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Cast and crew behind the scenes while filming "Wildlands" in Kankakee. Filmmakers include Andrew Lamping and Jeff Stolhand are both Kankakee natives. READ MORE.
Cast and crew behind the scenes while filming "Wildlands" in Kankakee. Filmmakers include Andrew Lamping and Jeff Stolhand are both Kankakee natives. READ MORE.
Photos provided
Martin Dickenson, left, and Oliver Heinrich, of Bourbonnais, play Henry and Peter, respectively, in the short film "Wildlands."
Kankakee native and writer/director, Andrew Lamping.
"Wildlands," a new short film, was shot on location in Kankakee.
Award-winning writer and director and Kankakee native Andrew Lamping has teamed up with former Kankakee-native-turned-Hollywood-filmmaker Jeff Stolhand in the recently-awarded short film “Wildlands.”
“Wildlands,” which will premiere this month at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival in Los Angeles, follows 10-year-old Peter (played by Bourbonnais actor Oliver Heinrich), who wakes up in a mysterious forest with no memory and must befriend a strange creature in order to survive.
Peter befriends Henry, a talking bear. Henry (portrayed by UK actor and voice talent, Martin Dickenson, of “Go Go Buster”) helps Peter fight for survival against a creature known as The Cobbler. Peter must learn the Cobbler’s true identity in order to defeat him.
Other notable talents involved with Wildlands include actress and singer Patricia Vonne (“Spy Kids,” “Sin City”) and musical composer Stephen D. Bennett (“Dear White People”).
“It was very important to me to film in Kankakee because the film’s story is set in a timeless forest and agricultural area and in my opinion, there’s nowhere more timeless than in the surrounding Kankakee area,” Lamping said.
“There are some areas that feel like they haven’t been touched for a hundred years.”
Lamping shared that they filmed at a friend’s property for the forest scenes that are in Limestone, in another friend’s “run-down shed” for interior scenes and on friend Caleb’s (who was also a key crew member) land near the Iroquois River for beautiful water shots.
“All these locations combined make the movie feel like it could be set in the medieval days or hundreds of years in the future,” he said.
“You simply can’t tell but just have to go with the journey of the protagonist who is learning all of this along with the audience.”
“Wildlands” will make its theatrical debut at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival on Saturday.
Taylor Leddin-McMaster is Life editor of the Daily Journal and editor of Lifestyles of Kankakee County. A graduate of Illinois State, she was featured as a prominent journalist by Thrive Global. Email: tleddin@daily-journal.com.
