About Antelope Valley Films
Antelope Valley Films was founded in 1986 by Jurgen Wendt in Palmdale, California. What began as a one-man operation filming aerospace industry profiles grew into a small but dedicated production company specializing in documentary storytelling across science, conservation, and human interest.
Jurgen Wendt, Founder & Director
Born in Dresden, German Democratic Republic, Jurgen emigrated to the United States in 1979. He settled in Palmdale, drawn by the aerospace industry and the stark beauty of the high desert.
"I came from a country where they told you what to see," Jurgen once said in an interview. "The camera lets me show people what is actually there."
Jurgen brought a European eye to the American desert. His work combined a documentarian's patience with a deep personal understanding of what it means to live on both sides of a wall — literal and otherwise.
After seventeen years and nine completed productions, Jurgen retired from filmmaking in 2003. He continues to reside in the Antelope Valley.
Our Approach
We believed in patience. In letting subjects speak for themselves. In pointing the camera at the world and trusting that the story would emerge.
Our films were never flashy. We didn't win major festivals. But we documented things that mattered to the people who lived them, and that was always enough.
Equipment
For the technically curious: most of our work was shot on Sony Betacam SP, with field work on Hi8 and later MiniDV. Our Kyiv production in 1992 used a mix of Betacam and VHS field cameras due to equipment restrictions imposed by our hosts.