North Texas Daily

Joshua Legarreta | Staff Writer

@YouOpenTheChest

As aviation has grown over the past few years, it has become a larger part of Denton’s culture. Thanks to the introduction of the Aviation Logistics program at the UNT six years ago, the community has brought together aviation hobbyists, students and professionals from all over Texas.

The aviation scene is about to become even larger.

Just Chorizo Productions, a small movie production company based out in Los Angeles, California, is hoping to bring a piece of aviation’s long history back to the big screen. The company is run by  Henry Saine, his cousin Jason Dodson and their associate Colin Ebeling, who are all UNT alumni.

Together, they are hoping to bring to life the story of Rinker and Kernahan Buck, brothers who earned the record for the youngest aviators to fly coast-to-coast across the United States in the 1960s. Their memoir, titled “Flight of Passage,” was written by Rinker Buck and details the brothers’ journey across the American frontier as well as the struggles they faced.

“It’s a story that shows people that you don’t have to be bitten by a spider, you don’t have to have magical wizard parents,” Saine said. “You can actually go out and become your own hero, on your own, at any age.”

Henry Saine, left, and Colin Ebeling, right pose with Rinker Buck, the author of “Flight of Passage,” the book their movie production company is bringing to the big screen. Courtesy | Just Chorizo Productions

The film is currently being produced as a short in New York to help JCP pitch the movie to potential publishers, with additional funding from anonymous crowd-funding site IndieGoGo.com. As of Sunday, Sept. 13, the IndieGoGo campaign has been successfully funded, coming in at around $36,000.

Saine, who will serve as director for both the short and full-length feature, said he hoped to be able to shoot the film in all the locations mentioned in the memoir, including Texas.

“What we don’t have out here [in California] is that great sense of total blind optimism that you get in Texas,” Saine said. “You can do anything, you can be anything, you can take on anything and you’re just as important as anyone else in the room.”

With the memoir and film both taking place in the 1960s, Saine also hopes to shed light on the other events going on at the time and how these events paint a fuller picture of the “American dream.”

“These boys are 15 and 17. In this day and age, the president was killed just a few years earlier, the Civil Rights movements going on, and the Vietnam War is starting up,” Saine said. “So all of these things are happening, and these boys are able to just get in this plane, and not only be free themselves, but also start encouraging a nation to see the freedom and hope of just doing things out there on your own.”

Though many Texans are unfamiliar with the brothers’ story, the film has captured the attention of many, including David Keyser, a longtime pilot and director of membership for the North Texas Flying Club. Keyser hopes this film will avoid the “over-dramatic” sense of flying found in other Hollywood movies, citing a common misconception he held as a beginner.

“When I first learned to fly, I was surprised to find out that when you let go of the wheel, the airplane doesn’t automatically go into a spiraling death dive. It just flies,” Keyser said.

Despite these false notions, Keyser hopes JCP’s film will show audiences flying can be relaxing and fun while garnering interest from a new generation of aviators.

“I think it could really show the skill and the courage of flying a simple aircraft through adverse conditions,” Keyser said. “It’s not about the complexity of the machinery that we can build, but the amazing things that humans can do.”

Featured Image: UNT alumni Henry Saine, his cousin Jason Dodson and their associate Colin Ebeling together opened Just Chorizo Productions, a small movie production company based out in Los Angeles, California. Courtesy | Just Chorizo Productions