Best Documentary Feature Award Winner at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival!

The real life adventure story of Wild Bill Cooper.

Buy a DVD or Stream it. For more information, contact the filmmaker at mikevscholtz@gmail.com.

This is the strange but true story of Wild Bill Cooper. Part Arctic adventure and part crime caper, WILD BILL’S RUN is an unforgettable ride with a true American folk hero.

In the winter of 1972, Wild Bill Cooper led a ragtag crew of mechanics, ranchers and photographers on a grueling expedition across the polar ice. During some of the darkest days of the Cold War, their goal was to snowmobile 5,000 miles from Minnesota to Moscow.

They didn’t quite make it.

After the expedition returned home, Cooper embarked on a startling new adventure. Accused of leading a massive drug smuggling operation known as “the Marijuana Air Force,” he was named one of America’s Ten Most Wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service. But the wily outdoorsman was never caught. He refused to surrender to the law, just as he’d refused to surrender to the Arctic. Even today, his whereabouts remain a mystery.

Mike Scholtz works in healthcare marketing by day, documentary filmmaking at night and film festival planning on the weekends. He’s a busy guy, doing everything he can to make Minnesota a more interesting place to live.

His previous documentary shorts include MADTOWN, LINES OF COMMUNICATION and THE ANGELA MURRAY GIBSON EXPERIENCE. You may have seen them at film festivals. He hopes you liked them.

Mike Scholtz is one of the founders and programmers of the Free Range Film Festival, a celebration of independent cinema in rural Minnesota that just happens to take place in a giant 95-year-old barn.

Press-Ready Photos: Click on the following thumbnails to view and download the larger hi-res image.

If any mad scientists are reading this, please contact me immediately. I’m very interested in becoming a test subject for your time machine, particularly if it can take me back to the year 1972.

That’s why WILD BILL’S RUN plays like a lost relic from the 1970s. The story is firmly rooted in my favorite decade. The film includes more than 20 minutes of never-before-seen 16mm footage of the Arctic shot in 1972 and 1973. And the score was composed almost entirely on a Moog analog synthesizer.

I hope it’s unlike anything else you’ll see or hear this year. Unless you have access to a time machine, obviously.

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