'Winter Hymns' Presents a Day in Hospice Care

In "Winter Hymns," a film currently making its way through the festival circuit, Dr. Linda Vobernik (Colleen Madden) meets a series of patients and families in a single hospital room on a cold, gray winter day.

All of them are dealing with the end of life.

One is a farmer who refuses to accept that his body is failing him. Another, an English teacher, is concerned about her students' futures, while a young electrical line worker is dealing with how cancer has stolen his own future.

As the day progresses, the room itself becomes the bridge between life and afterlife, while Dr. Vobernik's encounters test her faith in her work.

Writer-director Nathan Deming took time from scheduling showings of his film to answer questions about the film for The Good Life.

The first question was why he made a film that would be considered by many to be depressing.

"I know how they feel because I thought the topic was depressing before I got interested in it," Deming said. "I thought about doing this because my dad did this. He became a palliative care doctor after being a family physician.

"It's depressing from the outside, but it's obviously absolutely necessary to know and understand," he said. "Death is a part of life, and it's been part of religion and philosophy forever.

"So, I thought it was depressing but necessary," he said. "And then in the film itself, I tried to make it uplifting by the end of it, that we're all going through this. That's one of the messages of the film, whether you're going through grief or your own illness, you're not in it alone. We all go through this. We lose people or we face a serious illness ourselves, and it's important to talk about that."

"Winter Hymns" had its first showing at the Wisconsin Film Festival because premiering there was "really important" to Deming.

"It's pretty much an all-Wisconsin movie, and I'm really proud of my home state," he explained. "One thing I love to do is showcase culture there because I think people on the coast or outside of the Midwest don't really know what Wisconsin's like, beyond a jokey image of beer and cheese."

Deming was excited to premiere his film at the Wisconsin Film Festival but wasn't sure what the response would be.

"I was really blown away," he said about the first shoing. "People really loved this movie, and everywhere we've shown it, people linger in the lobby for 20 or 30 minutes afterwards, which I haven't seen very often before. I think it's a really cool testament to hopefully the power of the film, but also the topics explored in it. It's clearly touching a nerve with people."

All kinds of people have been going to see the film so far, according to Deming.

"But definitely we've got a huge, strong interest from people over 50 who are, I think, very familiar with the themes that the film explores," he said. "I've heard from some people, 'Oh, don't advertise that to seniors. It's depressing. It'll bum them out.' Obviously, I can't speak for everybody. Maybe that's true with some, but I've seen mostly just an overwhelming embrace from people that age because they've lived through it.

"This is not an abstract reality," he said. "They've said goodbye to people they love. They're facing these issues themselves, and I think it's honestly a little patronizing to say that they can't handle it. That's been a huge source of our support and interest.

"Also people who work in healthcare have been very interested in it as well because the film's also a love letter to what they do," he added. "You watch this kind of struggling palliative care doctor who has too much on her plate. You see her deal with a million things in the movie. It's been great to hear from healthcare professionals as well that they are connecting with it.

"After I finished the movie, I showed it to my parents," he said. "And my mom turned to my dad and asked, 'Is that really what it was like?' And my dad just nodded, 'Pretty much, yeah.'"

Deming's father helped inspire some of the dialog for Dr. Vobernik's character, but Deming had to find other sources for what the patients would say.

"One thing I love doing is exploring character," he said. "I went to the London Film School and studied with this British filmmaker named Mike Leigh ("Secrets & Lies" and "Vera Drake"), who's a master of character being revealed through dialogue.

"They're all fictional characters, but definitely inspired by figures I grew up with in Wisconsin," Deming said. "I tried really hard to capture just normal people. What would it really be like if you wandered into a palliative care office on a Tuesday? Who might you find there?

"Most days you're going to find completely normal people, a plumber, a priest, an English teacher, you know, just people from all walks of life," he said.

Deming intends to have "Winter Hymns" on cable and streaming sessions "by the end of the year." Currently, however, the focus is on film festivals and other theatrical screenings.

As this issue went to press, Deming was working with local movie theaters to present his film in Tulare County. When a screening is scheduled, it will be posted at "Find Screening" at http://www.winterhymnsfilm.com.

For information about when and where the film will be available to watch on cable or on a streaming service, visit http://www.justwatch.com.