Wisconsin Dells is kitschy, touristy and perhaps the dream summer destination of every tween in the state. A new documentary, The Dells, captures that escapism along with its reality by following the international students from countries like Turkey, Romania and the Dominican Republic who find themselves there working low-paying jobs as servers, housekeepers and lifeguards.
The film is showing Tuesday, May 6 at the Downer Theater as part of the Milwaukee Film Festival.
“I’m really interested in tourism as a topic,” says filmmaker Nellie Kluz. “I think they're these places that are set up for … a feeling of kind of transcendence. And to me, it's always fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes to make that possible. So, it felt like Wisconsin Dells was reminiscent of places I had been in my childhood and later for vacations.”
Kluz's film has an observational style. It features the sights and sounds of Dells life: from taxi drivers cruising past strip malls and quintessential Americana like McDonalds and Starbucks. But some scenes have a more unique Dells flavor: people splashing in waterpark rides, cloggers performing on stage and a tour guide narrating a Wisconsin “Ducks” boat ride.
Kluz was a camera operator and cinematographer for the HBO series How To With John Wilson around the same time she was filming The Dells.
“I was one of the camera team (on How To…) and we would go around New York almost in scavenger hunt style, looking for shots that were funny… really small moments all around New York City — of people on the street, on the train, things in the trash, small details on the sidewalk,” she says. “I do think that all of the practice that I gained pounding the pavement, walking around New York, looking out for small details to film, was helpful in making this movie.”
The story focuses on the international workers, many in their late teens or early 20s, who come to the Dells from other countries on an "exchange visitor" J visa. Kluz says the tone is different now that student visas, which are a type of J visa, are being revoked in the US fairly arbitrarily.
She also notes that nonimmigrant exchange visas are temporary. That means there's always a new crop of people figuring out afresh what the rules are. That, arguably, makes it less likely that nonimmigrant visa holders who are working in Wisconsin Dells, for instance, will protest or organize. “You need time and consistency to organize [as workers],” Kluz says. “And I do think that's one aspect that I found interesting of this structure of work program.”
Something else that surprised Kluz? “I think I set out to make a movie that felt like a really fun teen or young adult summer film, and I think there is aspects of that to the movie,” she says. “People are meeting new friends, they're partying, they're getting to know this strange new place. But I think that there was a lot more long work hours and just sort of banal trips to Walmart, having to deal with housing, having to pay for housing. I think probably the film was specifically colored by also filming during 2020 and 2021. So that was a big disruption because of COVID.”
She came away as really impressed with the students. “It's kind of a really brave thing to do. To come without your family,” she says. “Maybe you're not fluent in English. And it's a real leap of faith. And some people have a great experience.”
She says others seemed a bit let down by their experience in the U.S. because they experienced life as a working-class person here, no matter their status at home. “So I think, yeah, again I can never generalize for everyone, but it was a little bit more stressful and tiring for them than I might have guessed before I got to meet people,” she explains.
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