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This past weekend, as the city began to get quieter and quieter, director of photography Wes Tank – of Tankthink – and director Adam Carr went out to shoot footage for a new short film they call "Remembering Milwaukee," which they posted to the Milwaukier Than Thou Facebook page and which you can see here...
The 2-minute and 38-second film was made on Friday with a drone launched from – and included footage above – Union Cemetery, the inner harbor, Sherman Park, Mitchell Street, Jackson Park and Midtown Center.
"I called my friend and collaborator Wes on Friday, and after feeling like we were both struggling with the ‘new normal,’ we improvised a collaboration," says Carr.
"We decided to do six drone launches, so I sent him a map of meaningful and important places that have been on my mind lately and he went out to drone solo."
Evocative music by adoptahighway – called "City Ghosts (Revisited)" – sets a dark mood as the camera swoops and swoons over these sites scattered throughout the city, capturing neighborhoods, the lake, the Downtown skyline, the geometric lines painted on parking lots and a rain-drenched Union Cemetery.
"We watched the footage on a late night Zoom session and started seeing all these ideas/patterns," adds Carr. The Midtown Center's parking lot jumped out at me. The contrast of the lines painted for parking and the cracks that emerged and all of the emptiness – it's been empty before COVID-19, but feels like the moment.
"That was the ‘a-ha’ for us, and Wes started editing. Then we called in our friend adoptahighway who we've collaborated with before. He'd also posted about how challenging this moment is for him as a professional musician, so we knew he was in the same headspace. He was in immediately."
The result is a lovely, pensive, quiet film, one that really captures the eerie feeling out on the streets these days, where at times there are few people about.
"We wanted something that could ride the lines of despair and hope," says Carr, "as many people are clinging to both right now.
"The ‘remembering’ was an operative term -- we wanted to remind people of the city out there, even places they may not know."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
