Ethan Knightchilde, 62, is an Estes Park resident and a Renaissance man: filmmaker, reader, writer, historian, accountant, businessman, and publicist.
He is best known for his 2012 documentary “Ghosts of the West: The End of the Bonanza Trail,” which will be shown at the Historic Park Theatre on Thursday, July 23, at 3 p.m. A prequel is in the works.
“I’ve had a movie camera in my hand since I was 11,” he said in a recent interview. “I was constantly making home movies.”
Knightchilde — the name is British — was born in New Jersey and graduated from Montclair State. He worked for several years in Manhattan as a third-party auditor for film studios and cable companies. Eventually he moved West after being sent to do an audit in Denver.
“This is where I need to be,” he decided. He attended the Colorado Film School in Aurora for a time but had already begun shooting “Ghosts of the West” before he went to film school.
“When I was in fifth grade I remember reading a book about lost mines,” he said. “It got its claws in my imagination and never let go.”
Knightchilde shot the film over the course of several years across seven states.
Principal location photography began in the mountains of Colorado in 2002 and wrapped in the Black Hills of South Dakota eight years later.
It is a haunting look — in black and white — at abandoned mining towns where people with big dreams more often than not suffered big disappointments…but kept chasing an elusive goal.
Even though it was shot throughout the western U.S., “Ghosts of the West” was named best documentary at the annual “Filmed in Utah” award ceremony in 2013.
He is working on not exactly a sequel but more of a prequel, “Ghosts of the West: Stampede on the Bonanza Trail,” which looks at the beginning of the Bonanza Trail, not the end.
Knightchilde has been working on this prequel for 14 years. The location photography is done, but the script has to be redone. Edits have to be made.
“It will be done,” he promises. He’s just not in a hurry.
He’s been busy doing other things, too, like giving lectures, writing history books (“Ghosts of the West: Tails and Legends of the Bonanza Trail” and “Tales from the Haunted West”) and writing fantasies and science fiction.
He also is a freelance videographer. That’s a lot to keep a person busy.
One last question.
As he traveled through the ghost towns and mining camps of the West, did he ever have the urge to pan for gold?
“Never.”
According to the Historic Park Theater manager Jenna MacGregor, filmmaker Ethan Knightchilde is “almost always” present at the screening to introduce his film and answer questions afterward. Other upcoming screening dates for “Ghosts of the West” include Aug. 2, Aug. 27, Sept. 6, Sept. 24, Oct. 3, and Oct. 18. On Oct. 3, Knightchilde will present a lecture on his ghost town history. More details will be announced as we get closer to the date.
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