Transcript
Choco-Loco and Indie Film Fiascos(Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Oct 28, 2025
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And he could pitch and hit.
But he never played in an integrated league.
I don't know how you can... I don't even think he's better than Hank Aaron.
But Otani is ridiculous.
And I don't know if you can call him the best of all time either because of his average.
But he does pitch and hit.
And he's so clutch.
So that should be a caveat in the conversation, too.
I don't know.
Interesting thought.
You know what?
You don't get to answer these questions for us.
Nothing.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You're familiar with his work.
So another
another game tonight.
I'll probably tune in now.
Like I didn't even I was just working last night.
I did not even turn on the game and I woke up and I was like.
hearing all this stuff, I'm like, what the hell?
What did it go to 12 innings?
I turned it on and it's 18 innings, just insane.
So we'll talk, yeah, let's see if we can get Mike, maybe we can get Mike on Friday or something and get a Packer update as well.
I always love to have Mike on the show.
What else?
Oh, Truth or Treason, folks, really good movie.
Before we get to Truth or Treason, I think we got to get to our nightlight question of the night and it's a good one.
Let's talk about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Questions.
This question.
Domanda.
Question.
Question.
Questions.
How do you like your chocolate?
We are celebrating National Chocolate Day.
Not a bad time to have a National Chocolate Day with Halloween being just three days away.
So perfect time for National Chocolate Day.
How do you like your chocolate?
855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.
And I'm gonna start, and I'm gonna say Dubai style.
I'm gonna say Dubai chocolate or chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
Outstanding.
And I will say also a really good chocolate milkshake.
I know but you know
You got to do it or like a root beer float.
Oh Yeah, that doesn't have any chocolate, but I'll take my
With chocolate sauce.
Oh like the candy bars and stuff those designer candy bars?
Oh nice.
Dude, dark chocolate is a superfood.
It's so
You know that?
It's pretty healthy.
I mean, you can't eat pounds of it, but...
They sell those candy bars at Aldi, and some of them are like 80%
Like dark chocolate
thought I'm going really dark chocolate and I ate it and was like eating a cocoa bean It did not taste good at all, but yeah, they have a great chocolate section there.
I like
They're not Reese's
designer peanut butter cups.
Just a couple?
I can't do that with those.
I'm literally, the bag
week's worth of progress out the window.
I don't even remember the brand name, but they're outstanding.
So let us know, folks.
It's National Chocolate Day.
How
do you like your chocolate?
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Do yourself a favor and check it out.
We are coming right back to read some of your
texts and I'm going to tell you about a movie I saw that's outstanding.
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I love that song so much.
It makes me want to do the ooh, and I'm not going to do that, because it would sound
couple of oohs.
I'm not going to do that.
Hey, tonight's question is in honor of National Chocolate Day.
How do you like your chocolate?
We all like it, unless you're allergic to it.
But I said a good milkshake, but I also like chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
I like to buy chocolate.
I probably just should have said how I don't like my chocolate, which is nothing zero
Conrad said he likes the chocolate peanut butter cups at Aldi
Aldi
Okay,
you know, I used to be scared of Aldi
I didn't know what happened in there and like kind of just thought it was like, cause they weren't always kept up well.
Like they, they didn't look that presentable, but I don't know what got me into it.
Like in Marinette, I was probably living there four years and one day I just went into Aldi and someone said, no, they got good deals on such and such.
And I went in there and I'm like, like a housewife from the fifties.
I'm like, look
the savings
Absolutely.
And you know what?
They kind of jacked their prices up a little, but not to the same degree every place else did when inflation was going crazy.
still managed to keep it down.
And that made me want to shop there even more.
So yeah, great stuff.
I'm an Aldi fan.
Yeah.
Especially if they're chocolate, but let us know how you like your chocolate 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic you can text us on the app or Drop us a stream comment and give us a like or follow if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube or X or whatever So I saw this movie over the weekend called truth and treason and it's so good
It's about this teenager named Helmuth in Germany who his friend is taken away, his half Jewish friend who plays the piano with church is taken away by the Nazis.
And it kind of changes his whole outlook on his native land of Germany.
One of his friends gets a radio and he hears news reports from other parts of the world saying exactly the opposite of what Hitler is saying in Germany.
And he starts distributing these flyers at night, posting them on billboards and in people's mailboxes, his friends help him.
It is, it's a really good movie.
It looks good, the acting's good.
And it's based on a true story, which is horrifying.
They do catch him eventually.
And I won't say anything else, but it's just a really solid film.
Great critics reviews, great audience response.
And it's based on a true story.
And there are a lot of parallels about what's happening here in America right now.
Just how polarized we are on that sort of thing.
I highly recommend Truth and Treason.
And I have to finish that movie.
I'm watching on Netflix that I cannot seem to get through a house of dynamite.
I think it's called.
I might be missing a
Yeah.
It's a good direct.
Katherine Bigelow is a great director.
And I got about
two-thirds of the way in and it's it's non-linear.
They tell the story from different aspects and they keep going back.
So I will finish it.
It's not like I didn't like it.
I just don't love it.
So when I leave something I don't love, it takes me a while to get back to it.
But I got to finish it.
I just started the other night.
We have a phone call.
Hey, all right.
Ollie, how are you?
Good.
You might have known I'd be calling tonight.
Listen, if there's food in the question, Ollie's on the phone.
Ollie's on the phone.
I don't know much about sports or anything like that.
And I don't have a TV, so I don't see a lot of movies.
Wow.
So, but food.
Is right up my alley
well that listen knowing you don't have a TV now or like sports I got to find an angle to get through other than food because you got it you go to plays or concerts or anything
No, because I I am Kind of homebound because I'm handicapped.
I have like several issues so I listen to my
Good old radio, and that's where I get your shows, and they're the highlight of my day.
Well, that is very sweet, and I'm glad you found us, and it's great that you're a listener.
So let me ask you the question, Ollie.
How do you like your chocolate?
Well, I love chocolate anyway.
There is a good hot fudge sundae
with
nuts on is awesome.
Outstanding.
I have a funny little story that, um, you'll know I like chocolate.
When we were, um, we lived, my dad was in the army, so we lived overseas and we did a lot of little vacation traveling things.
Anytime we had time off, a tent would go on the top of the car and off we'd go.
And, um, one time we were
at this little resort place and we had gotten some pop and our mother sent us back for the to get the money back for the pop bottles and instead of bringing all the money back we bought a little chocolate candy bar and we had put it in broke it up and put it in our little coin purses that are
that we had gotten and um when we were sitting in the car there were four little girls in the back seat of the car and my one sister who didn't know anything about the the mischievous exchange she says I smell chocolate and got my sister my older sister and I got in trouble
All because he smelled chocolate.
That's
outstanding.
Olly, that's great.
Chocolate anyway is good.
I am
totally with you.
Thank you for the call, my friend.
Much appreciated.
Bye-bye.
All right, see you later, Olly.
We've got to Amanda Nimmer.
Our pal here at WGBOOW likes dark with peanut butter or from Germany, German chocolate is a game changer.
I love it.
We got a lot more text to read.
We're going to get to those.
Max Hay is coming up next to talk about his movie.
It's Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back.
This is
Nightlight.
I am Pete Schwab.
Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night as we gather together, folks, to talk about the things in life that make us happy.
Movies, TV, comedy, music, some sports, some food.
Tonight, it's chocolate.
Chad Fran, our question of the night is, how do you like your chocolate?
It is National Chocolate Day.
Chad Fran says, in response to Amanda's response, was dark with peanut butter.
He says, how dark is dark?
I prefer 85% dark chocolate from Aldi.
beyond bitter.
You gotta lift the microphone.
Look like an old game show host.
Janet on the stream says, Justin's organic dark chocolate peanut butter cups.
I think that's what we were talking about.
Does that sound familiar with the Aldi brand?
Well, either way, I'm trying it.
Yes.
Thank you, Janet.
Okay.
So now we are going to turn our attention, folks, to this new film that I cannot wait to see.
I don't even remember how I heard about this, but it's called Now More Yes.
Now Exclamation Point.
More Exclamation Point.
Yes.
Exclamation Point.
Outstanding title.
And the director has an even cooler name.
His name is Max Hay, and he joins us over the stream now.
I assume from Milwaukee.
Hi, Max.
How's it going?
Happy to be here.
Great to have you.
Are you in Milwaukee?
I am.
All right.
We are on WAUK there, my friend, and 100.3 AM and FM.
Great.
The fine city of Milwaukee.
I have to tell you, Max, before we jump in here, your name has such great energy.
I almost put an exclamation point after, hey, when I was writing your question, it's just like one of those names is like, Max, hey, that's got to set you apart, man, in the show business.
That's a great name to have.
Yeah, it's it's a curse and a blessing really I think like You know like everyone has like their Facebook names or punk names or whatever Yeah, and I think it's one of those names.
That's like really cool to be your original actual name, but it's not that cool of a punk name So really, you know, I you know, I don't want people to think I made it up or something You know, I I was born with this and I think it's cool, but
That's the first thing I thought was this has to be a name that you sweat like your last name was like Dumbbrowskowitz or something hard to spell and you made it.
Hey, when I thought well, that's brilliant, but you're saying that's your birth name.
Yeah,
I love it.
All right.
Well, very good.
So let's, uh, hey, do you have a, are you a chocolate fan max?
Um, from time to time.
Yeah.
How do you like your chocolate, pal?
I like it on a pretzel the most, I think.
Chocolate covered pretzels, milk chocolate, nothing too bitter and crazy.
Listen, that's a great, I've scarfed a bag of flips before on many occasions.
That's good stuff.
All right, let's jump in.
Max, tell us about this movie.
When I read the log line, I was like, what?
So I think that's what you want.
But tell us about Now More Yes.
Well, it all started with me starting to film a friend and fellow filmmaker in Milwaukee who mainly does music videos, specifically music videos involving cars.
And I kind of just started shooting like maybe hoping it could be like a reality pilot or something like that where he buys a car and then uses it in a project and then tries to sell it.
Well, three years later,
you know, he finally sold the car that he bought in that pilot, spoiler alert.
So, you know, I ended up being more of a feature film than a reality show.
So, yeah, it kind of goes in and out of his personal life and then his artistic life and trying to, him trying to merge his creative pursuits with his way of making a living, which I think, you know,
most of us do in some way or another.
Yeah.
And this is your lead actor you're talking about, right?
T.W.
Hansen.
Yep.
It's a, it's a documentary.
He's, uh, he's the, he's the man.
I just don't like calling people subjects, so I still say actor.
That is more humanizing
for sure.
But tell us a little bit about the, like what is the story, this T.W.
Hansen, such an interesting character.
Tell us what his deal is and what the movie is about, like what he
does.
I would say like most of it revolves around this ambulance that he purchases with his boss's money on the internet.
I think he has a couple drinks one night at the bar and is talking with some friends about a music video they want to do.
And he was like, you know, I have access to the auction.
I'm just going to, you know, bid on this ambulance right here.
And then, you know, he ends up winning it, and his boss isn't super happy about it.
And that kind of sends him off on, you know, he finds out all these things the next day, like it doesn't have a key.
So he doesn't even know if it starts.
Like it says it runs, but it doesn't start because it doesn't have a key.
So he's trying to get it off the auction lot.
That's, you know, everything that could possibly get in the way for this guy somehow does.
And and that's part of why it took three years to tell this story.
And he's legally blind, right?
Yes.
That's incredible.
Yeah, it's yeah, it's ocular albinism.
He was born with it's like a genetic thing.
And he, you know, had to deal with a lot of stuff that a lot of us don't have to deal with bullying.
And, you know, yeah.
you know, just to walk in his shoes for a day, I think would be, you know, trippy at best.
Just being able to navigate life that way.
But that's just his lens, the way he sees.
And, you know, I don't think it's coincidental that he ended up telling stories with a camera.
But, you know, that's for him to say, not me.
Yeah.
How did you find him, Max?
Well, the Milwaukee film community is actually very I mean not surprisingly Pretty small everyone kind of runs into each other works with each other at some point or another and I actually met him about 15 years ago on this indie shoot he was wrangling cars for and We kind of hit it off right there and we kind of
went doing our own stuff for a while after that indie film but still stayed in touch and then I ended up bartending at a bar called High Dive in Milwaukee and he uh frequented that bar so that's how he started talking again and that's where he you know bought the ambulance and you know if you if you watch the trailer you'll see like his um
his main interview is actually him on the other side of the bar, like bartender perspective, because that's really like the time, that's kind of like the time in my life was just chatting with him and he's always got something interesting to say or an interesting way of putting something and I was like, okay, why isn't there a camera on him?
That's so great.
And you talk about that community you talked about.
I know I recognize some of the names, Chris James Thompson, Andrew Swant.
I think I interviewed both of them on PBS.
Great guys.
I've heard Frankie Latina's name all over the place.
How did you, that's part of that community you're talking about.
And I would say based on what little I know, it might be a small community, but it's pretty tight community, isn't it?
For sure.
Yeah, we,
You know something some might think of it as like you're you're helping somebody out, but really you're You're we're all like equally invested in each other's passions.
We kind of have to be or we wouldn't be able to Pursue this this complicated of an art form.
Yeah, you know, it requires a lot of people so we're all there for each other and I mean really pretty much everyone in Milwaukee in that community
has their quirks.
Any of us could turn a camera on any of us, and it'd probably make for some interesting content.
I think with T.W.
and his story, it just timed out in a way that it ended up being a pretty compelling story and something that I think can resonate with a lot of people.
My guest is Max.
Hey, he is the director of Now More Yes, a great documentary that he shot in Milwaukee.
It premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
He's joining us now over the stream from Milwaukee to discuss the film.
How was South by Southwest, Max?
That must have been such a thrill.
Oh, it was a great time.
It was surreal.
I still can't really believe that I was out there representing this movie that we made with $3,000.
Wow.
That's so great.
Yeah,
go ahead.
Sorry.
When people ask the budget, actually, I'll say like, you know, it costs more to get everyone to the premiere than it did to make the whole thing.
Where can we see it?
Will it be streaming soon or are you in more festivals that are sort of closer to home?
We're in talks with potential distributors right now.
We're aiming for next summer for a streaming release.
But we don't have any firm plan right now.
Next screening actually is going to be in Wisconsin in Mineral Point at Driftless Film Festival.
So that'll be November 6th, 5 p.m.
should be a pretty good time.
And we're gonna try to get as many people out there as possible.
That's such a great...
I was at that festival like in 2018, maybe I was in another film just at a small part and I went there and I was blown away by what a really, well, I love the driftless area, but mineral point is beautiful.
And I think I'm guessing it's still at that opera house.
I don't know what you know about the festival, but it's such a great venue.
Yeah, it is at the opera house.
I haven't had the pleasure yet, but I know my fellow producers have said great things.
So I'm very much looking forward to it.
That's so cool.
So, uh, where did you learn about film?
Max, what's your background?
Um, well, I, I always loved comedy and, uh, theater, um, and just acting in general.
And, um, I, I just was never a huge fan of plays, which can be like a problem when you're, you know, right kid in school doing like theater stuff.
And I love the.
the activity, but as far as like the plays, like I wanted more, you know, I slowly realized I wanted more control of the narrative.
But I also didn't want to write because that felt too smart for my personality.
So, you know, I do write, but in different ways, I guess.
But yeah, I think growing up with
digital editing software at my fingertips definitely helped me just in that.
It's pretty much, no matter what the program is, it's pretty much the same thing.
So when you're a kid doing this stuff, it's kind of a no-brainer to not continue exercising that and having fun with it and figuring stuff out because the options are pretty much endless with.
editing and constructing stories.
Yeah, for sure.
I think it's funny that you say that about writing.
I think a lot of writers feel like that.
I love the phrase, I hate writing, I love having written.
Like
when you're
done with it, it's great, but yeah, it's a grind, man, for sure.
All right, well, that sounds like, so the Driftless Film Festival, November 6th at Mineral Point, you can check out Now More Yes.
It's not a huge venue, so if it is something
listeners are thinking about attending, and I would highly recommend it, especially in the Madison area.
It's not that far of a drive.
What would they do, Max, just contact the festival for tickets or the opera house?
Yeah, tickets should be up on the website.
I think they'll also be available at the door.
I don't have the website on me right now.
But if you type in now more, yes, drift lists into Google, you should be able to get some tickets there.
They're not too expensive.
I think they're like 11 bucks or something.
Very cool.
All right, we're going to do a very short break and we'll have a couple more minutes with Max when we get back.
And I'm going to tell you about another really cool Wisconsin film he worked on.
He's going to tell us about that too.
And maybe we'll talk about his influences, filming in Milwaukee and how cool that is too.
We're all coming back right in just a couple minutes here at Nightlight with Pete Schwab on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
civicmedia.us.
And you've got the Civic Media Radio Network.
Coming up at 7.20, Madison Film Critic and city cast at Madison Newsletter Editor, Rob Thomas will be here talking movies.
He's seen a lot of the new ones and I'm very excited to talk to Rob about that.
Our question of the night is, how do you like your chocolate?
It is National Chocolate Day.
Ross in the 608 says, hot chocolate and homemade chocolate pudding with a dollop of whipped cream.
Oh wow, that's pretty intense.
Tyler from the 608 says, I like my chocolate in...
Bar form under a golden ticket said a Willy Wonka thing.
Yeah, I think it is.
Yeah.
Thank you guys.
Thank you 608ers Well, let's get back to our 414 Max Hayes here.
He's the director and Filmmaker behind now more.
Yes, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival very exciting stuff I can't wait to see it.
It's playing at the Driftless Film Festival November 6th
in Merrill Point at the Opera House there.
Just a gorgeous venue for movies and a really fun festival there in the Driftless area.
Max is with us on the stream.
Max, how, all right, I don't know where to go with it.
I'm trying to think what I can, what are your favorite places to shoot in Milwaukee?
It's got so many great locations.
Do you feel like it's been exploited enough?
I feel like a lot more filming could take place there.
I think,
Milwaukee has a lot of different looking areas.
I remember working on a TV show that took place in Upper Peninsula, but a lot of the suburbs in Milwaukee, for whatever reason, the architecture and the layouts look like a lot of other places.
But I think in the city,
You know, my stuff I like to shoot is more identifiable stuff.
Like, I think it's maybe it's just because I'm from here and probably not leaving that I, you know, I I think it's it's cool to nod to my city just because like, you know, it is what it is.
And a lot of people do leave here and and, you know, still connect with the things that I grew up with.
Yeah, what what do you do now?
You made this great film for almost no money and it got to South by Southwest, which is incredible What is there?
Do you feel pressure on yourself now to try to top that or make a better movie?
What's next for you?
I very much want to keep doing it and you know make more fun stuff like this I don't have I have tons of ideas and stuff where we're kind of
but as far as like jumping into another one, I think we're probably gonna spend the next few months wrapping this one up and making some cool like bonus feature content because there's so much that we didn't put in the cut that I think is worth exploring.
Yeah, it
sounds only like 75 minutes or whatever.
Yeah.
You
definitely left them wanting more.
That's great though.
For sure.
Yeah, first cut was like two and a half hours and it's
This is not a two and a half hour story.
I think like 80 minutes is probably what we were aiming for.
And there's so much to the days in like crafting this narrative out of real life.
It's not like everything in this happened in exact order.
I mean, it happened close enough.
I don't think it's any less honest than your average documentary, but I'm willing to say that like I
I wanted this to flow like a fun, like comedy movie almost.
And in order to do that, we had to move stuff around.
But then, you know, with that, there's a lot of details left in each scene that pertains to that day and time in his life that is really interesting when you delve deeper into it, but it just wasn't worth going into in the film.
So I think I want to...
explore some stuff with that.
And then simultaneously working on this, also working on Tim, the main person in this film, he has a movie that is unfinished that he shot like 20 years ago called Catch This Fox.
So I'm actually going through all of his raw media right now, cutting a potential prequel to this movie that would be directed by him.
Very cool.
Hey, you told me earlier you were part of the film Hundreds of Beavers.
Such a fun movie.
I saw it at the Wisconsin Film Festival and I saw their previous film, The Lake Michigan Monster.
They're so fun and I just, when I went in there, I was like, how do they do that?
How does this even happen?
What was it like working behind the scenes on Hundreds of Beavers?
It's one of those things I think you you put it into better words before but I think you were talking about writing, but I think the same applies to film like it's it's It's one of those things where like while you're doing it you have to love it and believe in it and like Know that it's gonna be worth it in the end like yeah, you know sometimes making this stuff I mean, you know, I spent so much time editing this thing.
I mean that's like
most of the hours put into this movie were just editing for over a year.
And, you know, it's easy to lose sight of how cool this could end up being.
And I think the same, I thankfully had nothing to do with post-production on hundreds of viewers.
But, you know, it was so cold up there and we're dragging this sled with all the gear on it.
up and down mountains and like just every every most pain in the butt thing imaginable we pretty much did plus snow and freezing cold and all the guys were super nice and I couldn't have picked like a better group of people to be working with in the freezing cold but you know it it's that you know that doesn't mean it was you know total bliss being out there a lot of a lot of the times it was very uncomfortable and I was not
not very happy at the end of the day, but by nighttime with the assistance of whiskey, we all felt pretty good about what we had going on and we're looking forward to the next day.
Well, I interviewed Mike on this show, the director, and he was fun in the interview.
I was just guessing that was probably a pretty fun set, if not arduous at times.
Hey, Max, can we keep you for a few more minutes past the news?
Sure.
All right, fantastic.
Max is going to stick around.
I'm going to ask him what he's watching.
Rob Thomas coming up at 7.20.
Let us know how you like your chocolate.
This is Night Light on a Tuesday and I'm Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
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