- Coming up next on Wisconsin Life ...
- I believe in my city.
I believe in Milwaukee.
- I wanted to make a video game that would allow people to
contemplate about their history.
- It's fun because I don't know these people.
They're strangers.
And it's nice to pay it forward.
- I always say I have more wine flowing here than blood.
? ?
- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- My name is Tia Richardson
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
[soft, pensive music]
- What are the defining images
of Milwaukee?
Some might mention a beautiful lakefront.
An emerging downtown.
A blue collar city.
Others would say scenes of poverty.
Crime.
One of America's most segregated cities.
- Our city is literally segregated and divided,
geographically, racially.
- Decades of division have opened a lot of wounds.
[humming to herself]
Tia Richardson's Band-Aid
is her paint brush.
[brush tapping on bucket rim]
[slow, contemplative guitar]
- Some people feel hopeless.
Some people feel like it's not gonna change.
They absolutely feel like it's not gonna change.
- Tia is a Milwaukee artist and teacher.
Her official title should be "optimist."
- It is the work that I do.
And so, as a teacher, if I were to have
a sense of hopelessness in my students,
that wouldn't work. [chuckles]
What kind of teacher would I be?
And so, Milwaukee is like my classroom.
- She spent much of her childhood in Milwaukee.
- As far as friends and my social life,
I didn't have a good time.
It didn't help that I was shy.
I was super shy.
- Art became her outlet.
- The mentors that I had, the relationships that built me up,
were outside of school and they were in my community.
- Now she gives back to her community,
working with schools and nonprofit organizations
to produce public art around the city.
Like this mural for Black Cat Alley,
an outdoor street art gallery on Milwaukee's east side.
Tia sees it as an opportunity to spread her message.
- This mural tells a story about a unified Milwaukee.
- An uplifting message.
- It's a reminder of the net that holds us all
or the web that holds us all
because I feel like we feel divided.
We need more cooperation.
That is something I see we need in this city is cooperation.
[uptempo, jazzy music]
- Segregation, inequity,
racial tension.
They're uncomfortable subjects to talk about.
- A big part of the problem that I see happening
with the division is there's a lack of relating.
We don't know how to relate to each other.
- So the conversations never happen.
- So for me the key is in transforming
our relationships with each other.
That is the key.
How do we transform our relationships with each other?
How we relate to each other?
- That's why she's determined to create public spaces
where people from opposing backgrounds can come together
and have those conversations.
- People ultimately are what changes systems, the person.
At my reach,
I have the power to influence people.
And so, that's what I choose to do in my work.
- Tia knows she can't patch Milwaukee's wounds
with a single painting.
- It's who I am to have a vision
or to be able to imagine and create
beyond what we know right now.
- She wants to spark a different emotion
simmering under the surface.
Hope.
- I don't think that I could paint this,
if I didn't already feel that the healing is happening.
Yeah, 'cause then it wouldn't feel true.
- This is Tia Richardson's image of Milwaukee.
- I see hurt and I see pain
and I also see people
who are doing
diligent, beautiful, excellent work in the community.
- She hopes one day, it'll be everyone else's image, too.
- I am very optimistic
because I believe in people.
- And I believe in my city.
I believe in Milwaukee.
I believe in what we can do
when we come together.
And that's my life.
That's what I eat, live, drink, and breathe.
So I'm pretty up close and personal with that world.
And since I see that, and since I experience it,
and since I am in touch with people who participate in that,
then it's real for me.
And that's what Milwaukee is.
? ?
- My name is Philippe Coquard
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
[motorcycle engine rumbles]
- The road to Wollersheim Winery was an unusual one
for Philippe Coquard.
- I am a 13th generation winemaker.
Goes back to 1490.
It's part of the culture.
It's part of our heritage.
- Philippe arrived in Wisconsin in 1984 as an exchange student.
He has French roots in vineyards that go back 400 years.
- My father chose Philippe's name off a list of several
FFA students because of the region that Philippe was from,
Beaujolais being a wine region.
- In Beaujolais, we can make outstanding wine,
but in general, Beaujolais is known to be
an everyday dinner wine.
Nothing fancy.
First impression of Wisconsin?
Cold.
My intentions were not to stay a long time.
But life took a different turn and here I am today.
- For more than 30 years Philippe has been making wine
at Wollersheim Winery.
Incorporating French traditions
passed down through the generations.
- Somebody has to do the quality checking, you know.
There is so much value in the old way of doing things,
timing of harvest, handling of the fruit.
- Wollersheim Winery is nestled on a hillside
across the Wisconsin River from Prairie du Sac.
- The region is beautiful, rolling hills,
southwest facing slope.
You can find a lot of places to grow grapes in this region.
We grow about 27 acres on-site,
mostly French-American hybrid:
Maréchal Foch, Leon Millot,
and two American hybrids,
St. Pepin and La Crosse.
Typical day
starts around 6 a.m.
and has no end.
[chuckles]
Crushing it,
pressing it,
fermenting it,
240-some-thousand gallons.
So, it's respecting tradition
with the scientifical understanding.
- It's reading at 16.1%.
An indication of the sugar and the ripeness.
- Checking with my daughter in the lab.
- This time of year, I get samples every week
from all of our growers around Wisconsin.
-It's that passion for the taste or the understanding of
what's going on in the barrel, in the bottle, in the batch.
Just loving the taste of the wine.
[bottles clink]
- What's going on, today being a bottling day?
Setting the bottling line.
It always starts with the wine.
And everything else is after that.
I always say, "I have more wine flowing here than blood."
- Wine making is in Philippe's blood,
but it's the owner's daughter that captured his heart
years ago.
- I was in my first year of college at UW-Madison
when I heard that Philippe was coming.
[laughing warmly]
- Yes, I remember the first day I saw Julie.
- I remember asking my sister, "Oh, what is he like?"
- It's a lasting love.
And it's maybe more important than at the first sight.
-Julie's parents turned over the reins of the winery to Philippe
and saw him marry their oldest daughter.
- It's a great story.
- Through the years,
their family and Wisconsin's wine landscape have expanded.
- When I came on board, I think there were
seven or eight wineries.
And today I think it's 110.
- Philippe sees growth in the buy local,
farm-to-table movement, but marketing Wisconsin wine
can have its challenges.
- For about ten years, when we introduced the "Prairie Fume,"
we never played the Wisconsin flag.
It was like, "Eh, Wisconsin? I'd rather pass."
Man, that wine has won more gold medal
than any wine in the Midwest.
And now we can put the Wisconsin flag in everybody's face.
We don't have to make excuses.
What we do in this state with the grapes we have,
we can do it as well as anybody else.
Our name, Wollersheim Winery, is known nationwide
to be a high-quality winery.
We welcome 150,000 people a year.
- And the Wollersheim and Coquard name
will roll into the future,
as a new generation joins the family tradition.
- Our kids, my wife, our family, it's what we do.
Continuing that into the wine business
for many generations to come.
- And despite Philippe's initial reservations
about winemaking in Wisconsin.
- Without any regret, I have loved this life.
I will continue to love this life.
I have spent more time in Wisconsin than I have in France.
This is my life.
People are like, "When are you going to slow down?"
Why?
What's the point?
[motorcycle engine rumbles]
? ?
- Hi, my name is Joel Schultz
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
- And now tonight's starting line-up
for your own Laconia Spartans!
- It's game night at Laconia High School in Rosendale.
[drum beats]
The Spartans are hosting rival St. Mary's Springs Academy.
[band playing the "National Anthem"]
For senior Ben Wettstein,
this is his final regular season home game.
[basketballs bouncing]
Perched on the top row of the bleachers,
Ben's grandfather Joel Schultz
records the game with his video camera.
[athletic shoes squeaking]
Laconia struggles from the start.
Trailing for much of the contest.
At one point by double digits.
Spartan fans hope for a rally.
[clapping]
Not knowing the best comeback story in the gym tonight
has already happened.
[game clock buzzes, whistle]
? ?
- When youth becomes a distant memory.
- I went to Green Lake High School.
- A distant memory can make you feel young again.
- As a freshman, all of 142 pounds, for whatever reason,
I could kick the ball further than most people.
- Joel Schultz had saved a few mementos from his youth,
and wanted to do the same for his grandson.
One night before one of Ben's 6th grade basketball games,
Joel had an idea.
- I thought, "Well, we have an old camera," and I thought,
"Well, why not take it and just shoot
some footage of him playing so he could look at himself?"
- Later that night,
he shot a portion of the 7th and 8th grade game
and captured this.
[buzzer, loud cheering]
A game-winning shot by the other team.
- As it turned out, the player's parents, they didn't see it.
And so I made a tape of the game and the parents got it.
Within a day or two, I got an email back from the parents
thanking me for them to be able
to see the shot that he made.
- His idea was a slam dunk.
- Just catching that shot, just really kind of made me think,
"Well, why not keep doing this?"
- Joel became a volunteer videographer
for all of Ben's games.
[buzzer sounds, cheering]
Joel captured all of his grandson's best moments,
[buzzer sounds, cheering]
even while life was hitting Joel with a full court press.
- I came down with hereditary coronary artery disease.
Stents, lasers, angioplasty.
Whatever's available, they tried on me.
[EKG heartbeat monitor beeps]
- In 2011, Joel needed heart bypass surgery.
- And it was an 11 1/2 hour surgery.
And the doctors did an amazing job
getting me through it and patching me up.
But in postoperative care
something went wrong.
The swelling in arms--
There was a loss of blood flow to my forearm muscles
and they all died.
[playing "Amazing Grace" on the piano]
- It cost Joel his hands.
[Joel playing "Amazing Grace"]
He could no longer make a fist with his left hand.
His right hand was amputated.
He says all he thought about was Ben.
- Okay, it's July.
I've got three months 'till basketball.
How am I going to videotape the basketball games
without my hands?
- In all, Joel endured more than 50 medical procedures
and two major bypass surgeries, but he never lost faith.
- It's kind of like the Grinch that stole Christmas,
where on Christmas morning,
everything's taken away from them, but they get up.
They're happy and they move on.
- Or his sense of humor.
- Kids see me and I kind of whisper to them,
"I'm a pirate on vacation. Don't tell anybody."
-Go down. Corner!
- If life is what we make it,
Joel has made his a positive one.
He didn't mope. He didn't quit.
Instead, he created a camera harness
to wear around his waist.
He didn't miss any of Ben's games.
Instead of giving up, Joel decided to give out...
[tray clunks mechanically]
...DVDs.
[disc envelope crinkles as Joel folds it closed]
- Well, I make one for every player
and one for every coach.
[clinking]
And then, there's a couple that used to--
older couple that used to come to all the games
and they're in a nursing home now.
So I burn one for them.
And then there's another gentleman
who used to come to all the games
and he's been down this year so I burn one for him.
- Anyone who wants a DVD gets one.
And judging by the wall of thank you cards in his office,
Joel has helped hundreds
relive their favorite basketball memories.
- It's fun because I don't know these people.
They're strangers.
And it's nice to...
I guess "pay it forward" is the term.
- For that reason, he plans to continue being
Laconia's unofficial videographer,
even after Ben graduates.
- They're a good bunch of guys.
And I want to show them
that people care about them.
And what they're doing is worthwhile.
- But it's no secret who his favorite player is.
- Mr. Ben Wettstein! [applause]
- Yeah, I'm very proud of him.
He's an honest, trustworthy,
nice guy.
[tennis shoes squeaking]
- And on this night, with help from Ben's defense,
Laconia rebounds
with a double digit comeback in the second half
to force overtime.
[cheering]
- A game like this,
I don't have to exercise tonight.
My heart rate's been up for four hours.
- In overtime, the Spartans marched to a seven-point victory
over their biggest rival, St. Mary's Springs.
A big win. [cheering]
But not the best comeback story in the gym tonight.
- That's a wrap.
Because in Rosendale and Brandon,
I'd say most people don't know my name,
but they all know "Ben's grandpa."
And I like it that way.
? ?
- My name is Dave Beck
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
? ?
- This is a very special place.
To me this place feels perhaps even more magical
in the wintertime.
Everything is paused.
Everything is stopped.
The trees have gone into dormancy.
[rushing water]
Wildlife is much, much less present.
And probably my favorite part is
human presence is almost nil.
The deadness of the rock,
juxtaposed with the life of the pines.
That is really a beautiful thing.
- Dave Beck loves the waters of the St. Croix River.
And he sees this place not only as it is today,
but how it once was.
- Three hundred years ago,
pine trees were 75 to 150 feet tall,
towering over you and thick.
It would be, as far as you could see,
thick with trunks that were about this wide.
- Dave's appreciation for the river
came from a month spent on the water
in a cabin called
"Pine Needles."
- He was there as an artist in residence
at a research station
run by the Science Museum of Minnesota.
- The goal of the Artist at Pine Needles Residency program
is to connect science and art.
We have found that artists and scientists
are all very inquisitive about the natural environment.
They explore it. They're very curious about it.
They explore it in different ways.
[typing]
- And Dave's way of exploring the river
is very different indeed.
[electronic music]
- Dave is an artist with a Masters in Fine Arts
from the University of Wisconsin,
traditionally trained, and talented at sculpture.
But as a tech enthusiast and game player,
he's moved much of his artistic output
into the digital realm.
- I feel very fortunate that I've discovered
and come into animation and games, as an artist,
going from the traditional to the digital,
really just merging my passions and my interests together.
- Those passions and interests, and time spent on the St. Croix
have come together in Tombeaux.
A computer game Dave is creating based on the river's history
that takes its name from what the river was once called.
- Riviere Tombeaux means "river of the graves."
I am trying to represent and talk about death
to a certain degree
on this river that seems to be full of life.
- But it's not life and death
as typically seen in video games.
- I realized I wanted to make a game,
but not a game, a video game in the sense
that we might think of
with running around and shooting people,
but a game that would allow people to contemplate
about their history,
the people and the environment that's come before them and
what could happen in the future.
- While doing his artist residency
at the Pine Needles cabin,
[books thump down]
Dave took advantage of the research station's library.
- He came into our J.W.G. Dunn research library,
looked at the historic photographs that we have.
He asked our scientists constantly about,
"What was the river like before? What does that mean?"
- A cabin based on Pine Needles
is at the heart of the game.
- So you approach the cabin and enter.
It's very obviously
some sort of settler that is here
that is starting to track and collect objects.
- Character voices based on primary sources
help set the historical context.
- And that claim is by the right
of our manifest destiny.
- You'd be invited to go back outside,
which you'd hear in the narrative itself.
But then they're going to find themselves
in a new era and a new time.
- The game puts you right in the virtual waters
of the St. Croix.
As you explore, you begin to see evidence
of human interaction with the river environment.
- The whole point of this is,
it's a fishing weir that traps the fish.
The Native Americans use this model
to be able to keep them and then hold them.
- Dave is still developing the later part of the game
where human presence becomes more obvious and destructive.
- When we come out then the third time,
we're going to find a very different landscape.
I'm trying to take the viewer
into something that is very different.
We're looking out to, essentially, a giant logjam.
Again, this is all placeholders right now.
- Once Tombeaux is complete,
Dave hopes the virtual trip through time
and through the waters of the St. Croix
will heighten appreciation for the natural resource.
- There's a great deal of irony in what I'm doing.
I'm using digital technology and creating virtual worlds
about a place that people could go to today.
But it's always been my goal
with working with digital technology
is I want to be able to create something
that you would never be able to experience in any other way.
- But even as a game designer,
Dave would encourage his users to get out and experience,
appreciate, and help protect the real St. Croix.
- I really do think that
what's always been inspirational to me about this river,
it's the water is what really brings, I think,
everyone together,
but has always been the thing
that people have been fighting over.
I try and deliver that message in Tombeaux, as well.
But the good news is, with my game,
we can just drink and take in
all of the virtual pixelated water we want!
It's too bad that we can't survive on it, though.
Maybe someday.
- Curious to know more about Tia Richardson,
Joel Schultz,
Philippe Coquard,
and Dave Beck?
You can go to WisconsinLife.org to learn more
about the people featured in this week's stories.
And remember, we want to know:
What's your Wisconsin Life ?
So send your ideas to us at
WisconsinLife@wpt.org.
Finally, we leave you this week
in Milwaukee with another look
at the street art featured in Black Cat Alley.
Part of our Wisconsin Life ...
? ?
- Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.