Milwaukee filmmaker Tate Bunker didn’t set outto recreate the Brothers Grimm in his first feature film, Little Red. But thestory of a teenage girl, a runaway stalked by a smarmyolder man, had an archetypal resonance. “’Oh, it’s like Little Red Riding Hood,’people told me,” Bunker recalls. “It was a fire that took off.”
Little Red begins in wintry Milwaukee as thegirl, Red (Hannah Obst), plans her escape. Bunker makes good use of thephysical-emotional landscape; the grey sky covers the chilly city like a dampblanket. The desolation is palpable. Composition remains strong after theprotagonist lands in palm-fringed Florida and lives on the beach, where Lou,the Wolf (Mark Metcalf), eyes her. Metcalf is a recognizable face on film andtelevision with a career that began with Animal House.
Obst emerged fromMilwaukee’s First Stage theater. The director’s niece, Paige Bunker, is anactress in Florida who plays Red’s mentor. Flora Coker and other familiarMilwaukeeans can be spotted in the supporting cast. Susan Kerns wrote the effectivelysparse screenplay in a film where visuals are more important than dialogue.
Little Red has traveled the film festival circuit;according to Bunker, it has aired on cable in other countries and will shortlygo to video on demand. Little Red will screen at 7 p.m., Nov. 14 at the UWMUnion Theater.
