The Filmmakers
Growing Older in Rural Wisconsin is a new project from the team behind the documentary What We're Hungry For: How Food Pantries Fed Rural Wisconsin During the Pandemic (WWHF).
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WWHF was an official selection at film festivals around the world including the Milwaukee Film Festival, Ethnografilm Paris, Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival, and the Ceres Food Film Festival, where it won the “Moved Us Most Award.” The film has also been shown in community screenings throughout Wisconsin, and included in the curriculum of higher education courses in schools including Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Lead Team Members
Key members of the Growing Older team include:
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Jim Winship (Co-Director, Co-Producer): Jim directed WWHF and co-directed the recently completed documentary Family Health La Clinica: 50 Years of Caring. In addition to his work in documentary film, Jim is a retired professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a Fulbright scholar, a digital storytelling instructor, and a social worker with decades of experience in rural communities.
Parker Winship (Co-Director, Editor, Cinematographer): Parker shot and edited WWHF and co-directed Family Health La Clinica. Also working in narrative film, he is an MFA graduate of the American Film Institute, 2021 Eastern Oregon Film Festival Artist in Residence, and writer/director of the short film “A Lark and a Swallow,” which won Best Wisconsin Short at the Beloit International Film Festival.
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Marty Lee (Co-Producer): Marty was the director of the Waushara County Food Pantry for 12 years, during which time she appeared in WWHF. She is also a resident of Central Wisconsin for 40 years who is well-connected and even more respected in Waushara County and the surrounding area.​
Jeff Herriott (Music Composer): Composer of WWHF, as well as S. Craig Zahler’s celebrated films Bone Tomahawk (Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson), Brawl in Cell Block 99 (Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson), and Dragged Across Concrete (Vince Vaughn, Mel Gibson), the latter two of which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.
Michael Perry (Expert Consultant): Author of the best-selling Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time and twenty other books, many of which are about life in rural Wisconsin.
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Stephen A. Webster, MA, MS, Ph.D. (Executive Producer): Steve is the Executive Director of Rural Wisconsin, Inc. He founded the National Rural Social Work Caucus, and headed the Caucus for its first nine years. He served as Recovery Coordinator for Barneveld after the tornadoes in 1984, which led to his working in disaster recovery and international development projects throughout the world. He also has served as Executive Director of the United Way Wisconsin, Inc.
Co-Producers Jim Winship and Marty Lee
Co-Directors Jim and Parker Winship