LOCAL HELPS BRING UECKER MOVIE TO BIG SCREEN
"Ueck," which was co-produced by Walworth County native Barry Poltermann, focuses on Bob Uecker's final years as an announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers.
"Ueck" includes interviews with several people who knew Bob Uecker, including his wife Judy Uecker.
In addition to his baseball career, "Ueck" also includes Bob Uecker's hobbies, such as fishing.
A Walworth County native is helping to tell the story of a Milwaukee Brewer icon.
Barry Poltermann, formerly of Genoa City, co-produced "Ueck," a documentary about former Brewers announcer Bob Uecker.
The film began showing at Emagine Geneva Lakes theater, 2565 Highway 120 in the town of Lyons, and about 30 other theaters in Wisconsin on Aug. 7.
Poltermann hopes the documentary will be available in the local area for at least a few more weeks. He said that "Ueck" has received a positive response in other Wisconsin communities.
"It's been doing great," Poltermann said. "The box office has been kind of spectacular, so far."
The documentary, which took about four years to complete, focuses on Uecker's final years as an announcer for the Brewers, as well his his career as a player, and his television and movie appearances.
"It was an interesting film because we started out not knowing what was going to happen with the Brewers or the Brewers' seasons or how much they would be a part of the film," Poltermann said.
The film also documents the health issues that Uecker faced during his final years.
"It became a much more emotional and complex journey than what we saw when we started the film," Poltermann said. "It's a pretty funny movie, but it also has some pretty powerful stuff in it."
"Ueck" was filmed at American Family Field, Uecker's home and during some of his fishing trips. It includes interviews from Bob Costas, Joe Torre, Robin Yount and several of Uecker's family members.
"I think you really get a sense of who he was as a person," Poltermann said. "I think one of the reasons we were able to do that is because Bob really welcomed us into his life and we really got to know him as a person."
Poltermann said he and the other crew members enjoyed working with Uecker.
"He's every bit as funny and cool as you might imagine from watching him on television," Poltermann said. "A lot of times when you dig into somebody's life, you find more complexities or darkness than you wanted to find. That didn't happen in this case."
Uecker's Major League Baseball career lasted from 1962-67. He played for the Milwaukee Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves.
He worked as an announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1971-2024.
Outside baseball, he appeared in the television sitcom "Mr. Belvedere" and the movie "Major League."
Uecker died Jan. 16, 2025, at the age of 90.
Poltermann feels audiences will enjoy watching Uecker's life story unfold in the documentary.
"It makes people feel like they just watched a movie, not a documentary," Poltermann said. "We want people to walk away and say, 'I thought that was as good as any movie I've seen,' and find it to be a completely fulfilling story and theatrical experience."
Poltermann said he plans to have the film shown in other states.
"For the next month, we really want to stay focused on Wisconsin and being loyal to Wisconsin in the roll out of the film as Bob was to the state and just really celebrate Bob with the people of Wisconsin first," Poltermann said. "Our hope is in September and October, we might take the movie in other places like Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis."
Other projects
Poltermann, 62, became interested in film during his childhood while watching movies at the Genoa City movie theater.
He studied communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and started the film editing and production company September Club with Jeremy Coon, the producer for "Napoleon Dynamite."
"With his pop culture sensibility and his skills as a distributor, business person and editor, we developed a company that focused on editing documentaries and how editing is such an important part of storytelling," Poltermann said.
Poltermann has edited several films, including "Aswang," "American Movie," "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond" and "The Last Movie Stars."
He recently produced and edited "Highway 99: A Double Album," which was directed by Ethan Hawke and is a documentary about Merle Haggard.
Poltermann also edited "Gallagher," a documentary about prop comedian Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. He currently is working with the U.S. Air Force on a documentary about the Edwards Air Force Base.
"The reason I love documentaries and editing is you take reality, something that really happened, and you sift through it and look for the underline story that will make an audience sit up and take notice," he said.
Poltermann lives in Los Angeles but visits Genoa City regularly to visit family members who live in the area.
"There's not a lot of years that go by that I'm not there for a month or so over the course of a year," he said.
For more information about Poltermann or September Club, visit www.september.club.
