It’s a film that’s been years in the making and may have even started over a Miller Lite (or two). Local directors Steve Farr and Michael T. Vollman started filming a new documentary titled “Ueck” during Spring Training in 2023.
The co-directors first shared the project with Sandy Maxx on What’s On Tap in 2024, as Bob Uecker was celebrating his 90th birthday. Now, a premier date is set – Milwaukee Film Festival’s opening night – and a special preview is lined up for Brewers fans – following the March 26 home opener. Farr and Vollman returned to What’s On Tap to discuss their project just one week before fans get a sneak peak.
“We started talking about it, I think in 2022? … We’re always looking for stories in our own backyard. You know, you’re always looking for a story that others haven’t explored before… In my head I thought, ‘I’d love to do a documentary about Ueck’… but that seemed like a kind of dream project. So we just started throwing around the idea.” – Michael T. Vollman
“It helped that we’re Brewers fans. Like Michael said, something homegrown like this is nice. We have our own cameras, we can just go down to the ballpark and shoot when we want. Part of it was that we’re Brewers fans and both fans of Bob’s.” – Steve Farr
The film traces Bob Uecker’s journey from his sandlot days in Milwaukee to his Major League career and more than 50 years as the iconic voice of the Milwaukee Brewers. The film’s producer Jeremy Coon (Napoleon Dynamite) says Ueck captures “every chapter of his remarkable life,” revealing the wit, heart, and humanity that made him a national treasure known as “Mr. Baseball.”
“Early on, we came to [Bob] with a list of probably 10-15 things we said we’d like to pull off. And he was absolutely on board to do them. Excited to do it. We found out about his diagnosis pretty early on. We were among a few people that knew. We realized we weren’t going to have as much time with him at home. Basically he just said, ‘you know, I got to deal with this. I’m going to help you out as much as I can…’ We just respected that and when he was ready to do things, we would do things… We didn’t get everything. But that’s ok.
“When his fans see it…. they’ll just love him even more. It’s amazing.” – Michael Vollman
