ALUMINATION: Airstream Documentary To Premiere This Weekend

In further celebration of the 90th anniversary of Airstream, a full length documentary is being released about the iconic American brand. 

Independent documentary filmmaker Eric Bricker spent the last seven years creating ALUMINATION, capturing the life and spirit of Airstream founder Wally Byam. 

“Eric has traveled around the country, interviewing Airstreamers and forming new friendships in the community, as well as poring through never-before-seen archival footage to capture the Airstream World, past and present,” Airstream’s Live Riveted blog said. 

Producer Lisa Hughes thought of the idea for the film as an aesthetically pleasing follow up to Bricker’s first documentary, VISUAL ACOUSTICS. The project started with a conference call to Airstream CEO Bob Wheeler, and filming began in July 2013 at Airstream’s Jackson Center, Ohio headquarters.

Wally Byam’s second cousin and Airstream blogger/historian, 77 year old Dale “Pee Wee” Schwamborn was instrumental in starting the research and introducing the filmmakers to the Airstream community. 

Hughes and Bricker thought the project would take approximately three years, it ended up being a seven year endeavor due to the massive amount of film recorded with Airstreamers all over the country.

“We wanted to make a movie which served as a passport to the world of Airstream,” Bricker told the Live Riveted blog. “It was quite the epic journey in charting the terrain of the Airstream world and then distilling it down to 80 minutes. We shot in 16 states, spoke with hundreds of people, and struggled for years in trying to weave together all of our footage into a singular story we felt conveyed the spirit of Airstream, both past and present.”

ALUMINATION will premiere at the Freep Film Festival in Detroit on Sunday, September 26th, and tickets can be purchased to view it virtually here.