Local musician and filmmaker Wesley Tank will release his first feature film, "In Clamatore," on Friday, Aug. 13 at the Alchemist Theater, 2569 N. Kinnickinnic Ave.
The show starts at 9:30 p.m.and admission is $5.
Tank, who is also known as the rapper Stumblesome and the lead singer of Atari hip-hop band Antler Antennas, recently gave me the low-down on his first movie and more.
OnMilwaukee.com: When did you start creating "In Clamatore?"
Wesley Tank: The first dialogues started emerging from my pen in 2005. We starting shooting in July of 2007 and finished shooting in June of 2008. I finished editing in July of 2010.
OMC: What is the film about?
WT: Letting go versus holding on. Nature and community. Tales the wind in each season of a post-post apocalyptic parade of ghosts. A son has died, but it's not about grief. It's about people responding to their environment and their relationships. It's about going into a world and it's about the post-film experience. It's about light reflecting from the screen to your retina, and the way you feel when you hear the sounds.
OMC: Where was the film shot?
WT: Nearly everything was shot in abandoned homes in the backwoods of Spring Green and Dodgeville.
OMC: What did you learn from making this film?
WT: I discovered myself. I learned and continue to learn what art manifests. I got a deepened connection to nature. I also learned what the film was about.
OMC: What are your goals for this film?
WT: My sincerest hope is for its messages to console and heal the collective consciousness of our seemingly perilous planet. That is, via distributor, film festival, world tour, the Internet, achievement of some sort of controversial cult status and providing an anchor for my career so that I may be allowed to make more films.
I am toying with the idea of putting the distribution rights up on eBay for a minimum bid of $1 million plus royalties. Or releasing it for free on the Internet. I want it to be seen.
OMC: What are you working on now?
WT: I'm currently working on at least five new films that are all in different stages. One I am shooting and writing simultaneously called "Basketball Weather." Another, I am writing and starring in as a rapper / hot dog vendor called "This Must be Our Time." Several others are being written and dreamed. We shot part of another feature during "In Clamatore" off-time called "Drifts," so I will be editing a reel of that footage to try to get the money to complete it.
Also, I am working on a book, "All Things Come Alike To All," a poetic novelization of "In Clamatore" that follows the trajectory of the creation of the film, tons of dialogue and sub-plots cut from the film and references to the path my life has taken, based on the many notebooks I filled during the writing, shooting and editing of this emotional monsterhouse. Plus, a slew of music and writing projects.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
