we will try to create it for you. Anything is possible. We will also be adding other items as they are created so make sure you check back often.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT STORE.

We also have a beautiful book for purchase. You can see a preview of the book by clicking here.

Again, thank you for your support.

Regards,

Robert Godina
Director
The Last of The Gunslingers
www.thelastofthegunslingers.com

A Look Back At Our First Event

Tuesday night's event was a huge success. We are so grateful for all those that took time out of their busy schedule and come support us. We hope you all had fun and had a chance learn more about this documentary and meet some of the guys.

Special thanks to my producer Colleen for finding such a great venue and putting it all together; to my other producer and lovely wife Veronica; to Manny Lopez for emceeing the event; to our event photographers; The Pearl Hotel for letting us host this event there and to the rest of The Border Crime Task Force guys. And special thanks to Outside The Lens for supporting our event and documentary. They do great work with underprivileged kids. Check out their web site for more info. You all are incredible.

Click here to see more pics from the event.

A brief rundown of the event went as follows:

People arrived and had some time to mingle, drink, eat and get to meet some of the guys. Manny Lopez (who was the leader of the task force) was the emcee. He started off by introducing all the task force members that were present and explaining what the purpose of the task force was all about. He then introduced myself, Veronica and Colleen. I said a few words and showed a couple of clips.

The first was the trailer for the documentary followed by a special tribute video I put together for Lt. Dick Snider who was the founder of The Border Crime Task Force. He past away on Dec 28 and was a very good man. Prior to his passing I had the opportunity to fly to Missouri to interview him. He meant a lot to all the guys. They saw the video for the first time and they were very touched by it. I was very happy with the way this short video came out and I hope I was able to convey what a great guy Lt. Snider was and how much he meant to a lot of people. You can see this video below.

Lt. Snider Tribute Video

To see a higher quality version of this video go to our media page.

The following morning we meet some of the guys for breakfast at The Studio Diner - which was a film studio converted into a restaurant. A very unique place.

And what did I have for breakfast? The "Gunslinger" of course. It was meant to be ; )

One more thing - in the Lt. Snider tribute video there is a shot of a sign that says "The Pearl" (see screenshot below). He was called that by his close friends. We ended up having this event at a hotel called "The Pearl." Total coincidence. I didn't realize this until Veronica pointed this out during the screening. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I think he was watching all this from above : )

- Robert