The short, independent drama “February” is the second film in director Nathan Deming’s 12-episode project featuring a movie named for each month of the year. The Los Angeles-based Tomah native is spending his month screening the latest installment in 17 locations across Wisconsin.
All 12 films in the “Year Project” will be set in Tomah. For Deming, it’s a way to give audiences a peak at the characters and locations that make his hometown special.
“I was born and raised in Tomah, although I haven’t lived there for a little bit. I live in Los Angeles now, and I guess the distance also helps make me more nostalgic,” Deming previously told WPR on “Morning Edition.”
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“February” is the story of Miguel (David Ezekiel Duran), an immigrant from Mexico. He’s having trouble finding his niche in frigid Tomah, until he meets Carl (Ritchie Jordan), a veteran of many Wisconsin winters who teaches Miguel to ice fish. Deming said it was the first acting job for Jordan.
“I was just looking at actors for an ice fishing character, and I was worried about it coming off as inauthentic, or that I’d have to teach them about ice fishing and a million other things about being from the Midwest,” Deming told WPR. “So I put up an ad on Craigslist and Ritchie’s wife, Anna, responded first with just a picture of him in an ice fishing tent. It could have been a close-up from the movie.”
For the first screening, Deming takes “February” to Stanley, near Chippewa Falls, on Feb. 1. There will be a live question and answer session after the movie at most of the screenings — some of which will feature lead actor Duran.
After Stanley, there are 16 more stops on the Wisconsin tour of “February,” before the film’s Los Angeles premiere at the famed Chinese Theater on Feb. 17. As for “March,” Deming’s website says the next episode in the anthology series is “in development.”
