Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Directors Playhouse for this April 13th, 2025, session 61-ish, I believe.
Yeah, the host in your hosting program director here, James J. Mieleff, I'm joined by my partner in art, our head up production, Seth Habhagger.
Well, everyone, we are back again with another fantastic interview with another fantastic Wisconsin artist.
You've heard from him before, he has been on our airwaves a little while ago, he was talking about his most recent film,
but he's here to talk about that and some other films he's done and some other interesting developments in art in Wisconsin, specifically in film.
So, let's get going. We welcome the WFHR stage, Wisconsin's own award-winning director, writer, creator, Nathan Deming.
Nathan, good to have you with us. Hello, quite the intro. We go big. We go big around here. We want to build that ego up, man.
We appreciate your joining us again. We, everything Seth said is so on point.
Nathan, before we dive into this great tour that you just wrapped up and some of the coverage about that and
action Wisconsin, we really want to get into along with some of the films that you've done.
Can you let our audience know a little bit about you? Can you tell us some of your background?
Well, super excited to be here today, partly because I grew up not too far away from you guys,
about an hour down the road in good old Coma, Wisconsin. And we're probably high school rivals, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some like that.
Yeah, no, we definitely, I feel like we're in this interesting space in the space because there's
so many distinct geographic regions in Wisconsin, you know, and then we're kind of, we got our
foot in a lot of pools, you know, we're kind of western Wisconsin, we're kind of central Wisconsin,
we're kind of northern Wisconsin. Do you feel that way? Oh, yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely.
I think there's a relatability, whether you're from Rapids or Toma or Nikus or any of these
things too, I think you can relate to that. Appreciate that Nathan, what got you to want to do
filmmaking, be in the arts for a living? Did you really have a choice because now that I
said it out loud, I'm like, I'm looking at Seth and I'm thinking about myself, I don't know if any
of us really had a choice, didn't we? We just kind of, you know, you got to follow your passions.
Definitely not for the money.
Well, and as people are paying attention to what's going on in the film industry, it's an extremely
grim time for the film industry in general, unless you're the Minecraft movie.
That's your major studio now owned by a major multi-billion dollar company.
So it's just kind of a weird time in it, but yeah, I definitely, I've always loved movie,
all kinds of movies, grew up in the era of like VHS, ham quarters, my dad had one, and I remember,
I like a lot of movies as a five-year-old, but at some point came across Star Wars, you know,
fell in love with it, and if you remember the VHS copy of Star Wars, which this was before the
special editions came out, everything. They did this like final re-release, and then they opened
with an interview with Leonard Maldon and George Lucas. Oh my gosh, yes, I remember that.
I can picture the tape. Yeah, the fuzz. So my very first movies were actually, I thought that's
how you had to start a movie. Oh, that's awesome. My first film, I was like five or six and I
called it the Nightmare, and I drew some stuff on like a chalkboard, you know, that I filmed for
the title cards, and then basically it was like, before the Nightmare, we're going to have a little
interview about my four-year-old brother. I forced him to interview me, and then I'm sitting there
talking about making the movie like I am now. And then we never made the movie.
That's awesome. God, is that a great story? That's great. Almost a similar story to for me,
except it was my dad. It was my dad that was making do with the interviewing. So I had a very
very South-South Chicago Italian dish. I don't know where his voice, I don't know where, just
jumping into this and everything. It was great. I wish I still in that video. I wish you had
you. It yours. That's fantastic. I know it's somewhere. I got to dig it out because it's pretty
funny, and maybe I should actually what I should do is I should make the Nightmare now.
Yeah. Oh, there you go. Oh, yes. And then in Stintro it was the interview itself.
Well, and you know, and... Oh, no, no, no, I didn't mean to cut off. What were you going to say?
I have to stick to whatever decisions I talk about in the film. Yeah, right.
Interesting film, yeah. And speaking of films, we're going to dive into your films a little bit
more in our second half here and everything, but you should just wrap up a 36-city tour regarding
your films and regarding your film making and such. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what
you discussed and found out about on your tour? Yeah, 36-city Wisconsin tour. Yes. Which I should
note was covered by the Wisconsin State Journal in Chicago sometimes. You know, this has been,
and we talked about it quite a bit too. Yeah, yeah. You were one of my first interviews to think
for having me on James. So, yeah, no. So I'm doing this series and calling the year project where
I'm making a film for every month of the year, all of a sudden, Wisconsin. And I want to do
something unique with it, which is not, you know, decisions for everyone. This is for Wisconsin,
and I told everyone on the tour, I want this to be like the spotted cow of film series. Like,
you can only get it. In Wisconsin, or Chicago and Minneapolis, we also played, but normally,
that's also what happens with spotted cow beer, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right, right. It's a great cup. It's a great cup. But I want to set up this, what I hope will be
this unique experience for audiences and myself, which is that over the next 10 or 15 years,
every other year or so, depending on my schedule, you guys will hear from me. And I'll come around
to state in the exact same way I just did, which was showing February, so number two, because I'm
going in order. And in February, and then like, so in a year, I'll come around with March,
and in March. And then, you know, a year or two after that, April and April. And,
yeah, I just, to me, I just want to set up something fun and unique. That's also like an ongoing,
like I like, series like the deck of log, which is like focused on, that's a series of 10 films,
one for each one of the 10 commandments. But then other filmmakers like Richard Linklater,
who he did a film for 12 years, it's just one movie, but he shot it over 12 years.
Right. Boyhood. Incredible. And he's currently working on, I believe it's called Meryley,
we roll along. And a movie he's going to shoot over 17 years. Oh my gosh. So I just think it's
fun when these kind of things happen. And part of the February tour was basically introducing
people to it for the first time, because we premiered both January and February. It was
gone some film festival, but January is kind of still within the tentacles of COVID on society,
you know, like a big tour was not exactly a, you know, it was feasible right now. So I had so
much fun. It was really fun connecting with audiences around the state. And James, you saw the
movie, remember there's an ice fisherman character, he's very with God, and very with God tonight.
And everywhere around the state, I asked Green Bay, or, you know, Ashland, or Proudashine,
does this guy live here? Do you know this guy?
Every single location was like, oh yeah, that's one of the powers of what you're doing here,
Nathan. And you know, we just got done talking about all of us have a Star Wars background,
or a superhero background or loving action movies or big blockbusters or anything like that.
There's nothing wrong with any of those. And I think that's there's some fine filmmaking,
fine filmmakers involved in those. But this is where the art really gets made. And this is what
storytelling and what films I believe were really invented for. Telling stories that not everybody
knows, showing how, well, this this fisherman or this, you know, somebody maybe in a downtown
inner city or something like that, you might think, well, they have no related, I have no
related ability to this. Then you watch the movie and you realize before the movie is even halfway
over, oh, I can relate to this person quite a bit, showing how much more we are connected. I think
film has the power to do that. And I know it has the power to do that. And you, what you're doing
is a really good example of that, bringing attention to maybe jobs or types of people that we don't
get a chance to put on there very much. Representation has so many layers to it that we, I think,
have done a good job as a society to get better about. You're not me as a little kid looking
for any like, you know, a mixed kid out there or something like that and seeing Horshack and freaking
out. I go, God, I got one. You know, we got much more of that nowadays and everything. And that's
really good to see. But with that, I think comes, okay, well, now who else are we not covering?
What other stories are we not telling? Stories that you you're having in these movies are important
because of that. All of that being said, there is also another underlying importance to this,
that we kind of talked, touched about in our pregame a little bit. But it's something that you talked
about quite a bit throughout your tour. And that's Action Wisconsin. Can we talk about that, Nathan,
and what that is? Yeah, for sure. Because, yeah, I agree. I mean, film is an empathy machine,
right? You know, it's, and I think on top of that, which in Action Wisconsin, I think people
don't realize that the United States number one export is cultural and it's the entertainment
industry. That is our largest export in the world. People also don't realize that we basically
control 90% of the global audience share. I didn't realize that until I went to the London film school
and thought, oh, this is great. I'm going to connect with, you know, and I did connect with great
filmmakers from all over the world. But I didn't realize that everybody there mostly wanted to come
to America. Right. Our culture is and has been dominant for a long time. Well, we'll see how long
that lasts. But of course, it's very important. And so I think within that, as a filmmaker from
Wisconsin, as somebody who's worked and lived in Hollywood for like 10 years now, also very sensitive
to the fact that a lot of our American film industry is really, you know, the coastal film industry,
it's, you know, LA, New York or Chicago a little bit. And I love the cities. I love a lot of movies
that come out of them. But that does mean that voices get sidelined and that, you know, there's
an image of the Midwest and the media that I think cannot be stereotypical or, you know, just
not really what's going on here. You know, the people just think of Fargo and I think of the Midwest
are making a murderer. And in general, there's a coastal bias, which their tastes change all the
times. I'm sure it'll change at some point. But right now, there's just like, it's like the most
boring thing you can tell them is that you're from Wisconsin or from the Midwest or, you know,
the flyover states as much as at the joke. And meanwhile, I know it's on a great artist here.
I know some amazing stories and really interesting people. And I think they're counting this out. So
that's bringing me to what I'm very passionate about, which is more film happening inside Wisconsin.
And that's what action Wisconsin is trying to do. This is nonprofit that is pushing for
building the basically the economic initiatives to make that happen. Because it gets boring fast.
So I'll try to keep this fun. But basically, movies don't get made now anywhere around the world
without a thing called in action centers. Are you guys familiar with what those are?
Yes. Right. Yeah. I don't think it'd be bad. I don't know because both Seth and I are entertainers and
we come from the, you know, the industry very well. But maybe some of our listeners might not. So
if you don't want to touch on that, it's a great idea. No, definitely. Yes. So I mean, I have a filmmaker
and I'm still like, you know, okay, what are they? Basically for a while now, a model has grown
where because film is so lucrative, because every time a film comes to town, you're creating jobs
and money gets poured into the local economy, that means it's extremely competitive to get films
shoot there. And so what's happened is that states offer a part of the budget back to the production.
So if your budget is a million dollars and the tax offering is 25%, then do the math. You get
a little bit more back because studies have shown that like the dollars spent in the state or
spent on the production will bring more more dollars. And then obviously like you have to look at
states that have done this really well like Georgia and New Mexico. It's created like multi-billions
of dollars. And then New Mexico has multiple hit shows like Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul that
also then become cultural exports. Right. Right. Suddenly. Suddenly I'm driving through Albuquerque
and I got to go see the hotel where Walton, Jesse got a fighter or whatever, you know. Right.
So anyways, Wisconsin is one of 13 states that have no incentives. And on top of that, to add
insult to injury, we're one of three without a film office. And a film office is just as important.
It's basically like if film already wants to shoot Groundhog's Day, which was filmed actually
really close to the Wisconsin border in Illinois, they would call up the state film office and then
immediately get a list of resources, get their footing, you know, realize that this is possible.
Okay, the state can handle this. We don't have that right now.
Yeah. It's borderline shocking actually. It really is. And Nathan, something that Seth and I
have touched on whenever we get a chance, Wisconsin finished dead last in the union when it came to
funding the arts. Whether we're talking about this topic or even some other things that Wisconsin,
our neighboring states are, you know, making laps around us, whether we're, you know, talking about
legalization or our other topics where that one hits our ag industry so hard that, you know, no
spoiler to anybody that needs it so much. Right. Or we're talking about something like this where,
you know, you look up North in the last couple of winners and how bad that they have been
devastated by the lack of having people over there or anything like that. I imagine that
if we had a film being done up North or something like that, boy, that would help the economy
quite a bit. That's money that's being left on the table. That's the exact right way to put it.
Money left on the table. Speaking of up North, all you have to do is look at dilution superior.
Right. So people who don't know that area, I mean, they're essentially like one town pretty much,
you know, they're like one large community. Yeah, that's where I'm from. I'm from the dilutheria,
actually. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Put by the channel. And Minnesota has good incentives. And
right now, Duluth, it has a film office and incentives. And they're seeing a ton of movies made
up there. And then right across the channel on the Wisconsin side is nothing. So if we change
these things, there's no reason those same productions that are already filming in Duluth
won't immediately have a foothold and be like, oh, great. Now we can search shooting in
superior as well, you know. Right. And so it's just really frustrating because like you said,
it's money left on the table and the really exciting thing is that this has been an effort
in the works for a long time. They tried to bring it as a bill in the Wisconsin legislature.
Last year, it didn't even make it into whatever you call it. Yeah. Right. And but
action Wisconsin has made some real progress and some legislators on our behalf have made progress.
And Governor Evers added under the Department of Tourism, both of these things, film incentives,
and a film office to the 2025-2027 budget. So it is now a very real possibility that we get these
things. And there's two more joint finance committee hearings at the end of the month where
action Wisconsin is asking people to go if they're nearby. I don't remember where they are
at the top of my head. I think Wafa and Hayward. And it's about the whole budget, right? But we
can go let them know that this is really important. And beyond that, if you can't make it to Wafa or Hayward,
if you go to the action Wisconsin website, which is pretty easy to remember, it's just
action WI.org. There's a take action button. And in there is like a pre-written letter.
That takes like 30 seconds to fill out your information. It'll shoot right up to your
legislator to also let them know, hey, this isn't a budget and this is really important. Please don't
cut this. We're coming at it also, I think, from the art side and the culture side. This is also
just an economic thing. That's where action Wisconsin is actually coming from. This is an economic
growth thing. And that's the argument that's winning over Republicans and Democrats, which is
to borrow your phrase again. We're just literally leaving money on the table as one of 13 states.
And the final thing I'll say about it is a lot of people don't know this. The film industry might
be leaving LA. And there was just a headline in the Hollywood report of the other day that
studio vacancy rate is at the highest historically ever. So in other words, they're not filming in
Los Angeles. And it's because of incentives. And I think the future, because of technological
changes that we could go into, but we don't have to. But because of a lot of things, the future
might be that Hollywood is everywhere and in kind of shifting regions. So I think now is the perfect
time for us to do this and try to capture the talent. And yeah. I mentioned this before.
Some years back, Vince Vaughn took a real initiative to this. Did a very similar thing that you're
doing, Nathan, and taking time from his touring, promoting movies or whatever he would project.
He was involved in to really focus on getting people in Illinois to vote for this and lower the
taxes for filmmaking and everything. Once that happened, once that passed, the dark night gets
filmed there. You know, so many other great films have been filmed there for years. It was a place
that you really had to be able to fit it into your budget. If you were going to film in Chicago,
you wanted to get that river or some of those shots, it was going to cost you. It still isn't,
I wouldn't say cheap by any means, but it is so much more affordable to where you're seeing so
many more films being done there. Vince Vaughn's legacy as an actor is one thing, but the way he is
in that city and from this and the initiative he took, I think a very similar thing can happen
here with what you're doing. And maybe one of the more important points I want to bring up when
it comes to this, you know, Seth and I are transplants. We get this better than most. I want to
high school out here. I know the Royal Rivalry's work. You want these other states doing something
you're not doing? Come on. I mean Wisconsin, come on. You know, you're going to let Illinois,
Minnesota, Michigan get away with this. Come on. You could be a part of this and everything.
If this is what I got to do, Nathan, to get people to be a part of this, I'm going to take whatever
out I got it. In all seriousness, this is something that as Nathan touched on, it impacts
anybody, whether you have never seen a movie, could care less about seeing a movie. You care
about your taxes, you care about your income, you care about those things. And I believe that
everyone out there cares about their neighbors and their friends and such. So this is something
that what we're talking about here, I genuinely believe has no negatives. I truly don't think there
is any negative to something like action Wisconsin. There's only positives. And hopefully,
it's only a matter of time that it gets passed. Nathan, you mentioned a website. Can we mention that
one more time before we go to break? Action, WI dot org. Check that out. Everybody get on over
their sign up and encourage you to do some more homework on this one. Because I think, well,
we've touched on it quite a bit. There are plenty of other layers to this that I think people would
find interesting and a long way. Real quick. To that point, James, something that Nathan said a
little bit earlier, you know, there's the tourism aspect of it. You know, like, wow,
do you know this was filmed here? And you can, you know, people will go and see it. You know,
I remember when I was a kid, you know, up in northern Minnesota. No, we did not get many films
up there that were made, of course. One that was made was from a from a local Jessica Lang.
She's from Kloke, Minnesota. So the movie is called Far North. It's not very good. I'm just
going to throw that out there. But yeah, remember that. But they filled it up in northern Minnesota
because they got, you know, Duluth in that area. And this was back in the late 80s,
early 90s, something like that. But I remember my family getting into the car and finding the
farmhouse that was not far from where we lived to see where they had filmed it. The farmhouse where
they had filmed the those scenes there, the ones that weren't in Duluth and that kind of stuff.
And that was just, you know, us just being locals there. You think about, you know, Columbus when
they filmed the public enemy films with Johnny Depp, you know, down in the downtown area there.
Every time I go to Columbus, I think of that movie and then filming it there. It's something,
you know, I don't know if people really think about it. It's like, wow, and not only that,
when they're filming, it's an event. You know, people get to be extras. You get to, you know,
see the process and that sort of thing. Well, in the jobs it can create. You know, where they're
bringing in people to what you're talking about there, Seth. I remember going to Union Station.
And to this day, I go to Union Station and I think of the Intouchables. And that's something that
we're talking about, you know, Chicago where there's a billion things you could be talking about
or remembering about that city, especially if you grew up around there and you got, you know,
your own personal memories. But yet I go to Union Station, which I've been to at least a billion
times. And I think at the Intouchables almost every time the jobs that it can create and make
available. And I'll say this too, without films being filmed here in Wisconsin, my and many
others out there dreams wouldn't have been met. I became a screen actor guild member because of an
independent film, no names being filmed, not even like 40 minutes away from me. And getting a
chance to be a part of that. I think that that's where something, not just not my dream per se,
but anybody's out there that wants to chase this down. And it's part of the reason why we like
to get your origin story, you know, Nathan and guests that join us. We know that like you, like,
Seth, like I, many of us were kids at one point that looked at this industry and thought, well, God,
how could I ever get to that point? How could I, this little kid from Northern Minnesota or from
Tomal, Wisconsin get to a point where you're making films? We just gave you two, we just give you
examples. It can happen. And especially if we're supporting the arts in this state, appreciate the
conversations so much, Nathan, but you're not done. We got a whole other second half air to get to.
We're going to talk to Nathan a little bit about the film city is made and some of the work that's
been going on. He's been up to coming up here on director's playhouse. Welcome back to WFHR's
director's playhouse, Seth and James hanging out with Nathan Deming, local filmmaker here in
the state. And we're going to talk a little bit about Nathan's films and the work he's been doing.
If you don't mind Nathan, before we get into February and maybe even March, I did want to touch on
what you've been up to lately and also reminding a little bit to your first film. So first,
you, we're just touching on during the break here a little bit that you were a part of the, you're
on the jury of the Wisconsin Film Festival. Thank you. How did that go?
Yeah, that was super fun. So the Wisconsin Film Festival is in Madison every April. It's my
favorite film festival in Wisconsin. I think everybody should check it out. And they, unlike a lot
of film festivals, they actually support local filmmakers and people coming up, which like you
just have to look at something like the Chicago International Film Festival. They don't really do
that, unfortunately. They, they definitely have great selections, but they just don't do a lot with
Illinois filmmakers or even Chicago filmmakers. But Council Film Festival makes that a priority.
And this year, I was lucky enough to be one of the three jury members who watched,
because like 60 films all made in Wisconsin in a weekend. And they were a mix of short films,
documentaries, a couple documentary features. And then at the end of it, we got to award it with
the three films with the prestigious Golden Badger. And awesome. This year, one of the filmmakers,
as I was telling you, his from Wisconsin Rapids, his name is Sawyer Weidman. He made a film called
Adagio that I liked quite a lot. Yeah, we're, we're hoping to talk to him in a future episode.
Appreciate that and appreciate you mentioning the film festival, because not only we like to bring
to attention to it, but it's such a wonderful opportunity for people, I think, to take in not only the
arts, but films that they may not see otherwise. Exactly. So it's a great thing. If you can take it in
every year, we encourage you to. We touched on this a little bit the last time we got together, Nathan,
but we didn't have as much time as we do today. I wanted to get into speaking in tongues,
film that you your first film, I believe, from 2018. I mentioned to you at the time that I remember
when this movie came out and getting a chance to see it. And I don't know that there are many
examples to me. There's a million movies out there that talk about grief that give you,
you know, a storyline that evolves that or something. There's very few for me that give such empathy,
that echo empathy so much like this film did. I credit you as a writer, you as a director,
and certainly the cast, Scott Tyler, the people that were involved with this, the great work,
the combination of that that you guys did. That is a wonderful film. It could be heavy on the
heart at times, but in the right ways, I think in important ways and in relatable ways. How did
it go making that film? And I imagine a long process is building into the scenes.
Yeah, well, thanks so much for all those kind words about it. Yeah, that was my first feature,
which for a lot of filmmakers is a pretty big deal, pretty big right of passage. And we shot it
in both a little bit in Wisconsin, but it's a Chicago movie. That's where the something
placed. And yeah, it's about a young college student who we find out and has lost his mother
recently. And in the shadow of that tragedy, he's become a member of a growing mega-church,
which I know there's still around, but when I was in college about 12 or 15 years ago,
I think they were having a real kind of cultural moment. There were like celebrity pastors
on YouTube, because they're familiar at all. And that weren't just like Joel Osteen or something
like PV friendly. They were kind of like, it was kind of a new generation thing. It's kind of
Gen X. They were pretty popular. And it kind of was like rewriting the Bible and being like,
Christianity is cool now. And incorporating PVs and all that stuff. So,
anyways, this is a very personal story, because I got sucked up in a similar church.
And yeah, I wanted to process a lot of the experiences I had. I'm no longer religious,
but I wanted to talk in that film about what I saw as the positives and negatives of the whole
thing, because I think evangelical Christianity in particular, or speaking in tongues, where we get
the name from. You know, it has kind of a funny cultural image. And yet, a lot of people across
the country and world who that's their face, that's part of it, you know, or they're getting
wrapped up in it. So yeah, I wanted to make a film that both non-Christian and Christian could enjoy.
And I think we did that. Yeah, so that was the main thing. And try to also show that
although maybe it doesn't work out for Scott's character in the end,
we kind of see the emotional hooks that kind of sucked him in. I do have some criticisms of
the church layered in there, but you know, like I think there are probably some that
people could probably largely agree with. And I think with that and with the film itself and
the story of it, I think it's so relatable to darn near anybody if not everybody that's watching
it, especially when it comes to loss or when it comes to, you know, where you seek help or the
help that you might need with that loss. It's a wonderful film. And especially a great way to come
out the box, man, your first film, that's really impressive. You don't have to take my word for
it, everybody. I believe you can find it on 2B for free. It's on Amazon Prime as well. I encourage
you to find it again. It is speaking in tongues from 2018 rated PG. Nathan, one of the kind of fast
forward now a little bit in your filmmaking process to February, not to get past January or
anything, but talking about what you and letting you dive into a little bit more what you were
talking about earlier about this project that you have where you're making a film for every month
of the year. Tell us about February and the experience you've had touring with that and, you know,
people's responses to it. Yeah, well, with this whole project, I got 12 opportunities to tell,
well, Wisconsin stories, not just the people in the place, but also the month of the year.
You know, like what it means here in Wisconsin, we have pretty distinct and designed months. I
mean, we're getting a pretty full blown April already with how incremental the weather is being,
you know, I mean, it's like, no, then it's 50, then it's snow, then it's rain, you know.
What was the purpose of these, the original purpose of these, Nathan, to let people outside of
Wisconsin know it's not always snowing here. Was it, was that really the underlying purpose of,
we have some, we have so many, I just wanted, every time I just wanted to make screen savers, you know,
this whole movie came out of it. I also, I also strongly believe that our environment does affect us,
you know, like, like, so February is specifically a story about a Mexican immigrant who
brand new to Wisconsin, trying to get us putting this kind of in culture shock. He's not really
finding anything to open up about until he finds ice fishing. So there's a very specific story
there, but I mean, the starting point though is just the month of February itself and what I think
it means to me or hopefully all of us in our journey around the sun, which is, I think February
is just the doldrums, it's just repetition, you know, it's like your fifth or sixth month of winter,
maybe not anymore, but that's how it was when I was a kid, you know. And you just, your kids probably
have cold, you have a cold, it's like your fifth cold, probably on the whole season. And the day,
the day is still shorter than the night, and you're just longing, who is just like this,
this kind of head down, let's get through it saying that people in Miami are people and, you know,
the sunbelt don't really understand as much, but I think that's kind of what a lot of us go through
here. Oh, yes. When it came to the reception of this film as you've been touring it around,
how has that gone? That was so much fun. You know, I had concerns on some levels because
it is a story about immigration, and it's not really a political film, but I guess anything
with immigrants is inherently political these days. So I was a little worried about especially
some smaller towns who played, maybe some negative reactions, but actually it was kind of really
heartwarming, like David who plays Miguel, he came out from California, and everybody just treated
him like a movie star on the tour is really nice. And I even heard from some people, they didn't
tell me their politics or anything, but they said something like, oh, I never thought about it
from the immigrants point of view before. Yeah, wow. I also think it's a very interesting thing to say,
because I mean, the obvious point is we are a state of immigrants, we're a nation of immigrants,
you don't have to go back far in my family to find German and Norwegian who came here and
started their lives here and adapted and created their own culture, and right now Latinos are doing
that, and you know, they're the fastest growing demographic in Wisconsin, they're the largest
minority group, people don't realize they're the, they make up 70% of the dairy workforce.
Yeah, estimated. And we still just treat them as guests, and they're bringing a vibrancy to the
state, they're also opening up a lot of fall businesses, if you've noticed, there's actual like
numbers to show that like small towns, down towns have, you know, there's been a lot of like
light of businesses out, and the people moving in are often Latinos, and they're opening up
Latin American grocery stores and Mexican restaurants, and like they're keeping things alive,
they're really adding to a state, so it was fun to, you know, show the, like I said, I got 12
opportunities to show the state, like how could I possibly ignore that? Right, especially the
time sensitivity of so many different things that this movie brings up, whether it's organically
or through the actors and the writing. I think it's very noteworthy. When it comes to how people
can see the film is, they're going to be an opportunity for that coming up.
Well, I'm sorry to say, if you missed it on the tour, I'm not sure when our next date is,
we just, we played at the Baloid Film Festival a week ago, and that was kind of our last official
screening since January and this whole kind of 2025 thing. We are figuring out when we're going to
release it online, so January is online and it eventually, February will join it, but
sorry to say, you might have missed out this time, all the more reason to pay attention when I
come around saying, March, March, March. That's right. That's exactly where I was going, man.
And, you know, for the audience to know, Nathan and I will keep in touch and when it is released
online, we're going to make sure to promote it and let everybody know, and we'll be talking
quite a bit about it. You did mention January, though, if people want to find that online, how can they
do it? January? Yeah, it's on YouTube and Vimeo, just January, Nathan Deming. It's a bit shorter,
it was the first one, but I'm really proud of it and I love the main character. I hope other
people do too. Just, you know, real quick, we've just got a couple more questions for you, Nathan,
I really do appreciate the time. Are you in the process of writing or even filming March right
now? Are you in the, is that in the works? Yeah, so I've got up until June, written, and I haven't
kind of arc. I want to bring everybody on that I'm really, really excited about. In terms of when
they get shot, and when they get released, that's kind of a rolling thing around my other project,
back in Los Angeles, but right now the target would be next March, and if not that, then definitely
the one after that. Just remember what we talked about off air and everything. You want to
character that is Italian and Jewish and works in radio and no, no, no. Yeah, I gotta get that
over there. Nathan, before we let you go, there is a couple questions we're like to ask all of our
guests, and one of the things that I was looking forward to asking you, what is some of the better advice
you've been given when it comes to the industry or just life in general? I'll stick away from life,
I don't know. I can do this. I can do the film side. Yeah, I'm trying to think. I just did this
screenwriting supposing last week there was also the same time as Wisconsin Film Festival.
There was a lot of fun, so it was making me think of the very simple screenwriting advice
that I got that I think has helped. I guess I'll share the one the first thing that jumps out of me
is at some point, somebody pointed out that when you boil it down almost every story, at least in
film, probably outside of film too, but it's about consciousness change or about a character changing
their mind about something. It's extremely simplified, but essentially that's part of the
catharsis we feel as we watch it, and it's that simple bit of advice, super super helpful, because
especially writing movies, you get lost in the weeds a lot, I'm like, what is this about and what do I
want to feel like? And then things like that, it goes, okay, right, well there's this, and it's
kind of like a picture of like, or all screenwriting advice, it's kind of like knowing the laws of
gravity when you're designing a house, right? You just gotta know how structure works, and then once
you do, you can do whatever you want, you can make the Burj Khalifa, or you can make a white house. I
don't know why these references, I'm thinking about that. That's a great stuff. Okay, well Nathan,
you made it to the final question, but I will warn you, it is the toughest of all the questions we
ask. We ask this of all of our guests though. If you could have coffee with any historical figure,
who and why? What coffee shop are we at? One in Madison. Okay, well now I gotta figure out who
won't be cranky in Madison. Okay, okay, I'll stop my head. I can buy you a little time real quick
here because nobody has ever asked a follow-up question, and that was awesome. That was a great
follow-up question. We've been doing this for a while, and nobody has asked that follow-up question.
That was a fantastic follow-up, man. Well, right now I would probably selfishly want coffee with
Paul Thomas Anderson, who's my favorite American filmmaker. That's a good one, yeah. He'd probably be
on his phone, texting my old Rudolph, and wishing he wasn't at coffee with me. I would enjoy that.
Oh, it's a great choice. That is very cool, yeah. There's not many filmmakers that I can think of
where there's not one scene. I'm not glad I saw multiple times. He's one of those directors.
It's not just his films, I like. It's his approach and his originality to making films. So I can
genuinely say there's not a scene I've seen of his that I didn't enjoy. Whether I like the movie or
not, whether I like the acting, any of these things, it's all secondary. I'm always thankful that I
saw his films. He's just one of those directors. I think that anything he does throughout his career,
I'm going to see it in major part because of some of the earlier work that he did, and how he pulled
me in from a young age. I think like a good writer, he pulled me in very early. He's a great one.
That's a great choice. Yeah. Yeah, he's got a new movie coming out too. One battle after another.
Oh my god, does that look good, but also completely different than anything he's done before.
Well, can I can I give you real quick a Wisconsin connection to that movie? Yes, please do.
The so a friend I grew up with in Tomah who graduated from the Tomah High School.
She worked in the sound department on that film and
PCA knew her by name. So people making films coming out of Wisconsin. There's definitely people
doing it. They're spread out around the whole industry. You've got Wisconsinites, you've got
Midwesterners. It's another reason why we encourage you to sign up the action Wisconsin and help us
bring more filmmaking to this state. Yes. And more guys like Nathan doing this great work.
We appreciate you, man. As I warned you in the break, this isn't the last time you're going to be
with us though. Get used to putting up with Seth and I in these kind of questions. And thank you,
again, for the time. And what you're doing for the creative industry, man, and working so hard
on this and pushing action Wisconsin and some of that, I don't believe that you have to do that.
I appreciate so much that you are and investing in our industry like you do. And young creatives out
there being able to see this and hopefully take note of it and do something similar when they get
their opportunities. Thanks, man. Yeah, actions wi.org for the people who want to check it out. And yeah,
I think if we all work together, pull in the same direction, who knows what we can accomplish.
That's right. Nathan, if people would like to find out more on the work that you're doing,
is there a website or somewhere where they can go to see that?
Yeah, my personal website is Nathan Deming.com. And my last name is just one M like Peter Deming,
David Lynch, and the target for who I'm not related to.
It's been great, Nathan. Thank you so much again for the time. Wish you new well up there.
And we'll talk again real soon. All right, thank you for having me. Thank you. Thanks.
