Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes in West Michigan

Kirk Wahamaki, Codirector (with Leslye Witt) of the made-in-West-Michigan feature film Old Heart, will share the behind the scenes story of this feature film, out in spring 2025 for the 80th anniversary of World War II European Liberation.  He’ll offer an overview of the filmmaking process from script to screen.

Old Heart is a drama adapted from Peter Ferry’s mixed-race love story about Tom Johnson, a black soldier who smuggled food and supplies with a Jewish Dutch translator Sarah van Praag from the liberated south to northern cities trapped behind Nazi lines during the hunger winter of 1944-45.    Their romance collapses and sixty years later he returns to the Netherlands determined to reconnect with the love of his life. Sneak preview scenes will be part of this discussion that includes well known local actors in the film.