Matt Kliegman’s trek to “Bodybuilder Island” began at Jewish summer camp. The former Mequon resident credits his summers spent at the Steve and Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken for setting him on a path to become a filmmaker.
That journey led him back to Milwaukee and other Midwestern locales this spring, where he filmed his original short film, “Bodybuilder Island.” Kliegman’s second short film, its plot involves male bodybuilders on a Mediterranean island who struggle to suppress a force that threatens their peaceful social order — big, beautiful women.
Kliegman, 22, is now completing the post-production stage of the film, which he will take on the international film festival circuit, including the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
At camp, Kliegman said during a recent interview from his home in New York, he had time and space for creativity as well as “filmic forefathers,” some equipment and the opportunity to work with high school campers on filmmaking projects.
As a 15 or 16-year-old camper, Kliegman spoke with counselors Josh Roth and Dan Klein about his interest in studying film. Roth, then a University of Wisconsin-Madison theater major who is currently building a film production company in Los Angeles, advised him about the best film schools.
About five years later, as Kliegman headed into his junior year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Camp Interlaken received a large grant for film equipment. As a counselor, Kliegman worked with campers to make a movie.
“They got so passionate about it that it sort of made itself; I just kept them from getting hurt. And they were a little less critical than [people] in New York. Just seeing themselves projected on a large screen in front of their friends made them feel good. That summer is still one of my favorite film experiences,” Kliegman said.
Another camp connection to the film is Kliegman’s choice of Shorewood native Lloyd Nerenberg as the male lead.
Nerenberg, 28, now of New York, told The Chronicle in a telephone interview, that after graduating from Shorewood High School in 1996 he earned a degree in philosophy from Lawrence University and a master’s in dramaturgy from Stony Brook University.
“Matt [Kliegman] was initially our camper when we got to be counselors. We did a lot of projects with him and he was dynamic in improving these activities with the vision that he had. He has great energy and was fun to work with,” Nerenberg said. The two reconnected when he learned through camp friends that Kliegman was attending NYU.
Kliegman also cast Mequon resident Noah Koerner, 18, a young First Stage Milwaukee-trained actor. A 2006 graduate of Homestead High School, Koerner said that he played the viceroy’s servant, a non-speaking role and “was ecstatic” to do so.
On location in Milwaukee
While Kliegman admitted that there really is no market for short films, making one is a necessary stepping-stone to full-length films, he said.
“Before anyone is going to give you millions to make a feature, you make a short film and show it at film festivals. Then you go to investors and tell them, hopefully, that it won awards and that here is your new script,” Kliegman explained.
A social commentary, “Bodybuilder Island” started as a senior production class assignment, Kliegman said. Much of its inspiration came from a mini-semester that he spent in Russia last summer taking a film class and shooting scenes from Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”
Another influence was Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible,” about the Salem witch trials. “I wanted to base [the movie on] a witch hunt. I tried to think of a visual analogy to the Puritans and [made] a comparison between bodybuilding and a religion,” Kliegman said.
“It explores a highly structured, rigid life style and what happens when an anomaly … throw[s] that world into disarray, Nerenberg said.
“It’s partly about closed-mindedness and how it can really hurt people. Discussing that in terms of bodybuilding alleviates some of the fear and anxiety of a difficult subject,” he added.
Together with three fellow NYU students, Kliegman formed Meaty Okra Productions and raised funds to make the film by throwing fundraising parties in Texas and through outreach in the Milwaukee Jewish community. They still need some funds for post-production, Kliegman said.
They shot “Bodybuilder Island” May 19-28 at locations throughout Milwaukee, including in Grant Park, on the South Shore; the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside; Doctor’s Park in Fox Point and Bayside; Cave of the Mounds in Mt. Horeb; and at private residences.
The camera people and grips came out from New York but the production designer is a Milwaukee native whom Kliegman met through a network of associates. “By the end, we were talking with the entire Milwaukee film community,” Kliegman said.
Kliegman plans to have a rough cut by Aug. 1 and expects to finish the move by the end of August, just over a year after writing the first draft, he said. Plans include a Milwaukee screening.
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