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‘Loose’ campus security
The Daily Cardinal: Friday 25 April 2008
As a UW Alum, Andy Schlactenhaufen hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be in college. Not only is his first feature-length film “Loose Cannons” chock-full of collegiate stories, settings and jokes, he keeps the time-honored college tradition of procrastination in finishing the film.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008 Encores: "Loose Cannons" Packs a Punch
Dane 101: Thursday 17 April 2008
Loose Cannons: Campus Security tells the story of a miscreant gang of student campus security officers at a local University startlingly similar to UW-Madison… Protecting and serving become a bit of a problem for them when the football team’s playbook is stolen and their beloved mascot “Muley” is murdered in suspicious correlation with the university’s impending homecoming celebration. The plot thickens; these atrocious acts have not been set in motion by the rival school, but by an embittered domestic foe.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival announces 2008 audience awards
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Wednesday 16 April 2008
The Wisconsin Film Festival has announced the winners of its two Audience Awards, selected by filmgoers over the course of the four-day celebration of cinema held over the first weekend of April. The Polish drama Time to Die won the award for Best Narrative Film, while the familial quest covered in New Year Baby won the award for Best Documentary Film.
[original site : pdf]
Song Sung Blue Symposium
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Monday 14 April 2008
"Song Sung Blue," the documentary about Milwaukee based Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline impersonators Mike and Claire Sardina - aka Lightning and Thunder - had a very successful screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison according to participants.
"People hoping for tickets were lined up down to the end of the block," the couple's manager Tom D'Amato wrote in an email.
[original site : pdf]
Film Fest a Feather in Festival's Cap
The Capital Times: Monday 14 April 2008
Dear Editor: A hearty congratulations to the UW Arts Institute, the Wisconsin Film Festival's director Meg Hamel, the hundreds of volunteers and sponsors, and everyone else associated with the amazing event.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008 Review: "In Search Of A Midnight Kiss"
Dane 101: Thursday 10 April 2008
Sunday morning came early after the Nerdcore premiere the night before. Still, the Orpheum possessed one of my most anticipated films of the Wisconsin Film Festival, and neither the early start nor a hangover was going to keep me away.
[original site : pdf]
Rob Thomas' Gottahaveitlist
Wisconsin State Journal: Thursday 10 April 2008
5. Nerdcore for Life"
One of my favorite films at the Wisconsin Film Festival was this immensely entertaining doc about nerd rappers with handles like MC Router and Optimus Rhyme. Don't know when the movie will be back, but you can check out their videos on YouTube and MySpace.
[original site : pdf]
Notbohm: Film a 'capitol' idea
The Badger Herald: Wednesday 9 April 2008
When Brent Notbohm wrote the script for the movie “Madison,” a good part of it wasn’t at a computer. After scribbling ideas or dialogue in his notebook, he admits his best work happened without trying. Little did he know his random bursts of inspiration would earn the Juror’s Choice Award in this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Different worlds, familiar hearts, at Wisconsin Film Festival
Greater Milwaukee Today: Wednesday 9 April 2008
Believe it or not, sometimes it’s hard to be a film critic. The more repetitive the films become, the more one starts to shrug his shoulders at movies that aren’t exactly bad but are certainly far from great, the more frustrating the enterprise becomes. All year, we wait for the movies that will excite us, but sometimes we have to go through 20, 30, even 50 titles before we get there (think of how many weekends you avoid the movie theater, not quite interested in what they have to offer).
So imagine what it was like then to step foot in Madison last weekend and be swamped with cinematic gems at every corner, to go from screening to screening and to be increasingly wowed with the bold visions illuminating Wisconsin screens.
[original site : pdf]
Film Fest Continues to Shine in 10th year
Channel 3000: Tuesday 8 April 2008
Movie fans turned out in force this past weekend to view a smorgasbord of independent films and world cinema at the 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival in downtown Madison. In its 10th year, the festival, which ran from April 3-6, continued to build on its excellent tradition and offered another strong lineup of diverse film offerings. More than 200 films were screened during the festival.
[original site : pdf]
Film Fest an Unconditional Success
Wisconsin State Journal: Tuesday 8 April 2008
A hearty congratulations to the UW Arts Institute, the Wisconsin Film Festival's director Meg Hamel, the hundreds of volunteers, sponsors and everyone else associated with the amazing event.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Katjusa reflects on the Wisconsin Film Festival
Dane 101: Tuesday 8 April 2008
It’s taken me a while to digest the nine movies I saw this weekend at the Wisconsin Film Festival (all documentaries except one). When the schedule first came out, I made ambitious plans to see five per day, fully forgetting how exhausting it can be to sit in a dark theatre for hours on end absorbing images and information.
Although I enjoyed every single movie I saw, here’s a rundown from least favorite to favorite film.
[original site : pdf]
Postcards from Tora Bora at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 8 April 2008
Decades of attacks by a myriad of countries and occupying powers have left Afghanistan devastated, its people impoverished. Recurring Taliban control has made life stricter, particularly for women under Islamic Sharia law. We see these stories and pictures again and again on TV, and there are very few people who know a different Afghanistan.
Wazhmha Osman, the narrator in Postcards from Tora Bora, is one of those few people. Screening on Sunday at the Wisconsin Film Festival, the documentary chronicles Osman’s return to Afghanistan after nearly two decades in the United States.
[original site : pdf]
Jerabek at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 8 April 2008
There are few stories more heartbreaking to watch than that in Jerabek, a documentary that tells the story of a young man from Green Bay who was killed in Iraq while serving with the U.S. Marines, and his family’s confrontation with its consequences. The film was screened in the Wisconsin Film Festival on Sunday, a date that marked the fourth anniversary of his death in combat.
[original site : pdf]
Mongol at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
The first thing I did after leaving the Orpheum after seeing Mongol, an epic about the early life of Genghis Khan, was to pull out my phone, go to Google Maps and type in "Mongolia." For those of you don't know, the nation is located between Russia to its north and China to its south, while not quite touching Kazakhstan to its west.
[original site : pdf]
En la Ciudad de Sylvia at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
En la Ciudad de Sylvia lingers in the mind much as the static camera perspectives favored by director José Luis Guerín linger on a scene after the relevant narrative action has concluded. Enjoying its Midwest premiere Sunday morning at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, En la Ciudad is a movie that pulls you in with limited dialog, its reliance on visual storytelling and an intriguing insistence on taking its sweet time to reveal what it is about.
[original site : pdf]
In Search of a Midnight Kiss at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
In Search of a Midnight Kiss could almost be called a romantic comedy if it weren’t for the fact that it really isn’t all that funny. A few crude jokes and awkward scenes about jerking off make up the bulk of the film’s comedic action. The audience laughed (or exchanged embarrassed shrugs) but comedy just wasn’t the strength of the film. What In Search of a Midnight Kiss lacks in super-funny comedy, it makes up for in romance.
[original site : pdf]
Children of Glory at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
The Games of the XXIX Olympiad are set to begin four months from now in Beijing, and there’s already plenty of controversy. The Olympic torch relay has been met with ongoing protests from Tibetan independence activists since getting started in Athens two weeks ago, and objections to the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and towards Sudan, among other issues, build as the games approach.
[original site : pdf]
Flight of the Red Balloon at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
Flight of the Red Balloon enjoyed its Wisconsin premiere at the Orpheum Theatre on Sunday afternoon, during the Wisconsin Film Festival. Judging by the outbreak of applause at the end of the screening, the festival audience enjoyed it right back.
[original site : pdf]
Welcome to Macintosh at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
Sixty Six offered another poignant slice of humanity. I love a good cry at the movies, especially when humor is integral to the theme. It's 1966. Our central character is Bernie Rubens, the second son of a London grocer who anticipates the day he becomes a man as the moment when, finally, he will be the center of attention. He plans to top the event thrown for his stereotypically clueless teen brother. While Bernie anticipates “the Gone with the Wind of Bar Mitvahs, the Cassius Clay of Bar Mitzvahs, the Jesus Christ of Bar Mizvahs,” events conspire against his dreams.
[original site : pdf]
Sixty Six at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
Sixty Six offered another poignant slice of humanity. I love a good cry at the movies, especially when humor is integral to the theme. It's 1966. Our central character is Bernie Rubens, the second son of a London grocer who anticipates the day he becomes a man as the moment when, finally, he will be the center of attention. He plans to top the event thrown for his stereotypically clueless teen brother. While Bernie anticipates “the Gone with the Wind of Bar Mitvahs, the Cassius Clay of Bar Mitzvahs, the Jesus Christ of Bar Mizvahs,” events conspire against his dreams.
[original site : pdf]
Freedom's Fury at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
Here’s a top ten countdown of things I learned from Freedom's Fury, the moving documentary on the 1956 Hungarian water-polo team that prevailed in the Melbourne Olympics over Hungary's occupiers, the Soviets, in what became known as the "bloodiest game in Olympic history."
[original site : pdf]
Secrecy at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
In late 2005, some monkeys were killed at the UW-Madison. A technician accidentally left them in a cage washed with scalding water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Animal Welfare Act, fined the university a hefty sum.
When I heard of this fine, in July 2006, I made requests for the records, from both the UW-Madison and the U.S.D.A. The UW complied within hours. This January, after 18 months, I got a letter from the U.S.D.A. It said my request was still pending and would be dismissed, unless I renewed it.
[original site : pdf]
Welcome to Macintosh at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 7 April 2008
After the Wisconsin Film Festival screening of their documentary Welcome to Macintosh, filmmakers Rob Baca and Josh Rizzo noted that they received no help or support from Apple Inc. You could have fooled me. The film, shown Sunday afternoon at the Chazen Museum, at times is like an infomercial for the storied Silicon Valley corporation. The tone throughout is breathless, as in an intertitle that grandly announces how, for Apple in the early 1980s, "the time had come once again to change the world."
[original site : pdf]
Chop Shop at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
Ramin Bahrani's debut film, Man Push Cart, won accolades despite a very brief stint in urban arthouses, his sophomore project Chop Shop seems poised to garner even more. Set in Queens in the shadow of Shea Stadium, the film like its predecessor, focuses on one urban character on the outskirts of American society.
[original site : pdf]
Being Innu and Testing Hope at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
Another day, another documentary double feature. These two that screened in the Memorial Union Play Circle on Saturday, though, are in no danger of being mistaken for mockumentaries.
[original site : pdf]
The Substitute at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
There’s no substitute for an original idea and inspired execution. Take The Substitute (Vikaren), the 2007 Danish production that had its Wisconsin premiere Saturday morning at the Orpheum Theater.
[original site : pdf]
Woodpecker at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
Finally the time had come for me to take in a film that was not a documentary, but a narrative feature. (Fiction! Acting!) And lo and behold, what is Woodpecker? A spoof of a documentary! My 2008 film fest experience has developed a definite theme.
[original site : pdf]
Song Sung Blue at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
The crowd at the Bartell Theater on Saturday was doubtlessly expecting to hear lots of Neil Diamond songs in Song Sung Blue by Greg Kohs, a documentary about a husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act from Milwaukee. Filmgoers were singing the pop star’s songs in their seats before the show.
[original site : pdf]
Girls Rock! at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
If the Wisconsin Film Festival had an award for the most pixie stix consumed during a screening, Girls Rock! would win big. Girls Rock! is a documentary about a rock ‘n’ roll summer camp held for -- no surprise here -- girls only. At this camp, girls are encouraged by their rocker counselors (Carrie Brownstein, formerly of Sleater-Kinney, for example) to take up space, be loud, and claim their voices.
[original site : pdf]
Short Films from Spain at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
The hope, for me, when viewing a program of short films at the annual Wisconsin Film Festival is that I'll enjoy a few of them. If more than half are good, I consider it a triumph.
[original site : pdf]
Madison at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
I wanted to like Madison. The plot sounded relevant and interesting -- a war journalist returns from Iraq and heads back to his college town to figure things out. The film is set in Madison and is homegrown through and through from the cast to the beer -- you’ll never catch anyone drinking a Budweiser in this film. The Chazen was packed on Saturday night, and I was nearly unable to get a seat.
[original site : pdf]
The Super Noble Brothers at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
The identity of Milwaukee, or more specifically, that of artistic life in Riverwest permeated the entirety of The Super Noble Brothers, at least as vocalized by one audience member at Cinematheque where the film screened on Saturday. Written and directed by Marc Escribano, this documentary introduces Andy, Tommy, and Davey Noble, a trio of brothers devoted to following their passions in music and art on their own terms.
[original site : pdf]
Stuck at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
A lively and responsive audience attended the screening of Stuart Gordon’s latest horror flick, Stuck, late Saturday night at the Orpheum.
[original site : pdf]
Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 6 April 2008
Madison does not offer many urban exploring opportunities for folks like myself who relish jumping fences and getting dirty in tunnels, so being able to live vicariously through the adventurers in Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness was a treat and a half. The film does a thorough and engaging job of showcasing the multitude of personalities, gear, rules, fears and hopes that compose this exhilarating pastime.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Question and Answer session with "Skills Like This" Director Monty Miranda
Dane 101: Sunday 6 April 2008
Skills Like This Director Monty Miranda hosted a question and answer session after the well-received showing of his independent film Friday night at the Wisconsin Film Festival. He was also joined by Brian D. Phelan who played Tommy. The below video starts off dark, but the house lights are turned on two minutes in. The first question in this video is asked by Girls Rock! co-director Shane King.
[original site ]
Loose Cannons at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
College life at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is central to the movie Loose Cannons, which made its world premiere at Monona Terrace late Friday night. The auditorium was bursting at the seams with expectant viewers ready to watch the feature-length debut of director of recent UW graduate Andy Schlachtenhaufen. Many others in the crowd counted themselves Badgers as well, both current students and alumni, with more than a few also having a hand in the making of the film. In other words, it was a party.
[original site : pdf]
Movie about Hobart Marine premieres Sunday in Madison
Green Bay Press Gazette: Saturday 5 April 2008
A documentary about a Hobart Marine and his family will premiere Sunday at the Wisconsin Film Festival on the fourth anniversary of his death in Iraq.
"Jerabek" — a film about the family of Marine Pfc. Ryan Jerabek — was screened last year at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and will make its premiere in Madison at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Ben X at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
Backpackers on the trains in Ben X may be aliens to the title character’s home in Belgium, but Asperger’s syndrome makes him an alien to the world. So, Ben escapes to the digital realm of Archlord, where his sunken cheeks, blue pallor and etched appearance blend easily. The online role-playing game allows a connection to others without “real” social interaction, perfection for his condition.
[original site : pdf]
Big Dreamers and This American Gothic at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
You could call Big Dreamers and This American Gothic a double feature of documentaries that ponder the relationship of art and tourism. But the audience at Monona Terrace on Friday evening seemed to view them both as comedies of the Christopher Guest/mockumentary sort, wherein somewhat foolish townfolk/enthusiasts are made to look ridiculous, just by being themselves.
[original site : pdf]
Skills Like This at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
The Midwest debut of Skills Like This on Friday was well-attended by artsy-looking twenty-somethings, a perfect target audience for this quirky comedy that just might be the next Napoleon Dynamite.
[original site : pdf]
Bon Cop Bad Cop at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
Wisconsin Film Festival audiences at early screenings are generally downright giddy. This especially applies to those who head to the Orpheum's main room, which welcomes gigantic crowds for the festival's higher profile films. The energy created by such a crowd is contagious and diametrically different from what you'll find at a typical cinemaplex on a Friday night.
[original site : pdf]
Taxi to the Dark Side at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive, always used to frame his most formative life experience -- fleeing his native Austria as a young lad and seeing much of his family killed in the Holocaust -- as reflecting not the depravity of the Nazis but the reality of human nature.
[original site : pdf]
This Beautiful City at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Saturday 5 April 2008
A woman stands on the ledge of a balcony and hurtles to the ground as her husband does the dishes inside. A prostitute and her ex-junkie boyfriend find her on the ground, and a policeman arrives to call for help. Three months later the lives of these seemingly disparate characters ruthlessly collide once more.
[original site : pdf]
Refusenik at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 4 April 2008
The Orpheum Stage Door was nearly empty for the Thursday night screening of Refusenik, a 2007 documentary about the decades-long international movement to support the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. That’s too bad, because the film tells a remarkable chapter in the calamity of and struggle for human rights defining the long conflict that was the 20th Century, the impact of which continues to reverberate in the 21st.
[original site : pdf]
Parting Glances at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 4 April 2008
Thursday night, opening night of the Wisconsin Film Festival, a crowded house at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art warmly greeted Madison actor Richard Ganoung. He was on hand to introduce Parting Glances, the absorbing and sweetly funny 1986 film about gay New Yorkers, in which he starred.
[original site : pdf]
Bing'ai at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 4 April 2008
Despite the rain, an enthusiastic crowd formed a long line outside the Bartell Theatre Thursday night for the sold-out Bing’ai.
The documentary, compiled by independent filmmaker Feng Yan over the course of ten years, follows Chinese peasant woman Zhang Bing Ai and her family through their struggles with power, poverty and government. Bing Ai’s family lives along the Yangtze River in Hubei Province.
[original site : pdf]
Mad City Chickens at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 4 April 2008
Screenings of Madison-made flicks at the Wisconsin Film Fest are almost always a good time, as the audience is usually filled with cast, crew, supporters, and fans ready to cheer on the show. This was certainly the case on Thursday night, when the documentary Mad City Chickens made its world premiere at Monona Terrace. Neither the crowd nor the movie disappointed, with both making for one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had at the festival.
[original site : pdf]
Turn the River at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 4 April 2008
Strikingly sincere acting and a beautifully paired musical backdrop carry the story in Turn the River, actor Chris Eigeman’s writing and directorial debut.
Set in and around New York City, the film stars Famke Janssen as Kailey, a gritty pool and poker-hustler trying to scam enough money to rescue her 11-year-old son, Gulley (Jaymie Dornan), from his semi-alcoholic and anger-ridden father who is unaware that the two have been communicating for years.
[original site : pdf]
Film fest guide: If you liked 'Lost,' see 'Timecrimes'
The Wisconsin State Journal: Friday 4 April 2008
Haven't gotten your tickets yet for this weekend's Wisconsin Film Festival?
Don't worry, there's still a seat waiting for you.
Actually, a whole bunch of seats are there, especially at large venues like the 1,500-seat Orpheum Theatre and the 1,100-seat Wisconsin Union Theater, which both have movies running all weekend. Many screenings have sold out at smaller venues like the UW-Cinematheque and the Bartell Theatre, but even they should have some tickets available at the door, in case you really, really want to see "The Meaning of Tea."
[original site : pdf]
UW students star as directors in film fest
The Daily Cardinal: Thursday 3 April 2008
A distinct feature of the Wisconsin Film Festival is its attention to up-and-coming student filmmakers. Three UW-Madison students whose films were accepted into the festival shared their experiences with making their films, entering the festival and their reactions to the festival itself.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: The Geeks Invade Wisconsin Film Fest
Dane 101 : Thursday 3 April 2008
It started harmless enough. A tiny game store on State Street. Comics in the basement of Picabook. John Kovalic.
Before long, it escalated. A classic arcade on the north side. A Jonathan Coulton concert. Geek.Kon.
Madison geeks had made their presence known.
This weekend when the Wisconsin Film Festival hits Madison, geekiness will be well represented. Six movies focus on geek values or ideas. This got me thinking; is geekiness becoming socially acceptable, or is this just part of a large geek conspiracy to take over the city?
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival
The Badger Herald : Thursday 3 April 2008
Going to the movies is one of my greatest vices. The feature, the previews and my favorite of all foods, buttered movie-theater popcorn — I can’t get enough of it. This weekend the Wisconsin Film Festival brings this glorious experience to Madison for four straight days. Running Thursday through Sunday, the festival includes more than 200 movies in 10 different theaters, an organizational feat that undoubtedly takes considerable time and effort. However, as Wisconsin Film Festival director Meg Hamel told The Badger Herald in an interview on Sunday, preparing for the festival is “not just the hassle of ticket sales.”
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Fest 2008
The Daily Cardinal : Thursday 3 April 2008
The Daily Cardinal gives a flyby of 12 films to watch for at this year's festival.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Fest Runs Through Weekend
Channel 3000 : Thursday 3 April 2008
Movie lovers looking for something to do this weekend will have an opportunity to check out many accomplished films playing in downtown Madison as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
This is the Wisconsin Film Festival's 10th year, and more than 200 films will be shown at several venues around downtown Madison from April 3-6.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival--Thursday
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thursday 3 April 2008
How can you determine which of the 220 films to see at the Wisconsin Film Festival being held in Madison?
I'll try to deconstruct the schedule for you based on common and personal knowledge of the films being shown, and at the very least recommend films worth seeing through the festival which starts today and runs through Sunday.
[original site : pdf]
Perfect 10
Film Fest celebrates a decade of great eclectic movies
The Capital Times: Thursday 3 April 2008
If a director left the Wisconsin Film Festival a dollar richer than when he arrived, he probably found the bill lying in the street.
The festival, celebrating its 10th year beginning today, has never been about filmmakers trying to secure big distribution deals or move that next rung up the career ladder. It's been about audiences, programmers and filmmakers who appreciate challenging and eclectic movies coming together in the dark for a few days.
[original site : pdf]
Foul, fans on film
Wisconsin State Journal : Wednesday 2 April 2008
The trouble with casting chickens in a movie is they're just not very good at taking directions.
Until you offer them spaghetti, that is.
"Wiggle it like it's a worm and zoom, you've got that chicken going wherever you want," said Mount Horeb independent filmmaker Robert Lughai, revealing the hard-learned secret behind some of the chicken antics in "Mad City Chickens," a new feature-length documentary that premieres today at the Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Festival's first headliner returns
Wisconsin State Journal : Wednesday 2 April 2008
The 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival opens today as a thriving event: 220 films, four days, more than 25,000 tickets expected to be sold and 11 roomy theaters. Loyal festgoers bleed popcorn butter.
Rewind to the first Wisconsin Film Festival -- then dubbed, optimistically, as the Great Wisconsin Film Festival -- where a few eager students presented 25 movies with free admission. If any film indicated the fest 's future success, it was the black-and-white independent comedy called "Man of the Century, " about a chipper reporter with 1920s mannerisms and dialogue in a modern-day setting.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival: A perfect 10
Isthmus - The Daily Page : Thursday 3 April 2008
Like the thawing of the lakes, the Wisconsin Film Festival has become an annual rite of spring around here. Having been cooped up all winter, we nevertheless consign ourselves to a few more hours of darkness in order to catch up with what's happening in the wide world of film beyond the multiplexes. And the festival, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary April 3-6, continues to fulfill its mission of making the city of Madison and the state of Wisconsin the kinds of places where independent, foreign, art and experimental — not to mention homegrown — movies can thrive.
[original site : pdf]
More than 200 films screening in Madison this weekend
Greater Milwaukee Today : Wednesday 2 April 2008
Starting in Madison Thursday, the 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival takes flight, opening up shop in some 11 venues spread out across the capital, bringing 220 films to audiences over the next four days.
Before things come to a rousing finish Sunday, thousands of film buffs will get access to an array of movies that, if not for the festival, would never have a chance to show on Wisconsin movie screens. Last week, we profiled two such movies - "The Unforeseen," which screens tonight and stands tall as one of the best documentaries I have ever seen, and "The Edge of Heaven," which screens both Friday and Sunday.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "Madison" director Brent Notbohm and actor Jim DeVita
Dane 101 : Wednesday 2 April 2008
One of the locally made films at the Wisconsin Film Festival this year is "Madison," a feature-length movie about the struggles a war correspondent faces after he returns from Iraq to Madison. It was shot last winter in Madison under the direction of Brent Notbohm, a 38-year-old Spring Green-native who teaches Communications at U.W.-Superior.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wednesday 2 April 2008
The 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival being held in Madison, which runs Thursday through Sunday, will show 220 films in eleven theaters scattered throughout the city.
This year's program includes "Song Sung Blue," about the Milwaukee based Neil Diamond / Patsy Cline impersonators Lightning & Thunder, at 10:30 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday.
[original site : pdf]
Landfill issue at heart of film project
Vernon County Broadcaster : Wednesday 2 April 2008
A 30-minute documentary film about Vernon County residents fighting against a proposed landfill will be featured at this week's 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival.
The film, entitled, "Keeping The Lights On," is by Gretta Wing Miller and Aarick Beher of Madison and documents the resistance of Harmony Township residents to the Dairyland Power Cooperative's proposed coal ash landfill project.
[original site : pdf]
Fest's offerings run the gamut
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : Tuesday 1 April 2008
The 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival, in Madison Thursday through Sunday, will show 220 films in 11 theaters scattered throughout the city. This year's program includes "Song Sung Blue," about Milwaukee-based Neil Diamond/Patsy Cline impersonators Lightning & Thunder. The film by director Greg Kohs, which received the Grand Jury and Audience Award prizes at this year's Slamdance Film Festival, is showing at 10:30 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "The Planet" ("Planeten") Co-Director Michael Stenberg
Dane 101: Tuesday 1 April 2008
The phrase "climate change" has been accused of being a polite euphemism for the impending catastrophe of global warming. After all, "change" can be good or bad. The concept of change can also imply something bigger than just rising temperatures. A Swedish documentary called "The Planet" –coming to the Wisconsin Film Festival this Thursday and Sunday -- looks beyond global warming to instead address changes happening to the Earth in a more holistic way.
[original site : pdf]
Moe: Film points out: Women can be leaders
The Wisconsin State Journal: Tuesday 1 April 2008
The problem with showing my soon-to-be-14-year-old daughter a documentary about seven young women and the possibility of a female president of the United States was that I could imagine the conversation afterward.
"So, do you want to be president some day?"
"I want to be in a movie."
The experience under my roof is that young teens, boys or girls, aren't too big on politics.
[original site : pdf]
Madison's Richard Ganoung stars in Parting Glances
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 1 April 2008
As he worked on the 1986 film Parting Glances, Madison actor Richard Ganoung had a classic on his hands. But no one knew it, least of all him. "As an actor, you can't think about it," he says. "You say your lines and do your thing."
But the film, screening Thursday in the Wisconsin Film Festival, has proven a landmark of gay cinema. A bittersweet comedy about gay New Yorkers at the height of the AIDS crisis, Parting Glances is the first film to be restored by the Outfest Legacy Project, the Los Angeles-based endeavor to preserve queer-themed films. The project combines the efforts of the gay film festival Outfest and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The project's next restoration is the 1978 documentary Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives.
[original site : pdf]
Film visits Wood's Iowa 'Gothic' town
The Capital Times: Tuesday 1 April 2008
Is there a more famous American painting than the stern farmer with the razor-sharp pitchfork, and the tight-lipped woman glancing shyly away?
"American Gothic," stolid, creaky, stuck in a time warp. Pretty near homely. How did it become such a central image in our culture and consciousness?
"No one really knows," says Sasha Waters Freyer, who has made a documentary film "This American Gothic," about the painting's contemporary legacy. The movie runs at 7 p.m. Friday at Monona Terrace as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Real life horror: UW alumnus Stuart Gordon previews Stuck
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 31 March 2008
UW-Madison alum Stuart Gordon got his start as a renegade in the local theater community, famously getting arrested for obscenity for his campus production of Peter Pan in 1968 and subsequently founded Broom Street Theater. Over the course of a 40-year career, he has also become a very successful director of horror, thriller and science fiction films, notably the cult classic Re-Animator and other Lovecraft adaptations. He brings his latest offering, Stuck, to the Wisconsin Film Festival on Saturday at the Orpheum Main Theater.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "Mad City Chickens" filmmakers Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai
Dane 101: Monday 31 March 2008
Filmmakers Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai blend comedy and documentary in their latest film, Mad City Chickens, which will be shown as a part of the Wisconsin Film Festival’s Wisconsin’s Own Series. Inspired by local chicken owners and the 2004 change in legislation giving Madisonians the right to raise poultry in their backyard, Lovington and Lughai offer a look at Madison’s coop culture.
[original site : pdf]
From Peter Pan to Stuck
Film Stew: Monday 31 March 2008
Five years ago, Dallas resident Chante Jawan Mallard was sentenced to 50 years in jail for pulling into her garage in October of 2001 with hit and run victim Gregory Biggs still stuck in her windshield and leaving him there to die over the next three days, despite his pleas for help. Though she was high at the time on a cocktail of booze, marijuana and Ecstasy, it’s still one of those news stories that makes you shake your head in disbelief. Sure enough, it soon inspired separate CSI and Law & Order episodes. The incident also spawned the aptly named Mena Suvari-Stephen Rea feature film Stuck, which writer-director Stuart Gordon has been shepherding around North America at film festivals in places like Toronto, Winston-Salem, Dallas, Philadelphia and, next, Madison, Wisconsin, where the May 30th ThinkFilm theatrical release screens April 5th as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Hundreds of high school students to participate in World Cinema Day
UW-Madison News: Monday 31 March 2008
For the past five years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has welcomed hundreds of Wisconsin high school students and teachers to World Cinema Day, a program of the Language Institute and the Wisconsin Film Festival to raise cultural awareness and deepen understanding of diverse perspectives through international film.
[original site : pdf]
No Guts No Glory
Wisconsin State Journal: Saturday 29 March 2008
Stuart Gordon likes to get a rise out of people.
And if it involves blood and guts, so much the better.
"Shocking people, I think, is something that I enjoy, " says Gordon, 60, director of the horror thriller "Stuck " being screened Saturday night at the 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival. "I like to do things that get people 's blood running and their hearts beating. "
[original site : pdf]
Screen tests: Recommended festival films by State Journal writers Tom Alesia and Gayle Worland
The Wisconsin State Journal: Saturday 29 March 2008
Among the 200-plus films showing at the Wisconsin Film Festival include these notables, which we recommend:
"Mad City Chickens " -- 9 p.m. Thursday, Monona Terrace
Filmmakers Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai use just about every goofy film-student technique in the book for this film -- including the theme song from "2001: A Space Odyssey." But the result, nonetheless, is a charming, lovable (and exhaustive) look at Madison 's urban chicken subculture. A must for local yolk-els.
[original site : pdf]
Pioneers of the north: Joan Juster previews Alaska Far Away
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Friday 28 March 2008
Alaska Far Away: The New Deal Pioneers of the Matanuska Colony documents the epic resettlement of 200 farm families from northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to Alaska's remote Matanuska Valley circa 1935, under the auspices of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Devastated by the Great Depression, the families -- many of Finnish heritage -- left behind everything that had been familiar for the uncertain prospects posed by the opportunity to start anew and establish a farming colony thousands of miles away.
[original site : pdf]
Overnight: Wisconsin Film Festival
Rochester Post-Bulletin: Friday 28 March 2008
When the weather finally turns nice, it's difficult to head indoors, but the Wisconsin Film Festival provides plenty of enticements to do exactly that.
Held April 3-6 in 10 theaters in downtown Madison, the Wisconsin Film Festival shows about 200 films over a four-day period.
[original site : pdf]
UW grad still 'Stuck' on filmmaking
The Capital Times: Friday 28 March 2008
What scares Stuart Gordon?
You get the sense that supernatural horror doesn't faze him, given that the Chicago-born director has made so many gleefully gruesome cult films, from "Re-Animator" to "From Beyond."
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Fest to show films on Iraq, Afghanistan
The Capital Times: Friday 28 March 2008
The Wisconsin Film Festival this year has programmed a series of documentaries about Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition to the Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side," there's Civia Tamarkin's "Jerabek," which looks at a Green Bay couple who lose their son in Iraq, and Nina Davenport's "Operation Filmmaker," in which a well-intentioned program to fund an Iraqi film student backfires on his Hollywood backers.
[original site : pdf]
Festival celebrates 10 years with ‘remarkable films’
UW-Madison News: Thursday 27 March 2008
Tickets for this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival go on sale soon, and festival organizers will honor the event’s 10th year by doing what they do best: showing good films.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: An Interview with Wisconsin Film Festival Director Meg Hamel
Dane 101: Thursday 27 March 2008
With just seven days before the start of the tenth annual Wisconsin Film Festival, films are arriving and volunteers are gearing up to screen 220 films over four days. I caught up with Festival Director Meg Hamel to ask a few questions about this year’s film fest.
[original site : pdf]
Tickets Still Available for Wisconsin Film Festival
Wisconsin Week: Wednesday 26 March 2008
If the idea of an international film festival makes you think of a red carpet, glamorous movie stars and photographers snapping their flash bulbs, talking to director Meg Hamel about the Wisconsin Film Festival will give you the real story behind the popular event.
[original site : pdf]
Giant gallus invasion! Tarazod Films premieres Mad City Chickens
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Wednesday 26 March 2008
For more than two-and-a-half years, filmmakers Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai of Tarazod Films have been immersed in the world of the Gallus domesticus, that is, the chicken. One of the most ubiquitous domesticated animals and sources of food in the world, the fowl is recently reasserting its presence in urban areas around the country. That’s the story of Mad City Chickens, their new documentary about the growing movement of backyard poultry.
[original site : pdf]
Captivating and haunting documentary opens film festival
Greater Milwaukee Today: Wednesday 26 March 2008
It's only a week away, and I couldn't be more excited.
In only seven short days, the Wisconsin Film Festival - celebrating its 10th anniversary - sweeps back into Madison, and surveying this year's crop of titles, there are dozens worth taking stock of - at least 30 by my count that would be well worth the 60 minutes spent in a car, driving west in search of exciting cinema.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "Spin Cycle" filmmaker Andrew Napier
Dane 101: Tuesday 25 March 2008
Andrew Napier is one driven individual. In addition to the creation of several award-winning documentaries, teaching a video production class during his senior year at Mauston High School, and running triathalons, Napier can now also boast of having his second film accepted into the Wisconsin Film Festival. Following last year’s screening of "Keeping the Spirit," a documentary about the Panther Spirit Effigy Mound in Mauston, Napier and his fellow UW student, Michael Anderson will be showing "Spin Cycle," a short narrative, as part of the Wisconsin Student Short Films program.
[original site : pdf]
Neato!
Crapbot Production's Blog: Tuesday 25 March 2008
The Wisconsin Film Fest puts together a really comprehensive guide for all the movies that are playing in the festival. The entry for Nerdcore For Life is especially neato.
[original site : pdf]
Kung fu on campus: Andy Schlachtenhaufen discusses Loose Cannons
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 25 March 2008
Andy Schlachtenhaufen is no stranger to filmmaking. "I've been making movies with my father and brother for as far back as I can remember," he says. Getting started with while still in middle school, he made an hour-long action comedy as a high school senior in Neenah and only picked up the pace after moving to Madison for college.
[original site : pdf]
Madison Uploads Macintosh
Film Stew: Monday 24 March 2008
A documentary about the House that Steve Jobs Built is set to premiere in, of all places, the land of Wisconsin Cheese.
[original site : pdf]
A place of possibility: Jim DeVita discusses starring role in Madison
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Monday 24 March 2008
Jim DeVita, who has been gracing stages for 14 years as a company actor with American Players Theatre in Spring Green, will be appearing in the Wisconsin Film Festival for the first time in April. The actor and writer plays Michael, the main character in Madison, which will make its world premiere in a sold out screening at the Chazen Museum of Art.
[original site : pdf]
Lights up on Wisconsin Film Festival
Dubuque Telegraph Herald: Sunday 23 March 2008
Once you've found a downtown parking spot for the 10th Annual Wisconsin Film Festival April 3-6, you shouldn't have to drive again to see the many offerings. Ten theaters will be within walking distance of the State Street area.
[original site : pdf]
Filmmakers get to work on Dillinger biopic 'Public Enemies' in Columbus
Green Bay Press Gazette: Saturday 22 March 2008
Filming of "Public Enemies" in Wisconsin has our attention because of the star power — leading actor Johnny Depp — but we also have a thick streak of independent movies coming through here.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "Urban Explorers" filmmaker Melody Gilbert
Dane 101: Wednesday 19 March 2008
Melody Gilbert didn’t make her documentary “Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness” to encourage people to try urban exploring. If you’d been chased by police, gotten lost in the Parisian Catacombs, tiptoed across rotting floors and scaled 10-foot fences with film gear in tow, you’d be pretty cautious, too.
[original site : pdf]
The Universe of Urban Explorers
Film Stew: Wednesday 19 March 2008
It would have made one heck of a story back in her reporter days. But Melody Gilbert is more than happy to now be reporting back to the audience as an independent filmmaker.
[original site : pdf]
Notes On A Screen: Madison Area Film, TV, and Gaming News 2008: Week 12
Dane 101: Wednesday 19 March 2008
Dane101 has been busy tracking down filmmakers for Wisconsin Film Festival selections. Thus far we have posted interviews from the following films with much more to unfold over the coming two weeks leading up to the big event...
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Interview with "Welcome to Macintosh" Directors Josh Rizzo and Rob Baca
Dane 101: Tuesday 18 March 2008
Apple aficionados recognize the phrase "Welcome to Macintosh" as the greeting initiated by their computer during the 1990s.
"There’s something there that the creators put into the Macintosh where it has personality. It’s fun, and it’s real," says Josh Rizzo. "It’s not like it’s just an inanimate computer." Rizzo and Rob Baca are long-time Macintosh users and friends. The pair co-directed the film "Welcome to Macintosh," which will make its world premier at the Wisconsin Film Festival Sunday, April 6.
[original site : pdf]
Notes On A Screen: Madison Area Film, TV, and Gaming News 2008: Week 11
Dane 101: Thursday 13 March 2008
We have plenty of Madison area screen news to report this week including a Batman villain planning to visit our city hall, an underachieving Vader preparing to get a promotion, more than a dozen Wisconsin Film Fest movies selling out, and prep work continuing for the arrival of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. All that and more in this week's Notes On A Screen...
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008 ScreenTest: Interview with "Song Sung Blue" filmmaker Greg Kohs
Dane 101: Wednesday 12 March 2008
When I asked filmmaker Greg Kohs why it took him so long – eight years – to make his documentary Song Sung Blue, he got quiet.
"Why did it take me only eight years?" he rephrased the question. Then he headed back into a long contemplative silence. "Because that’s how long it took me to capture enough compelling material for a clear beginning, middle and end," he finally said.
[original site : pdf]
Eight series bring 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival into focus
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 11 March 2008
There’s usually a soccer movie or two to be found at the Wisconsin Film Festival each year, thanks to director and primary programmer Meg Hamel. While there is no formal series in the fest that focuses on the beautiful game, at least not yet, there are eight others this year, the tenth annual edition of the springtime tradition in downtown Madison.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008 ScreenTest: Interview with "Margot and Henry Have an Adventure" filmmaker Rachel Wolther
Dane 101: Tuesday 11 March 2008
No one has truly done the Wisconsin Film Festival unless they have taken in at least one round of shorts. This year WFF08 offers eight rounds with three dedicated to a specific theme (two are short films from Israel and one is short films from Spain) with the other five being eclectic. In all, 39 shorts will be showcased during this year's festival. One of those films is Margot and Henry Have an Adventure by Rachel Wolther.
[original site : pdf]
Bubbler: And the first sellout of the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival is . . .
The Capital Times: Tuesday 11 March 2008
Tickets for the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival went on sale Saturday at noon at the Memorial Union box office at www.wifilmfest.org, and, according to the intrepid folks at Dane101.com, by 8:30 p.m. the festival had its first official sellout.
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008 ScreenTest: Interview with "Skills Like This" director Monty Miranda
Dane 101: Monday 10 March 2008
People who aspire to creative careers usually hit a tipping point in their mid- to late-twenties when they have to face the bald truth. Either they’re good enough to stick with it for the long haul, or it’s time for them to get real, put the guitar in storage and get a desk job filing insurance claims.
[original site : pdf]
Day one of 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival ticket sales runs smoothly
Dane 101: Saturday 8 March 2008
The Wisconsin Film Festival overcame its biggest obstacle of years past when the first day of ticket sales went off without a hitch. There were minor glitches with the online ticketing system last year, with more significant problems at the box office two years back. No such issues on Saturday, though. "We were prepared for a huge rush today, which we got," explains festival director Meg Hamel, "and had astonishingly few problems."
[original site : pdf]
WFF2008: Adventures waiting in line to buy tickets and the first reported sell outs of the festival
Dane 101: Saturday 8 March 2008
Last night a group of dane101 contributors spent a couple of hours mulling over the Wisconsin Film Festival list. There were a handful of films that we all agreed we would likely be seeing in a pack, but it shook out so between the eight of us (in attendance at the meeting) we should have solid venue-to-venue coverage of most films as they light up the screen.
[original site : pdf]
WFF 2008: Crowdpleasers
Dane 101: Thursday 6 March 2008
The WFF is programming two large theaters this year: the Orpheum Main Stage and the Wisconsin Union Theater. So if you're looking for the movies they think have the broadest appeal, look there.
[original site : pdf]
WFF 2008: Predictions for instant sell-outs
Dane 101: Thursday 6 March 2008
Tickets go on sale, in person and online, on Saturday, and by the end of the day a number of films will be sold out. So what are the festival's hottest tickets going to be?
[original site : pdf]
Notes On A Screen: Madison Area Film, TV, & Gaming News 2008: Week Ten
Dane 101: Thursday 6 March 2008
With the Wisconsin Film Fest schedule finally alive and well on the film fest website we no longer need to coddle those of you (or at least the one person who wrote to us) who were afraid we were spoiling the suspense by keeping a running list of leaks week-to-week. Sean has been spending most of the afternoon analyzing the film list for you right here on dane101.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival: 220 movies in four days will have something for all
The Capital Times: Thursday 6 March 2008
The phrase "something for everyone" is horrendously overused, but how else can you describe the lineup for the 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival? How else can you describe a festival that includes a documentary on old Apple Macintoshes, another documentary on Madison urbanites who raise chickens and "Planet of the Apes"?
[original site : pdf]
Film Fest Lineup Surpasses 200
The Wisconsin State Journal: Thursday 6 March 2008
More than 200 films - ranging from seven recent Chinese features to several Madison-area kids' three-minute shorts - will be shown at the Wisconsin Film Festival April 3-6.
[original site : pdf]
Films at Romanian Festival Draw Praise
The Capital Times: Wednesday 5 March 2008
Festival coordinator Elena Richard says she had been noticing that the Wisconsin Film Festival had been bringing in Romanian films over the past several years, including "Mr. Lazarescu" and "12:08 East of Bucharest," and audiences were coming out in droves to see them.
[original site : pdf]
More Madison ingredients in the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival lineup
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Wednesday 5 March 2008
There's more than a mere single handful of movies programmed for this year's Wisconsin Film Festival that have a connection of one sort or another to the Mad City. The University of Wisconsin looms large, understandably, with so many alumni moving on careers of all types in the film industry. That's not the only pipeline between Madison and cinema, though, as actors, documentary informants, documentary subjects, and other local folks integral to films in one way or another stand out in festival films.
[original site : pdf]
Finding the familiar in 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival programming
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Tuesday 4 March 2008
Movies made about and by folks in the Badger State are a central element of the Wisconsin Film Festival, featured not only through a pair of juried competitions, but also included among the broad slate of flicks that make up the bulk of the programming. Of course, that's hardly the only focus of the fest, which also lines up scores of American and international films, though not necessarily those immediately familiar to most moviegoers.
[original site : pdf]
Maine Story, in a town near you
Kreutz's Corner : Tuesday 4 March 2008
My film, MAINE STORY, is hitting the festival circuit and is being shown around the country.
Please try to support it, and short independent films like it, if you live nearby. I'm so proud of the film, of the work of the entire cast and crew, and especially to writer and director, Nina Chernik. Her talent is immeasurable.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin Film Festival finalizes screening venues for 2008
Isthmus - The Daily Page : Saturday 1 March 2008
The first movie I remember seeing at the Wisconsin Film Festival was back in 2000, when the gothic docudrama Wisconsin Death Trip premiered at the Majestic Theatre. The old moviehouse on King Street was one of the primary venues for the fest, then in its sophomore year, complete with decrepit seats and an angled screen. The Majestic was out of the festival lineup for the last few years, though, as it transformed into a dance club and then shut down for a spell. But now it’s back in time for the festival's tenth anniversary.
[original site : pdf]
Notes On A Screen: Madison Area Film, TV, and Gaming News 2008 - week nine
Dane 101 : Thursday 28 February 2008
Not a ton of news to report this week, but we did receive a Wisconsin Film Fest scoop in our mailbox this morning regarding a UW alum. As always, if you want to keep the WFF2008 line-up a complete surprise, stay away from the end of this article, if you would like to learn more, proceed to the bottom (the image to the left is a tiny hint).
[original site : pdf]
WFF Trailers -- You, the Living by Roy Andersson
Isthmus - The Daily Page : Thursday 28 February 2008
There's not one, but rather fifty tales told in You, the Living, the latest work by Swedish film and television commercial director Roy Andersson. Told in a series of separate yet flowing vignettes over the course of the film, these stories inhabit a peculiar and droll universe of dry comedy that's the hallmark of the filmmaker. Also titled Du levande, this subtitled film premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
[original site : pdf]
Madison stands out in Wisconsin Film Festival 2008 programming
Isthmus - The Daily Page : Wednesday 27 February 2008
Spring can't arrive any sooner after this interminable winter. Thankfully enough, one of the surest signs of spring is approaching sooner than expected. The tenth annual Wisconsin Film Festival set to begin in little more than five weeks, and with it arrives a wealth of movies, some of which are tied directly to Madison.
[original site : pdf]
Notes on a Screen: Madison Area Film & Gaming News 2008: Week Eight
Dane 101: Tuesday 18 February 2008
I don't have an Apple and beyond the ITunes on my computer I wouldn't consider myself a consumer of the company's products, however, I've always been a distant admirer of how the company has managed to stay relevant and revolutionize the way we look at computing. One of the films coming to the Wisconsin Film Festival is dedicated to Apple, called Macintosh: The Film.
[original site : pdf]
WFF Trailers -- To the Limit by Pepe Danquart
Dane 101: Monday 17 February 2008
The sheer rock faces of California and Patagonia are the setting of To the Limit, a documentary that tells the story of two brothers looking to break the speed record for climbing one of America's most iconic mountain formations. Written and directed by Pepe Danquart, this film also named Am Limit is in German with English subtitles. And like both the gravity defying efforts of the climbers and the scenery they inhabit, its photography is acclaimed as breathtaking.
[original site : pdf]
WFF Trailers -- Skills Like This by Monty Miranda
Isthmus - The Daily Page: Sunday 16 February 2008
Those looking for laughs at the Wisconsin Film Festival this spring would do well to sit back and watch Skills Like This, an easygoing comedy about one man’s spur-of-the-moment decision to embark upon a career as an armed robber. It is the feature-length directorial debut of Monty Miranda, an internationally recognized director of commercials, and was the Audience Award Winner for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 South by Southwest film festival.
[original site : pdf]
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