Filmmaker Sam Mayfield is working on ''Wisconsin Rising,'' a feature-length documentary about the people's revolt against Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union initiative. Mayfield, a video journalist, also made ''Silenced Voices,'' a 2010 documentary about the death of a migrant farmworker. – Photo: Sam Mayfield

Through her lens, documentary filmmaker Sam Mayfield is going up close and personal to capture the impact that Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting budget bill has had on the lives of ordinary Wisconsinites. 

"Wisconsin Rising" follows the historic events in Wisconsin that led up to the recent filing of more than one million signatures seeking to recall the governor. Mayfield says her film is about "the reanimation of the American labor movement" and the fight for justice.

A freelance video journalist from Burlington, Vt., Mayfield has reported for Democracy Now!, TheUptake, Free Speech TV and Toward Freedom.com. She's worked in places as distant as Palestine and as near as Madison, where last year she covered the battle over Walker's assault on organized labor for a Web publication.

In his State of the State address on Feb. 1, 2011, Walker announced that in the coming weeks he would offer a "budget repair bill."

"This is the right moment in time, our moment in time, to refocus government to better serve the taxpayers of this state," Walker said. "To do this, we must provide flexibility to our leaders at all levels. One area we will have to look at is public employee benefits."

Soon afterward, Walker sent the Legislature a measure largely stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Democrats were first stunned and then outraged, particularly after GOP leadership rammed the bill through the Assembly without notice.

As Senate Democrats fled to Illinois to stall the bill in the Senate, protesters flooded into Madison. The largest demonstrations since the Vietnam War era surrounded the Capitol for weeks.

"The people of Wisconsin rose up, occupied their state Capitol and took to the streets," Mayfield said.

Tanner Uttecht, rear left, and his family. – Photo: Nick Uttecht

Shawano middle-schooler Tanner Uttecht went home one January day carrying a newspaper column to discuss. 

The Shawano High School Hawk Post contained a page with point-counterpoint commentary on gays adopting and parenting children. Tanner and his three siblings live in a duplex in Shawano. His two dads – Nick Uttecht and Michael McNelly – live in one apartment. His mom, Uttecht's ex-wife and his best friend, lives in the other apartment.

When 13-year-old Tanner arrived home that January day, he told Nick Uttecht, "Dad, I need to talk to you."

Then he showed his dad the newspaper.

In one column, high-schooler Maddie Marquardt argued that children need homes, and gay couples can provide those homes.

In the other column, high-schooler Brandon Wegner argued that gays are sinful and gay parents are an abomination.

"Jesus states in the Bible that homosexuality is a detestable act and sin which makes adopting wrong for homosexuals because you would be raising the child in a sin-filled environment. Leviticus 20:13 states, 'If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them,'" he wrote.

Representatives from the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center and the organization Diverse and Resilient are negotiating a possible merger, according to a statement released on Jan. 20.

“While it is too early to speculate on the outcome, a positive working relationship has been established and a single committee representing both organizations is working diligently on the many issues involved,” the statement said.