Whitewater Cinemas is hosting two screenings on Wednesday, April 22nd of a brand-new Wisconsin film Winter Hymns on the back of sold-out screenings at the Wisconsin Film Festival. The film is produced and directed by Nathan Deming, who grew up in Tomah. He’s on a quest to release twelve films, one for each month of the year, depicting our state’s people and culture. Not long ago his feature film “February” was also shown at the Whitewater Cinemas. That film won a Golden Badger Award in the 2024 Wisconsin Film Festival,
This article in the Madison publication Isthmus provides a great introduction to the film. A few quotes from the article:
The film is a meditative, unflinching look at a day in the life of a palliative care doctor — played with sensitivity and restraint by American Players Theatre veteran Colleen Madden. It’s set in a purposely un-named part of Wisconsin, in just one room — the doctor’s office — which becomes, Deming says, “sort of like limbo.”
Deming tells Isthmus he became interested in the topic of caring for those approaching death because his father, a family doctor, switched to palliative care late in his career. When Deming was younger, he remembers his family not wanting to talk about it, but now, as a filmmaker, he finds his father’s work strikes themes he finds interesting — “exploring people under the most intense situation possible.”
Deming acknowledges that Winter Hymns is “a hard movie to watch in a lot of ways, but hopefully edifying by the end. There is value in thinking about these things.” [End quote]
Though several of the actors have performed at American Players Theatre, many others are non-actors, one of whom is a dairy farmer from Bloomer who woke up at 3:30 a.m. to milk the cows before filming for nine hours.
The film is also featured in this interesting article in the Cap Times.
Winter Hymns, an unrated drama, runs 2 hours, 36 minutes. The cast includes Colleen Madden, Tara Mallen, and Winter Williams. Showing at Whitewater Cinemas on Wednesday, April 22 at 3:00 p.m. ($8) and 6:30 p.m. ($9)
