Wings Castle

podcast by Rachel Connolly

click pic to play, Flash version available here.

After filming a narrative short at Pete Wing’s castle in 1995, I returned at the break of dawn after several years to follow Pete around with the Mini DV. Hours and hours of his ramblings were whittled down to this 10 minutes documentary. I wanted to tape Pete until he finished the B&B extension but realized he was probably going to be working on the castle forever and I needed to wrap things up. Turns out, he discovered the taxes would be prohibitively expensive on the B&B so he and his wife, Toni, are trying to sell it and move to Montana. What will happen to Pete and castle is still undecided but here’s a little artifact of this character and his folly in the meantime.

Synopsis:

At the age of twenty-one Peter Wing returned from Vietnam and started building a home for himself and his family using recycled materials. For thirty years he and his wife are proud owners of a medieval castle visited by hundreds of tourists every year. Wing’s Castle Documentary shares with us what a little perseverance and resourcefulness can accomplish and how one can draw inspiration from the most challenging of life’s experiences.