Former Ketchikan family featured in Emmy-winning documentary

A documentary film featuring a family who once called Ketchikan home recently won an Emmy Award in the topical category for Best Documentary. “Trilogy: It’s in the Heart” centers on the Coon family and their journey from Alaskan fishermen to multi-generational Hawaiian tour boat business owners.

Jim Coon was born and raised in Alaska, and spent over 20 years in Ketchikan from the late 1940s to 1960s. His father, Eldon, was a successful charter and commercial fisherman and hunting guide based out of Ketchikan during that time. The Coon family also operated a photography studio, which was overseen by Jim’s mother Jeannette during the fishing season. Jeannette was also a guidance counselor at Ketchikan High School.

After the fateful sinking of Eldon’s charter boat in 1969, the family were forced to sell their house and move to Seattle. There, they put most of their time and resources — including some much-needed, 11th-hour funding from Jim’s brother Randy — into building a new boat. Once completed, they spent two years sailing the west coast of North America before journeying to Hawaii. The family eventually settled in Maui, where they founded Trilogy Excursions, a snorkel and sailboat company that is now owned and operated by the third generation of Coons.

Trilogy was also severely affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires, which destroyed much of the town of Lahaina last August. Although they suffered significant losses, the company has managed to continue truncated operations while they rebuild from the devastation.

In a recent interview with the Daily News, Jim Coon spoke about his time growing up in Ketchikan, saying the Alaska lifestyle had a big influence on him and his siblings during their childhood.

“Ketchikan formed the adults that we became,” Coon said. “Our formative years were spent in Ketchikan and it prepared us for a life anywhere else in the world. I never imagined living anywhere else but Ketchikan. I thought I would spend my life there. I never wanted to spend my life anywhere else. I love Ketchikan. It was just a great town to be raised in.”

Coon said that he passed on the skills he developed while living in Ketchikan to his children, teaching them to be self-sufficient and hardworking.

“When I got married, I wanted my kids to also embrace their Alaskan heritage,” Coon said. “So they're very competent. They know what it's like to live in the bush. They're good fishermen. They know how to run boats. They know what it's like living off a roof catchment system for water and having an outhouse. They know how precious resources are and how hard it is to make it in the wilderness.”

Those “Alaska” values of hard work, perseverance, toughness and self-reliance have lent themselves to a prospering “eco tourism” business with a fleet of seven sailing catamarans. From sunset cruises, dinner sailing, whale watching and snorkeling, Trilogy offers a wide range of experiences for Maui’s tourists.

Riley Coon, Jim’s son and current co-owner of Trilogy Excursions, describes the company as “value-based, not profit-based.” Riley identified the company’s commitment to its founding values as one of the reasons for its success and longevity.

“With other businesses, there's been some change in ownership in this last decade,” Riley said. “You have original operators retiring out, and now there's some foreign-owned, mainland-owned and even publicly-owned companies operating. And for all intents and purposes, they do the exact same thing we do, but they can't copy our company's culture.”

Riley spent his childhood summers with his parents and siblings at their cabin in Angoon learning how to hunt, fish, run boats and live completely off-grid. He says these experiences helped him form a bond with Alaska and its way of life. Although he now spends the majority of his time in Hawaii, he still feels a strong connection to his Alaskan roots.

He also sees many similarities between Alaska and Hawaii, both in their far-removed settings and the values of their people.

“Hawaii and Alaska have some cool complimenting similarities,” Riley said. There's a lot of open space, the natural beauty, the wilderness. There's some of that ‘lost in time’ kind of vibe. Alaska and Hawaii are the two best states in my opinion. They're known for their natural beauty and their small town vibe. Your integrity and your word still means a lot in these areas.”

Stephan Boeker is the director of “Trilogy: It’s in the Heart.” The Emmy-winning filmmaker said he was originally approached by the Coon family about making a commemorative film to screen at Trilogy Excursions' 50th anniversary gala in 2023. Boeker, who got his start in filmmaking as a wedding videographer, said that he was immediately drawn to the family’s origins in Ketchikan.

“Elden Coon was the sort of patriarch of the whole thing,” said Boeker. “He was the original boat guy, and his whole life was centered around boats and doing these tours in Ketchikan. And one day he sank the boat, and his whole livelihood, everything went down the drain because of his mistake. And the depression that ensued seemed to me like the conflict that really started everything. So I said, ‘This is going to be the conflict that poses a question in the viewer's mind.’ Okay, he sank the boat. He's depressed. Will he get out of his funk and still do something with his life at an advanced age? Is that ultimately answered in the resolution? I knew that there was something there.”

Boeker said he enjoyed learning more about the family’s story during the interview process. His goal was to highlight the motivations behind Trilogy Excursions and the Coon family.

“I knew that it would be such a lovely challenge to draw this story out of them in a way that would hopefully elicit some emotional responses,” Boeker said. “If the protagonists and the people in the story don't care, we can't, as filmmakers, expect the audience to care. There's so much deep motivation behind doing what they do. It's not just taking people out on a boat like a tourist mill, they really want [guests] to leave and go back home with an enriched experience that hopefully will set them on their own path towards living their destiny.”

After screening the film at Trilogy’s 50th anniversary gala, Boeker’s film was immediately met with widespread acclaim from both audience members and the Coon family. Boeker said he was encouraged to submit the documentary to film festivals. After some initial success on the film festival circuit, including several wins at the Maui Film Festival, Boeker said that his film was met with several rejections from different film festivals.

The filmmaker said that he had essentially given up on the project when he remembered hearing about the submission deadline for the Emmy Awards. He submitted the film, but after not hearing back for several months, Boeker said that he forgot about the submission altogether until he received a message in May notifying him that “Trilogy: It’s in the Heart” has been nominated for the 53rd Annual Northern California Area Emmy Awards in the topical category for Best Documentary. The “hail mary” attempt had succeeded, and Boeker was surprised. Still, he said he had no expectations of winning.

“The event was in June, so I asked my wife if she wanted to go, and we'll just have a fun time,” Boeker said. “No expectations, nothing. I think the whole ceremony was about four hours long, and we weren't called until after three hours. And finally, our category was called up and they listed the nominees with the little trailer that they asked us to send them. And then Pamela Young, from Hawaii — she used to be in the news business and she's on the Emmy board — she called ‘Trilogy: It's in the Heart, directed by Stephan Boeker.’ And I was just like, I didn't know what hit me.”

“I can't say I've been recognized for my work a lot in my life,” he continued. “So I'm glad that I was able to experience that in my life. As much as I always say that external validation isn’t why we do things, we do it because of the love of the art. But to then receive it and have your peers say, ‘Hey, this is pretty damn good. Good job,’ it's really nice.”

Boeker paid for all of the submission fees out of pocket, and described the entire awards and film festival circuit as “all extra stuff.” He said that he made the film to entertain the gala audience and fulfill the job he was hired to do, and had no intentions of submitting the film for awards consideration. He said he received messages of support and encouragement from the Coons following his Emmy win, and expressed his gratitude that the project, which started as a simple collaboration between himself and the Coons, has been appreciated by so many different groups of people.

Jim Coon said that he didn’t pay much attention to any recognition the family might have received by being the subjects of an Emmy-winning documentary. He said that Boeker deserved the attention for his film, and offered an idea as to what might have been so resonant about its subject matter.

“I think more of the credit goes to the filmmaker, he put together something that was really well-crafted,” Jim said. “I will say that there is something very special about multi-generational family businesses, and I feel really good about that. When I was a kid in Ketchikan, a lot of the businesses in the community were multi-generational family businesses. You used to have the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, and all of them were family businesses. The kids would tend to stay in the same business. And what's happened is that our world has really changed. The big box companies or big chains have come in and the butcher probably works for a supermarket now.”

“I think that really resonated in the film, that people realize that there still are some of those in existence,” he continued. “And I think part of the huge acceptance we've had as a family business has been that people really like that. They realize the value it brings to a community, how for multiple generations we're part of that community in a really viable and vibrant way. And it just continues to strengthen a community through the generations.”

Riley Coon said the amount of recognition his family has gotten since the documentary’s Emmy win has made the family feel “kind of awkward.” Coon said that awards and recognition were the last thing on his family’s mind when they commissioned Boeker to make “Trilogy: It’s in the Heart.” Still, Coon sees the film's success as a “blessing,” especially in light of recent tragic events in Maui.

In August 2023, wildfires raged across the island of Maui, engulfing and destroying many local homes and businesses in the town of Lahaina, where Trilogy Excursions is based. Jim Coon described Trilogy’s losses as “significant, but not fatal.” Both the company’s office building and kitchen were damaged, but survived the blaze. Six of the company’s seven boats also survived, with one being saved by a single employee who Coon said risked his life in doing so.

In the midst of the disaster, Riley Coon and his team at Trilogy volunteered to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in rescue efforts during the fires. Using one of their remaining vessels, Coon and his crew sailed with the Coast Guard towards the inferno to search for survivors and provide care to those in need. For his efforts, Coon was recognized with the Citizens Honors Single Act of Heroism award by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

In an interview with the CMOHS, Riley said, “I don’t feel like a hero. I was just doing what I felt was my Kuleana which means… ultimately one’s responsibility. This is not just an award for me and my team, it’s an award for the people of Maui.”

Speaking to the Daily News, Coon remarked on how fortunate his family has been and chose to look at everything they still have, instead of what they may have lost.

“We're a family of faith. If you saw the documentary, you see that's in there, and it was very humbling and kind of reassuring. It cemented us, it kind of sealed us together,” Riley said. “Last year, there was certain recognition that came our way.  And we're not necessarily used to getting recognition. And it wasn't something we were trying to get. It was a surprise, and there were multiple surprises in this last year that look very favorably at us. It was so honoring that we got this award, and I'm like, ‘Of course, why not? It's been such a blessing of a year compared to what it could be.”

According to Jim Coon, Trilogy, like many other Lahaina-based companies, has been struggling to “cobble together an operation” since the wildfires, which besides taking one of their sailing vessels, also destroyed Lahaina’s harbor. Coon estimated it would take the company five years to rebuild. He said the family is “super grateful” that the wildfires didn’t entirely “wipe us out.”  

Riley Coon said the wildfires made him realize how quickly everything his family has built over the past 50 years could be taken away, and how glad he is that the business will still be around for any fourth-generation Coons eager to take on the family business.

“Trilogy: It’s in the Heart” is available to watch for free on pacificstorytellers.com

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News