Nina's cast features Grand Marais locals — Kevin Kager, Michelle Lewis, and Jeffrey Shockley, actors from the Grand Marais Playhouse alongside Paul Ramey, the lodge’s real maintenance man. The result is a collision of lived experience and labor as ritual. Shot by Jill Petracek, a photographer and cinematographer well-versed in Midwestern dynamics. Her intuitive warmth and graphic sensibility shaped the film’s painterly compositions. Produced by Hollis J. Hart, a multidisciplinary artist bridging immersive theater, sculpture, and film, who supports Nina’s post-production, festival strategy, and distribution path. Sound and foley by George Primavera. Editing support by Joshua Wilmott. Score by Innocent Bird. Costumes sourced from the Recycling Center Thrift Store run by Diane in Grand Marais.

 

Written, directed, and performed by Natasha Mercado, Nina finds quiet absurdity inside the machinery of everyday work — a film about the labor it takes to seem fine.