Winter Hymns - Director Nathan Deming

WINTER HYMNS takes shape in a single hospital room on a gray winter day, Dr. Linda Vobernik (Colleen Madden) meets a series of patients and families confronting the end of life. Among them are a farmer who refuses to accept his failing body, an English teacher clinging to her students’ futures, and a young electrical line worker whose cancer has stolen his own. As the day unfolds, the room itself feels suspended - somewhere between hospital and afterlife - while Dr. Vobernik’s encounters grow increasingly intimate, testing her faith in the work and revealing the strange beauty that can emerge when life narrows to its final moments. Director and screenwriter Nathan Deming joins us for a lively conversation on casting Colleen Madden and how he was able to bring together the cinematic elements needed to actualize his superbly empathetic and probing film on the inevitable.

About the filmmaker - Director, screenwriter Nathan Deming is a filmmaker from Wisconsin, based in Los Angeles. A graduate of the London Film School where he studied with British filmmaker Mike Leigh, his work blends European and American influences with a focus on character and place. His feature “Speaking in Tongues” premiered at the Austin Film Festival and is available on Amazon and Apple TV. Alongside other features, he is in the midst of a decade-long film series called The Year Project, exploring life in Wisconsin month by month, most recently with “February”.