By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    Lisa and Kirk Wolfinger aren’t orthodontists and they don’t do wedding videos. They do, however, own and operate an independent television production studio on 10 Cottage Road in the heart of South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood. 
    Lone Wolf Documentary Group produces and develops high-end documentaries for clients that include The History Channel, Discovery Times, National Geographic, Turner, National PBS, and Nova. Despite this impressive list of clients, South Portland residents seem to know very little about the business of Lone Wolf. The Wolfingers recalled times when people would come in to the studio and without a word, take a seat, as though they were waiting to see a doctor or a dentist. 
    Lisa and Kirk have been operating out of their current studio for ten years. Lisa said they chose South Portland because they believed that the area was “on the up and up and more businesses were going up” all the time. She added, “It’s a great place to have a business,” although the area needs “a good sandwich shop and a good coffee shop.”  This thought produced a brainstorming session about possible locations for a coffee shop complete with an area for customers to charge their electric cars.
    Lisa and Kirk have been married for 17 years and they have worked together for 15 of those years.
     “There are probably only 20 companies in the country producing documentaries on the same level (as Lone Wolf),” said Kirk. The company consists of “15 people working here or around the country.” Included in the count, are independent producers and editors, working out of Los Angeles and Boston. Kirk said technology has made working out of South Portland “doable,” but living in this area “would be hard” for someone just breaking into the business. 
    Lisa and Kirk now call Cape Elizabeth home, but they lived in Camden for several years before opening Lone Wolf. Kirk worked as a producer and director for Varied Directions International. Although Kirk and Lisa didn’t grow up in Maine, they both had fond memories of time spent in Camden. Lisa grew up overseas, moving around Europe because her father worked for an international bank and attended college in the U.K. As a girl, however, she spent many summers in Camden and North Haven. Kirk grew up in New Jersey and then later moved to New York where he worked as an actor for the National Shakespeare Company. During the summer, Kirk worked in summer stock, or summer theatre, in Camden. Their decision to leave Camden was based on the fact that the location was no longer convenient to their lifestyle. They had three infant boys at the time and Kirk was always on the road. Kirk said it was inconvenient because “it was a two hour drive just to get to the airport.”   
    Over the years, the Wolfingers have built a reputation for producing quality work. Lisa said they started out doing projects for Nova and WGBH, Boston’s public broadcasting affiliate. For the first few years, they worked exclusively with Nova. Lisa credits Kirk’s body of work for helping them expand their clientele. With more than 23 years in the film industry, Kirk has won two Emmys, received five Emmy nominations, a Peabody award, the Independent Documentary Association award, and the American Film Festival’s Blue Ribbon for a PBS special, “Black Magic,” about a girls’ Double Dutch team from Hartford, which is shown in several film schools. Recently, Kirk was offered a position as Vice President of Production at National Geographic, but in addition to requiring a move to Washington D.C., the job would also require Kirk to join a corporate environment. He would be supervising others and “making them make films, instead of collaborating on them.”       
     Lisa has built her own reputation as well, having worked on several award winning and Emmy nominated films. She won a 2004 Cine Masters Award for her work on The History Channel’s “Fire on the Mountain,” which is based on John Maclean’s account of the Storm King Mountain. Another project, “Conquest of America,” received two Emmy nominations. 
    “(The Emmy experience is a) nightmare because of the anticipation, the moment of relief when you realize you don’t have to go up there, and then the depression over not winning,” Lisa said. 
      When asked what it was like to work with one’s significant other, Lisa and Kirk agreed that they complement each other well in that Kirk can calm Lisa down when the stress starts to get to her and vice versa. Kirk said he enjoys running the company together because it’s “much more of a partnership.” It helps, Lisa said, that they spend the majority of the time working on different projects. Kirk works as a producer and director on adventure films, which may involve following caving and diving expeditions. Most recently, he worked as an executive producer and director for the History Channel’s “Deep Sea Detectives,” which follows a team of divers as they explore dangerous wrecks.  Lisa works mainly on marquis specials, high profile series that the major networks spend millions to promote. Her most recent project was directing and producing, “Desperate Crossing,” a special for the History Channel that became the network’s most watched program of 2006.
    Despite working on different films, Lisa admitted that they can “bore themselves silly” sometimes because they spend a lot of time talking business. Kirk said that if one of them was a doctor or a lawyer, he wonders if they would have anything to talk about at all. 
    “There is an element of risk,” he added, “when we’re counting on the same business to succeed.” He then joked that if need be, they can always fall back on wedding videos. 
     A major perk of co-owning Lone Wolf is that they are able to travel together and call their own shots. With four boys, making their own schedule is a necessary part of their lives. Lisa said two of their boys are on the Cape Elizabeth football team and if the boys have a game, “it’s nice to be able to leave at three” to watch it. The boys have a special perk too in that they have up close access to history. The boys have accompanied Kirk on shoots and they have also appeared in several of Lisa’s films. The boys are part of a group called the “Lone Wolf Players,” which consists of family and friends who participate in insert shots when needed. These insert shots are filmed locally and then added to the film as supplements to the location shots. Lisa recalled an insert shot for her film about the Salem witch trials entitled: “WitchHunt.” Enlisting the help of a Lone Wolf player and a neighbor, she set up a hanging scene complete with period costumes. 
    “Here was someone hanging from the bough of my neighbor’s tree and a police cruiser comes by and the policeman, obviously perplexed, just sat in his car and watched.”  For Kirk’s History Channel special entitled: “Titanic’s Final Moments: Missing Pieces,” a group of people dressed up as though they were passengers on the ship and then splashed around in the pool at the local Howard Johnson. Although it looked a little strange at the time, Lisa said the scene looked very realistic in the film. 
    Currently, the Wolfingers are working on films about Jamestown and cave exploring in Guatemala. Later this month, Lone Wolf will receive the “Get Reel” award at the Tenth Annual Maine International Film Festival. According to the festival’s website, the award “recognizes a Maine-based individual, team, or organization for exemplary work in documentary film.” 
    Kirk and Lisa appreciate this local recognition. As Kurt said, “we’re not here just because Lone Wolf is here; we’re here because we like Maine.”