Moviemaker – Winter 2019

76 MOVIEMAKER.COM

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAKE HILL / COURTESY OF MILWAUKEE FILM

FESTIVAL BEAT

WINTER 2019

MALLORCA,

MEMPHIS,

MILWAUKEE,

MONTANA & ITHACA

From the streets of Spain to the remote, rustic corners of the American

West, and stops between, here are a few fests that ended 2018 with a bang

MILWAUKEE FILM

FESTIVAL 2018

Classically beautiful venues

screen prestige titles and

best of the Midwest at fest

teeming with regional pride

Milwaukee may not be the

first city that jumps to mind

when thinking of the film indus-

try as a whole. It should, how-

ever, be one of the first cities that

jumps to mind when thinking of

the ever-growing, and constantly

flourishing, independent film

industry. The city of Milwaukee

has an entire world of movie-

makers thriving just beneath the

surface, ready to break out. And,

arguably, it already has.

Like many fellow arts-minded

Midwest cities, Milwaukee is a

festival town, a place for people

from all around to gather and

celebrate the roots of Americana

and the joys of the world beyond.

Some of Milwaukee’s most

notable celebrations include the

music-based Summerfest, beer-

and-sausage-heavy PolishFest

and fall’s Indian Summer. Sitting

next to these festivals is the ex-

pansive Milwaukee Film Festival,

an all-encompassing 15-day cel-

ebration of the film industry. No

matter where you are in the city,

from October 18 to November 1,

everyone knows which festival is

this week’s talk of the town.

Each fall, the Milwaukee

Film Festival provides a lengthy

showcase for some of the most

noteworthy cinematic achieve-

ments of the year. MFF boasts

high profile screenings, from

such Oscar contenders as

Burning, Cold War, Shoplifters,

and Madeline’s Madeline,

Support the Girls, and other

acclaimed American indepen-

dent films of the year, to such

Milwaukee-centric Spotlight pre-

sentations as Darren Foster and

Cristina Costantini’s Science Fair

and Carol Brandt’s Pet Names. I

even got to see the long-thought-

to-be-lost 1926 Japanese silent

film A Page of Madness on the

big screen with a live orchestral

accompaniment, courtesy of

Alloy Orchestra.

Whatever your watching hab-

its are, MFF has you covered: The

festival includes programs cen-

tered on Latin cinema, LGBTQ

moviemaking, German cinema,

midnight movies, a food-centric

program and, of course a short

film program. The shorts are

carefully placed by Senior Pro-

grammer Anna Sampers into spe-

cific categories, from romance to

sci-fi, so you can curate your own

viewing experience, and there’s

even a grab bag of short films if

you’re the adventurous type.

Last year, MovieMaker

noted the splendor of the

Oriental Theatre, which can be

considered the main venue of

the festival. The classical beauty

of this theater has finally been

brought into the new age. All

of the theaters put to use in the

festival are striking in their own

way, whether they are local in-

dependent theaters brought into

the fray, or pop-up theaters put

into use with rafters, a canvas

and a projector. The

town molds itself to

the festival and the

festival molds itself

to the town.

Elsewhere in

the city, nestled in

between countless breweries, the

local independent radio station,

88Nine Radio Milwaukee, and

the newly completed Fiserv

Forum, where the Bucks play, is

Oscar winner and Milwaukee na-

tive John Ridley’s newly opened

Nō Studios, which provides a safe

haven for Milwaukee’s creative

arts scene. The unique building

provides a venue for consuming

art (including a high-tech screen-

ing room), a place for artists to

network and interact, as well as

workspaces for both individuals

and budding businesses.

Milwaukee moviemakers and

their loyalty to the city are an

integral part of the festival. No-

tables include Erik Ljung, whose

film The Blood Is at the Doorstep,

which screened at the festival

the year before, is an incendiary

exposé of the shocking death of

Dontre Hamilton

at the hands of

a Milwaukee police

officer, an act of racial

violence that divided the city.

Sitora Takanaev, another local,

is a magnetic,

Andrei Tarkovsky-

obsessed

moviemaker from

Uzbekistan who

has had multiple

films screen at the festival. Rubin

Whitmore II, a hard-working

local constantly pushing to create

better work, churns out multiple

films a year. Every one of these

Milwaukee-based beacons speaks

with nothing but admiration for

all the town has to offer. Whether

they be relevant and worthy

stories, excellent equipment or

hard-working crew members,

Milwaukee supports these movie-

makers in their artistic journeys.

Everywhere you look in

Milwaukee, there’s nothing but

pride—pride in the films that are

screening, in the independents

who’ve made them, and yes, in

the Brewers ( just don’t mention

it if you’re a Dodgers fan). That

pride on display in this city is

also everywhere at the Milwau-

kee Film Festival.

—Ryan Williams

DEWANDA WISE, STAR OF

SPIKE LEE’S NETFLIX SERIES

SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, SHARES

FILM INDUSTRY STORIES AT

MILWAUKEE FILM FESTIVAL 2018