[Editor’s Note: Nathan Deming is a writer/director from Wisconsin who is based in Los Angeles. In addition to his “Year Project,” he directed the 2020 indie feature Speaking in Tongues and co-produced the upcoming horror film Thinestra. FEBRUARY is currently on a state-wide tour of Wisconsin, and full tour dates can be found at www.februaryfilm.com/
Below he tells us of his muse and gets you excited for his upcoming 12 film series.]
Growing up in Wisconsin, I have always been fascinated by how time and place affects and distorts us, our environment informs everything we do. The seasons are heavily in force here, from white blanket snow in the winters, vivid green and blue summers, and shocking orange in the fall. There is a lot of natural beauty in the dairy state, but live there long enough, and like anything, it fades into the background, and then you notice the loneliness, the silence – the distant train calls, cows lowing in the dark, or geese honking as they migrate north and south.
Wisconsin, home to little old church ladies and serial killers, farmland and forests, and topped by a bright blue horizon that looks more like an ocean than a lake.
I don’t quite know what I’m starting, but two years ago (after my first feature, Speaking in Tongues), I began what I hope to be a 12-film series of films about my home state based on the months of the year, all set in Wisconsin. They will be character pieces, but also hopefully more than that – sculptures in time, documents of the years they will be made in. JANUARY is about a little old church lady driving everybody crazy at a small town wedding on a snowy grey day; FEBRUARY follows a newly arrived Mexican immigrant struggling to fit in until he finds ice fishing.
I was so excited when I first hit on this idea – homesick in Los Angeles, I was writing lots of stories about Wisconsin but felt they had too many similar threads to make all unless they could be connected or contained. When I hit upon the “months,” I realized it was the perfect container for the kinds of stories I always wanted to tell – and to ask audiences to pull back and think about the rhythm of their lives, these 12 periods we repeat ad nauseum from birth until death.
This isn’t a totally original idea – there’s Kieślowski’s Dekalog, a film for every Commandment, and in fact, my first artistic inspiration of any real merit was Sufjan Stevens’ and his 50 state project – Michigan and Illinois remain two of my favorite albums. Sufjan famously changed course after only 2 (although some fans consider Carrie and Lowell to be an unofficial Oregon) but I think in his case we can forgive him, 50 is much harder and uncompromising than 12.
Maybe that’s why I’ve decided to act like a musician and take my film FEBRUARY on a statewide tour this February and March, to connect directly with Wisconsin audiences and experience the story with them, answer their questions and hopefully create some memories together to get them eager for MARCH.
I think there is something buzzing in the air right now, and regional filmmaking might be the way of the future – as Eau Claire native and writer Michael Perry recently alluded to – and I selfishly hope we can bring more films to Wisconsin, which is rich in unique characters, history, and culture. I hope I’m not the only one that continues making films here in the near future.
You can find out more about Nathan Deming on his comprehensive website, follow him on Instagram, and learn more about February Film and the Year Project. Another good way to see what Deming is up to is via his Linktree.
Nathan Deming
Contributor
Nathan Deming is an award-winning filmmaker from Wisconsin, based in Los Angeles.
