MKE Film's 414 Day screening of the 'Song Sung Blue' doc

About this episode

The episode features a discussion with filmmaker Jimmy Sammarco about the Song Sung Blue documentary and its Milwaukee connections.

With Milwaukee Film getting ready to celebrate 414 Day by screening the Song Sung Blue documentary at the Oriental Theatre, we're taking a timely jump back to our conversation with a key player in the 2008 film about local musical couple Mike and Claire Sardina. Enjoy. ##### After coming down from our Hugh Jackman interaction at the Song Sung Blue premiere at the close of 2025, we pulled back the curtain on the Milwaukee connections that inspired the recently released biopic. For that, we called in local filmmaker Jimmy Sammarco, who was instrumental (pun very intended) in the original Song Sung Blue documentary that brought the story of musical couple Mike and Claire Sardina — aka Lightning & Thunder — into the spotlight back in 2008. In his role as director of photography, he saw the ins and outs of the whole production, including a bombshell cease-and-desist order from Sony Music and an unlikely savior from one of the godfathers of grunge.

People in this episode

Guest: Jimmy Sammarco

Topics covered

• Milwaukee Film
• Song Sung Blue
• documentary
• local filmmakers
• music couple
• Hugh Jackman
• grunge

Keywords

• Song Sung Blue
• Milwaukee Film
• Jimmy Sammarco
• Mike Sardina
• Claire Sardina
• documentary
• Hugh Jackman
• grunge

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Milwaukee Film, Sony Music

Books & works: Song Sung Blue

Places: Milwaukee, Oriental Theatre

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