Selected for showcases at the 2024 Visions du Réel, Champs-Elysees Film Festival (plus a string of American indie fest such as the Tacoma Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Wisconsin Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival and Independent Film Festival Boston), “The Dells,” is an observational type of docu that takes the plunge into what is looks like to serve the masses. Docu-helmer Nellie Kluz (Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Faces of Independent Film” for 2017) looks at a handful of International student workers (from a bit everywhere Turkey, Romania, Jamaica, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic) descend on Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin – the self-described “Waterpark Capital of the World.”
In the exclusive trailer for The Dells below, we find the Wisconsin as the epi-center for a certain kind of tourism and the docu looks at those who are best known as the “J-1s” — the people who juggle jobs, parties, and taxi rides around town, the students face the daily struggles of life in the U.S.—car troubles, lost jobs, exhausting shifts—yet push forward with camaraderie and youthful hope. Their expectations of an American summer brimming with luck and prosperity clash with the a mix of disappointment, laughter, and surprising transcendence.
The folks at MEMORY open THE DELLS Mezzanine (Tuesday April 29th) and Anthology Film Archives June 20th with some additional cities to be announced.
