The travelling pianist has moved on, but we haven’t seen the last of him - a local film-maker is working on a documentary to tell his story.

Vojtěch ‘Pango’ Zámečník caught local attention recently playing his piano, mounted on a wheeled platform, on the beach in front of That Wanaka Tree, the lone willow in Roys Bay that has become an Instagram sensation.

The Czech pianist arrived in Wanaka last month, having travelled around New Zealand for a year playing his piano in public places. The right kind of freedom camper, he’d been travelling in, and living out of, a customised Land Rover, which he retrofitted at a cost of $11,000 to carry his piano into off-road locations (the piano itself cost him considerably less - he won it at an auction in Auckland for $1).

It’s the sort of story you couldn’t make up, and it’s one that caught the attention of a Wanaka-based creative, film-maker and photographer Pedro Pimentel.

A trained mechanical design engineer, Pedro, who is originally from Portugal, has always been "crazy about visuals”. His dad is a photographer, and he said he grew up surrounded by cameras, slides and drawers full of photographs. Professionally, he started out doing mostly editorial photography, particularly working with high performance athletes and expeditions, covering sports like highlining, mountaineering and BASE jumping. He then moved into film - today, his paid work includes everything from large projects like doing marketing and instructional videos for a big ski company in China, down to local jobs such as a promo shoot for a Wanaka water taxi company. 

But when it comes to film, his true love is telling stories. "Human interaction, our stories and our memories, is what makes us different from animals,” he said. "We exist in the stories we tell each other.”

Pedro ran into Pango when he was down by the lake with his family. "I heard music, which didn’t make much sense. This guy was just there with a piano in front of the Wanaka Tree, with about 50 people looking and listening - there was even a girl in her wetsuit who had come by kayak. I said, this opportunity is too good!”

Pedro went home, googled Pango, and sent him a Facebook message. They met up the next day and a plan was hatched. It was a very simple plan ("there was no storyboard, no pre-production - it was literally have a coffee and go shoot”) and the time frame was short, as Pango was about to leave town.

With editor and film-maker Whitney Oliver on board to lend a hand, they set out to get as much footage as they could, in as many beautiful places as they could, in one day. It didn’t go that smoothly. The weather was awful, there were low clouds everywhere, and they broke the piano before the shoot even started.

The piano came to grief on a rough section when they were driving off-road to a spot on Glendhu Bay. But it turns out Pango has many talents. "He went from Pango the romantic poet / pianist to Pango the jack of all trades,” Pedro said, repairing the damage with some of the "arsenal of tools” he keeps in the Land Rover. Pedro filmed the repair action - it’s all about stories after all - and they made it to the location, and got on with the shot.

Further filming at a sun-bathed paddock on Mount Aspiring Road followed, and despite the dramas, Pedro said he has enough footage to put together "a cool 10- to 15-minute piece”. But he hopes to take it further. Pango has said he plans to return to Wanaka, and several local businesses have expressed interest in supporting the project going forward. Who knows, it could even go global. "How about Pango at the Great Wall of China?” Pedro suggested, adding he’s already discussed the idea with a contact from China who has shown interest. Either way, he said, he’s made a friend, and captured a story for all of us. "Pango believes he’s not giving people music, but memories: a memory of space, sound and time, all in one.”

Visit the Pedro Pimentel Visuals Facebook page for updates and sneak peek clips from the shoot, or to get in touch if you’d like to get involved in the project (click on MORE below).

PHOTO: Pedro Pimentel