BRATTLEBORO — Kingdom County Productions and Marlboro College will present a special preview screening of award-winning independent filmmaker Jay Craven's newest picture Wetware, based on the novel by longtime Putney writer Craig Nova.
The screening will take place Sunday, Sept. 30, at 3 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre. A reception prior to the screening will be attended by some of the film's cast and crew, along with Craven and surprise guests.
Much of Wetware was filmed at Brattleboro locations in 2016, including the Latchis Hotel, Latchis Theatre, the Estey Organ complex, the Stone Church, and assorted alleys in town. The film was also shot in Nantucket.
Among the actors in the film is Nettie Lane of Brattleboro. Other Vermont actors in the film include Allan Nicholls, Rusty DeWees, Ariel Zevon, Tara O'Reilly, and Dan Leventritt.
According to a press release from Craven, Wetware is set in “a near future where people down on their luck apply for genetic modifications to take on tough or tedious jobs like street sweeping, slaughterhouses, toxic cleanup, and deep-sea mining - jobs that nobody wants to do.”
“With business booming, programmers at Galapagos Wetware up the stakes by producing high-end prototypes, Jack and Kay, for more sensitive jobs like space travel, counterterrorism, and deep-cover espionage.
“Galapagos genetic programmer Hal Briggs is sharp and creative but impetuous. He's a socially awkward romantic in a transactional world. He keeps a virtual human clock at home and improvises as he goes on what qualities to include or delete in his gene splicing for Jack and, especially, Kay, to whom he develops a dangerous attachment.
“Then word gets out that Jack and Kay have escaped, before Briggs has completed his work. Where have they gone and what do they know? Briggs scrambles to track his fugitive prototypes and, as he reexamines Jack and Kay's codes, he makes a provocative discovery that will change everything.”
In The Washington Post, critic Michael Dirda called Nova's novel “A haunting, heart-stoppingly exciting, brilliantly structured novel of suspense, ideas, and subtle characterization.”
The film - crowdfunded with the support of more than $60,000 from 219 backers on Kickstarter - was produced through Kingdom County Productions, an arts nonprofit, and its Movies from Marlboro program at Marlboro College, where 24 professionals mentored and collaborated with 32 students from a dozen colleges during a film-intensive semester.
The picture will tour to venues across New England and beyond.
Craven has also worked for more than 40 years as a Vermont arts activist, educator, and producer. He teaches at Marlboro College and founded and directed the Northeast Kingdom's long-running Catamount Arts organization, co-founded Circus Smirkus (with Rob Mermin), and co-founded Kingdom County Productions (with Bess O'Brien).
He also serves as artistic director of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival that unspools each August, for first and second-time filmmakers.