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Anyone who read about it surely remembers the story of Hunter Lewis, a local 21-year-old who tragically died at sea in December 2021 while planting the final piece of an epic treasure hunt he planned for his friends and family. It was a story so unusual and touching that it’s difficult to forget. 

Now Brianna Chapman, a 22-year-old film student who was friends with Lewis, is writing and directing a short film about his story and will soon be traveling to Humboldt with her film crew to shoot the movie. 

Chapman is from Eureka but now lives in L.A., where she’s in her final year at Chapman University (no relation, although Chapman did say that the name is part of what made her interested in the school.) Chapman is completing her double major in business and film, and has written and directed many short films already, which you can check out on her website. Now Chapman is making the film about Lewis as her senior thesis project. 

“[It’s] such a great way to be able to do something for Hunter and to honor him,” Chapman said in a recent phone interview with the Outpost. “And I think for me, the best way that I can do that and express who he was is through film, because that’s what I’m passionate about.”

Chapman and Lewis met just after their freshman year of high school, when they were both attending a summer film camp in Humboldt. The two bonded over a mutual passion for film and stayed friends throughout high school and into college. Lewis went to school in Long Beach, pretty close to Chapman’s school, so they were able to visit each other easily. Chapman is also good friends with Kinsley, Lewis’s girlfriend, who also attends Chapman University, and said she was there when the couple met for the first time. “They instantly fell in love,” she said. 

Chapman was also a part of the days-long treasure hunt that ultimately led to Lewis’s death. The hunt took place when Lewis and his friends were back in Humboldt for winter break. Chapman, her brother and another longtime friend of Lewis’s, Michael, were on one of the treasure-hunting teams. Starting on Christmas Day and continuing for the next several days, Lewis’s friends and family solved cryptic riddles he created and searched for clues he had hidden in different locations throughout the area.

But the treasure hunt took a tragic turn on Dec. 30, when Hunter paddled a canoe off the coast of Trinidad and never returned. 

For days following his disappearance, hundreds of people coordinated online to search for Lewis. People would meet in Trinidad at 7 a.m., Chapman said, to be assigned different areas to comb for signs of Lewis or his boat. The whole effort was coordinated largely by Kinsley and Lewis’s father, Corey. 

“It was really amazing, to be honest, how much Hunter’s father, Corey, and his girlfriend, Kinsley, were managing everyone,” Chapman said. “It was just amazing how much they were able to step up and manage a huge search party in the midst of such a traumatic incident.” 

Chapman near Hunter’s memorial bench in Trinidad, wearing a “Lost Lewis Treasure” sweatshirt made by Hunter’s father

Chapman said she was also inspired by how much the community rallied together to search for Lewis and to support his family during such a difficult time. She saw how hard the experience was for Lewis’s family, and since she is good friends with Kinsley, she especially knows how hard it was for her. Many people would bring Kinsley gifts and offer her support during her grief.

As a close friend of Hunter’s and Kinsley’s, Chapman also experienced first-hand the intense love the two shared, and that is something she really wants to focus on with the film. The movie, entitled “Where the Heart Lies” is a narrative that will tell the story of Hunter’s disappearance, but will also focus on the relationship between Hunter and Kinsley, Chapman said. 

Since the story takes place on the beautiful Humboldt coastline, Chapman thought it would be best to shoot the film on location in Humboldt. In June, Chapman and her cinematographer came out to scout filming locations and will be shooting some of the film at Hunter’s childhood home, which Chapman is very excited about. The crew is also hoping to shoot at the Coast Guard station in Samoa, Chapman said, and part of the next steps will be acquiring permits for the shooting locations and getting approval from the Coast Guard. Chapman is also currently in the process of casting actors to play Hunter, Kinsley and Corey and has a “few contenders” in mind.

Chapman and her crew will travel to Humboldt to film in March 2024 and will also be hiring some local people for the film crew. In particular, Chapman is searching for a local artistic director, a sound mixer and potentially some production assistants and said she will likely try to recruit some students from Cal Poly Humboldt. Since travel expenses will be one of Chapman’s biggest costs, she’s trying to only bring a “skeleton crew” with her from L.A. 

Of course, like with all projects, one of Chapman’s biggest challenges is finding funding. Chapman University is providing $6,000 for the project, she said, but she is hoping to raise an additional $20,000 for the filming expenses and has launched a Kickstarter campaign, which has so far raised nearly $10,000. 

Chapman also mentioned that a major motion picture based on the Rolling Stone article about Hunter is currently in the works. Though she didn’t know many details about the production or when the film is planned to be released, she did say that the film will be written by one of the writers for the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” though the Outpost was unable to confirm this. But Chapman said that she expected other films to be made about the story and knowing one is in process doesn’t deter her from pursuing her project. 

“I wanted to continue to make my thesis even though that [movie] is separately being made,” Chapman said. “I really want to retain the personal authenticity of who Hunter was, because he was such a unique spirit and such a beautiful person and he has such a unique love with Kinsley that I really want to capture that.” 

The process of creating a film that is so personal to her has been difficult at times and it will be an emotional experience for her to return work on this project back in her homeland of Humboldt, Chapman said, but it has also been a good way for her to process her own grief for the loss of her friend. 

“I think it’s a very cathartic process,” Chapman said. “As artists, that is how we process and how we heal. And I think through this process of writing the script, writing all these conversations that Hunter is having with Kinsley, I feel like I’m almost getting to know him even more and feeling him with me.”

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