A two-man crew recently completed filming a documentary about three famous South Dakota monuments and memorials and how people relate to them. The German filmmakers believe they will have it ready for distribution by next summer.

Producer and co-directors Tim Gruenewald and Ludwig Schmidtpeter, who also handled visuals, camera and sound, had arrived in western South Dakota nearly three weeks ago to begin filming at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial and the Wounded Knee monument on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

"Everyone adds a little something in the relationship to the places," Gruenwald said.

He and Schmidtpeter wanted to know how various stakeholders and people from the communities related to the memorials and monument as well as how they function and relate to one another.

"As Rapid City is the largest city in the area, we thought there would be someone here to add their voice to project," Gruenwald said.

He said that they were funded for a 20-day shoot, covering as much ground as possible among the three sites. "We've been filming for two weeks. We've been in pre-production for a long time," he said.

The filmmakers, with 40 hours already filmed, were nearly three-quarters through their project. While currently based in Urbana-Champaign, Ill., they expected to return to Germany, do a little more fundraising for post-production costs and then begin editing those 40 hours of film into two hours or less.

When completed, they will have completed a feature-length documentary.

Among those they interviewed was Randy Rasmussen, Journal Opinion Page columnist.

In many ways, South Dakota surprised the men on a daily basis.

"But always in a great way," Schmidtpeter said.

They had seen buffalo in photographs, wildlife displays and even zoos, but seeing the large herd that roams through Custer State Park impressed them.

"The bison presented the biggest surprise. They were magnificent," Schmidtpeter said.

He also mentioned the less-than stellar road conditions both on and off the reservation but added that cooperation and the friendliness factor was sky-high.

Gruenwald concurred with his friend's assessment.

"Everyone has been very helpful at all of the sites," he said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.