WSU student takes Best of State for second year in a row

On May 30, Issac Goeckeritz was awarded the Best of State award for the second year in a row. This year he won for a documentary he made about the city of Uintah called "Uintah United." Last year he won for the documentary "Ogden: Junction City of the West." According to the Best of State website, bestofstate.org, the Best of State Awards was created to recognize outstanding individuals, organizations and businesses in Utah. "I think I was the youngest one there," Goeckeritz, a Weber State University geography major said. "A lot of awards were going to businesses. I could definitely tell people were eyeballing me wondering what this kid was doing at Best of State." "Uintah United" is about the story behind the "U" on the mountain above Highway 89 between South Ogden and South Weber. "There are 400 hillside letters in the country," Goeckeritz said. "I interviewed an author who wrote a book about them. She said the Uintah letter has the most dramatic story behind it." The story is about a principal in 1922 who was being bullied and threatened by a gang of boys. During a confrontation the principal ended up shooting and killing a boy that attacked him. The documentary focuses on what happened after the event. "The story goes around the succeeding principal who took over the role and his ability to work with these boys and transform their lives and ultimately united a community," Goeckeritz said. Over the weekend, Uintah held their annual "U-Day," celebration. At the celebration "Uintah United" was shown in the recently renovated Old Town Hall building. Stu Boyd, a Uintah resident and "U-Day" staff member, was at the premier of the documentary in November 2008. Boyd said he retired from the Air Force and lived in 14 different cities, and Uintah is the best place he has lived in. "This film captures the spirit of what we think makes it such a fun community," Boyd said. "A lot of people in town have seen it, but there were others who haven't. We thought this would be a chance to introduce them to the money and for them to see the renovated city hall." Gerry Trainque, who attended "U-day," said the movie was very informative and interesting. "It makes you feel like you are a part of it," Trainque said about the history learned through the documentary. Since "Uintah United" premiered and has since won the Best of State award for the documentary category, Goeckeritz made some minor changes to the film and is working on changing the cover for the film to show the award in the artwork. "We have shown it (the documentary) over the last few months and haven't made many changes but a few to make it flow a little better," Goeckeritz said. "We added a few photographs and color corrected some of the interviews from the photographs; pretty much the same movie, just refined it a little bit." Goeckeritz is currently working on an agreement with KBYU to show "Uintah United" on the channel possibly starting in the fall or in January. The other Best of State award-winning documentary was shown on KUED and will continue to show on the cannel for the next two years. "I think the Ogden one has sold about 3000 copies so far," Goeckeritz said. "That one has definitely paid for itself. I am hoping the Uintah one can do the same." So far Goeckeritz has received about 25 percent of the money he spent on the making, production and creating of the cover for "Uintah United." "The only people who have bought it so far is the city of Uintah," Goeckeritz said, "but once it is on television it should be able to make the money back."