This year, for the first time ever, the wonders of OTR will be documented on film for all of posterity. As a community of cavers, we all know that our membership is eclectic and diverse. But would you believe that we have a documentary filmmaker in our midst who grew up right here among us, attending this most wonderful weekend of every year?
Filmmaker Dylan Owens gives us a snapshot of what his OTR documentary will entail:
My fellow cave people:
Hello! On this, the 75th Old Timer’s Reunion, you will notice three dumbasses with camera equipment wandering around the hallowed OTR grounds, filming what could generously be called a documentary.
My parents, Steve and Amy Owens, introduced me, my brother and sister (Luke and Cait, who’s celebrating her 40th birthday here this year!) to OTR when we were pups. I feared Bat Boy before I loved Batman, and naturally assumed that one grew into the other. (Have you ever seen them in the same place? Exactly.)
As I grew up and summer came around, I’d mention OTR in passing at parties, and always got the same responses: “Like… you go into caves?” “What the hell is an ‘old timer’?” and “Can I come?”
It’d be easy to say I’m making this film to never have to answer these questions again. Really though, I’m doing it for the money. (Kidding, it turns out documentaries are expensive and people generally hate them.)
I’ve come to realize that I’m doing this because, just as much as those strangers, I want to understand what this thing is all about. What drives folks to schlep into Wild and Wonderful West Virginia to build what is for four days the second largest city in Randolph county?
I’ve failed at really answering that question, I think, because the truth is more cosmic than a laundry list of facts. It’s the difference between waking up naked in your 120-degree tent, caked in mud, and having the presence of mind to tell your girlfriend: I was having a spiritual experience.
I guess they call that wisdom. That’s what we’re after—less a documentary, more a ladle dipped into a stew.
What to expect: We’ll be filming from set up to tear down, August 29 to Sept 7, all around the main areas of OTR. Important: Unless explictly invited, we will never film your private campsite. But if you’re in the main communal areas of OTR—the roads, the pavilion, the (non-nude) river, etc.—you may find us roving around.
That said, if you don’t want to be in this, just let us know.
On the other hand, if you’ve got an answer to that question up there, be it in the form of a story, an OTR tradition, a miniature diorama of the 1979 DooDah Parade that doubles as a pipe, we want to hear about it! Flag us down, come to the Dead Puppies Grotto, or better yet, gimme a call or a text at: 301-876-3632.
See you at the bonfire,
—Dylan Owens
Check out some of Dylan’s work here: link coming soon
Note that Dylan and the film crew will generally be identified by the equipment they are toting around, but each member will also have an official “Film Crew” badge to identify them as serving in a TRA-sanctioned capacity. The final film will be the sole property of TRA and will never be published in any public forum.