By Patricia Breakey
Delhi News Bureau
A chance conversation in Mike Ondish's Margaretville auto-repair shop launched a documentary film centered on the restoration of Ondish's 1968 Shelby Mustang GT 500.
The filmmakers and cast will hold a kickoff and benefit party March 13 in Roxbury. Production on the film will resume in the spring.
The film, "Demon on Wheels," came about after George Wieser of Roxbury, the film's producer, had Ondish, 61, work on Wieser's classic Chevelle.
"I told George that he had a really nice car and then mentioned that I had a Shelby Mustang stored in the back of my barn," Ondish said Friday.
Ondish bought the car in 1968 when he was 22 years old. He said he ordered the Highland green sports coupe from Grand Prix champion and car designer Carroll Shelby, who custom-modified the Mustang with double four-barrel carburetors. The car became "an extension of me," Ondish said. "When I sat down it was just right, so comfortable, it was just a part of me."
Ondish said he retired the car in 1975 for several reasons.
"I was getting so much heat from the state troopers and heat from my father because I was always in trouble," he said. "And I couldn't find fuel it would run on."
The car sat in the barn for 35 years until Ondish decided it was time to get it back on the road. "It's like a colt," he said. "It needs to be out there running."
After getting a glimpse of the Mustang and hearing of Ondish's plans to restore it,
Wieser contacted filmmaker Christina Eliopoulos and told her he found her next documentary.
According to her website, Eliopoulos' previous films include "Northlandz: The World According to Bruce," about a man building a model railroad, and "Greetings from Asbury Park," a personal film about her family in New Jersey.
Eliopoulos said she traveled from her home in New Jersey to visit Ondish and propose the idea for the documentary about Ondish and his car.
"At first, I thought they were both kind of flaky," Ondish said. "The Mustang looked like a junk car, and I wondered why she was getting so excited about it. I thought she was kind of a nut."
Eliopoulos said: "Mike is such a charming man, and the story is so universal _ a man trying to capture a little bit of his youthful self.
"Mike has restored cars for his customers and made them ecstatically happy," she continued. "Now it's time for him to do it for himself.
"At first, he was kind of stunned and shocked that anyone would care about his project," she said. "But Mike is a gentleman with a heroic goal, and he is happy to invite you along on a kind of crazy ride."
Ondish said he rounded up a group of his old high school friends to be part of the story. His friends were often passengers in the car during its wild runs over and through the Catskill mountains.
Eliopoulos and Ondish took a trip to Oklahoma last year to meet Shelby at a classic car show devoted to Mustangs.
"Meeting Carroll Shelby was absolutely amazing," Ondish said. "It was one experience I will never forget."
Ondish took photos of his Shelby Mustang to Oklahoma. He said one of the judges at the show told him that the unique engine configuration probably made his car one of a kind.
Eliopoulos said she has filmed about 50 hours of footage and will probably film between 400 and 600 hours before the production is complete.
"We will be using some film from really cool commercials and racing footage from the era to give the film a sense of time and place," Eliopoulos said. "I really think the film will be an artifact of a unique time and place and a story about finding that little bit of Mike's youthful past."
Ondish said the experience has been wonderful because it brought his old friends back together, and "no matter what happens, I also have new friends now.
"The way this came about was a strange, strange thing," he said. "It was just a chain of events."
Wieser said that the film will highlight local mountain traditions and culture as well as the beauty of the area.
"The themes are universal," Wieser said. "Personal renewal and restoration, the support of friends and community and the courage it takes to pursue a dream."
The 85-minute film will be completed and ready for its debut at local film festivals in the spring of 2011, Wieser said.
For more information and to attend the party, e-mail Joan Lawrence-Bauer at bdgroup@catskill.net, call Eliopoulos at (732) 406-2907 or e-mail her at celiop99@mac.com.
Contributions made to support the film's production are tax-deductible through New York Women in Film & Television, the film's fiscal sponsor.
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