Baraboo

(USA, 2009, 99 mins, digital video)

North American Premiere

director of photography: Shana Hagan
sound mixer: Brian Liston
sound Supervisor: David Bach
music: Joel Savoy, Emma Beaton & Chris Stafford
production designer: Nancy Lupo
producer: Mary Sweeney, Sabrina S. Sutherland
production manager: Mary Cuccia Smith
cast: Brenda DeVita, Harry Loeffler-Bell, Peter Morse, Ruth Schudson, Margaret Ingraham, Michael Herald

On the outskirts of town are Petersen’s Cabins, the kind of a rundown campground motel you can see from the highway. For those in need of a cheap, maybe not permanent, place to stay, Petersen’s becomes home. Jane runs the place (Brenda DeVita in a delicate performance), spending her days tending the nearby single-pump gas station and her nights trying to rein in her sulky teenage son Chris. She shows the signs of tough resolve that comes from struggling to make ends meet and from past harms, but she’s also a kind of calming beacon for the motel’s residents. There’s a spark between Jane and Bob, a Gulf War vet who teaches tourists how to fish, but it takes the arrival of brisk, steadfast Bernice (Milwaukee stage veteran Ruth Schudson) for the motel’s occupants to finally connect. “A film of serene composure and painterly vistas of the American heartland, it captures the gentle ebb and flow of human existence in small-town Wisconsin….Sweeney emerges throughout as a confident humanist storyteller, crafting her film from beautiful images, gentle music and accomplished performances.” — Allen Hunter. Screen Daily. This is writer/director Mary Sweeney’s first feature, following acclaim for editing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story (which she also wrote), and Mulholland Drive. She is a UW–Madison alumnus and part-time Madison resident. 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2009 Galway Film Fleadh. Winner, Golden Badger, 2010 Wisconsin Film Festival.

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