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Vermont-made sci-fi film to screen in Middlebury

MIDDLEBURY — Kingdom County Productions will present a special preview screening of award-winning independent filmmaker Jay Craven’s newest picture, “Wetware,” based on the novel by Craig Nova. The film was produced through Craven’s film intensive semester, “Movies from Marlboro,” working with professionals and students. The film was shot in Burlington and Brattleboro, as well as Nantucket. Burlington sites include Leunig’s Café, Burlington City Arts, the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, One Main Street, and assorted back alleys.
The “Wetware” preview screening will take place at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Middlebury Town Hall Theater. Director Craven and special guests will appear at the screening and lead post-screening discussion.
“Wetware” is set in a near future where people down on their luck apply for genetic modifications to take on tough and tedious jobs in 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 from the Galapagos labs, 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.
“Wetware’s” cast includes Cameron Scoggins (“The Deuce,” “Nashville”), Morgan Wolk (“The Affair,” “Miles Ahead”), Jerry O’Connell (“Stand By Me,” “Jerry McGuire”), Bret Lada (“Law and Order”), Nicole Shalhoub (“The Good Wife,” “Madame Secretary”), Aurélia Thiérrée  (“Aurelia’s Oratorio,” “Bells and Spells”), Matt Salinger (“24,” “Captain America”), Garret Lee Hicks (“The Americans”) and an ensemble of Vermont actors including Rusty DeWees, Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp, Daniel Levintritt, Tara O’Reilly, Ariel Zevon, and Allan Nicholls (“Slapshot” and Altman’s “Nashvlle”). Burlington filmmaker John Douglas created animation for the film.
“’Wetware” marks a departure for me,” said director Jay Craven, whose earlier period films are set in times from 1872-1970. “But the world of the story is quite vivid, the themes are timely, and my young college student collaborators contributed a lot, especially in their research and consideration of documentary research that informed our fictional narrative. I’m excited to share the new picture with audiences.”
“Wetware” will tour to venues across New England and beyond — while Craven prepares a new film based on Jack London’s autobiographical novel, “Martin Eden.”
“We’ll again work with students,” Craven said, “during the winter and spring of 2019.” The program is now based at Sarah Lawrence College – and people wishing more information on Cinema Sarah Lawrence can go to sarahlawrence.edu/cinema or contact Craven at [email protected].
Tickets and information for the Sept. 29 screening are available at the door — or in advance through townhalltheater.org.

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