Mint Julep is a 2010 romance film

Romance film

Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...

 written, directed, and produced by Wisconsin filmmakers Ian Teal and Kathy Fehl, starring David Morse

David Morse (actor)

David Bowditch Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...

, Angelica Torn

Angelica Torn

Angelica Torn is an American award winning actress, director, producer and screenwriter and the only daughter of actors Rip Torn and the late Geraldine Page.She legally and professionally changed her name to Angelica Page in September, 2011....

, and James Gandolfini

James Gandolfini

James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...

. It is set in small-town North Carolina and follows the struggling marriage of Deirdre, a diner waitress played by Torn, and Leighton, an insurance salesman played by Teal. Morse plays an odd groundskeeper at a golf course who witnesses a murder, and Gandolfini plays a landlord in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

The film's surreal aspects reflect influences from Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

, Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...

 and Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...

.

The independent film

Independent film

An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 took more than a decade to produce due to budget restraints. Teal and Fehl spent an estimated $150,000 on the film, much of which came from their personal finances. The filmmakers received some financial backing from Marilyn Perry, an art historian, painter, and former chairwoman of the World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training....

. Perry studied under Fehl's father at the University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina

Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

, where he taught art history

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

.

The film premiered on May 22, 2010 at the Gerold Opera House in Weyauwega, Wisconsin

Weyauwega, Wisconsin

Weyauwega is a city in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,806 at the 2000 census. The city is located mostly within the Town of Weyauwega, though it is politically independent. Small portions extend north into the adjacent Town of Royalton...

, where Teal and Fehl run a non-profit organization called Wega Arts.

Cast

• Angelica Torn
  Angelica Torn
  Angelica Torn is an American award winning actress, director, producer and screenwriter and the only daughter of actors Rip Torn and the late Geraldine Page.She legally and professionally changed her name to Angelica Page in September, 2011....
  
   as Deirdre
• Ian Teal as Leighton
• David Morse
  David Morse (actor)
  David Bowditch Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...
  
   as Karl
• James Gandolfini
  James Gandolfini
  James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
  
  as Mr. G
• Susan Aston as Veronica
• Johnny Mez as Gantner
• Kathy Fehl as Muriel