[download
a compiled 225-page PDF file of clippings
from the 2007 Festival]
Year
of Turmoil, Success
Wisconsin State Journal : Sunday 30 December
2007
Last year, The
State Journal predicted 2007 would be a
pivotal year for the following seven people. Here’s how their years went:
MEG HAMEL
In 2007, Meg Hamel completed her first full year as director of the
Wisconsin Film Festival, overseeing a four-day event in April that filled nearly
29,000 seats, up 3,000 tickets from 2006. “The 2007 festival was absolutely
fantastic,’ she says. The film fest celebrates its 10th anniversary
in 2008, but don’t expect any major changes, says Hamel. “It’s still
going to feel compact, intimate — all the good parts of the festival will still
be there.”
[original site : pdf]
IndieWIRE
INTERVIEW | ‘WRISTCUTTERS’ Director Goran Dukic
IndieWire : Tuesday 16 October 2007
Director Goran Dukic’s comedy Wristcutters revolves
around Zia (Patrick Fugit) who is distraught over breaking up with his girlfriend
and decides to end it all. Unfortunately, he discovers there is no real ending,
only a run-down afterlife that is strikingly similar to his old one, just a bit
worse. Discovering that his ex-girlfriend has also “offed” herself,
he sets out on a road trip, with his Russian rocker friend, to find her. Their
journey takes them through an absurd purgatory where they discover that being
dead doesn’t mean you have to stop living. The Sundance ’06 film
has received several festival nods including the audience award at the Wisconsin
Film Festival and the best director prize at the Seattle International Film Festival
as well as best first time director from the Philadelphia Film Festival. The
film also took best feature from the Gen Art Film Festival.
[original site]
‘CHALK’
Far from Old School
The Capital Times : Friday 24 August 2007
It’s late August, when back-to-school sales are everywhere
and teachers are gearing up for the fall semester. Is Chris Mass, a former high
school geography teacher turned actor and screenwriter, feeling the tug back
to the classroom? “I got to be honest, I’m not,” Mass says in a phone
interview. “There’s things I miss. It’s very structured, which I don’t have
as much of now. Most of it I don’t really miss. The in-service days are what
you usually start out with, and those are just brutal.”
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival 2007 lives on: ‘EL TOPO’, ‘CHALK’, and ‘SONG AND SOLITUDE’
Dane101.com : Tuesday 22 May 2007
With the Wisconsin Film Festival a good month and change
behind us it is still generating conversation along the boardwalks of the Internet.
Many of the films that made an appearance at the festival have begun opening
to larger audiences or have been released on DVD. Austin’s collaborative blog
— Austinist — recently interviewed Chalk director Mike Akel
who had some nice words about our festival.
[original site : pdf]
Blogging
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Postscript
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 6 May 2007
With three weeks passed since the final reel ended at the
2007 Wisconsin Film
Festival, online coverage of the four day event has as well, with updates,
reviews, and wrap-ups all now committed to the ether. In fact, the dates for
next
year’s fest — its tenth anniversary — have already been selected. The 2008
Wisconsin Film Festival will run from Thursday, Apr. 3 through Sunday, Apr. 6.
Blogging about this year’s festival follows below.
[original
site : pdf]
Canadian
‘GONE GREEN’ Is Smart, Sweet and Funny
Wisconsin State Journal : Thursday 26 April
2007
Call it “Garden Province.” From its offbeat
humor to its likable twentysomething hero, the Canadian Everything’s
Gone Green treads
a lot of the same ground as Zach Braff’s Garden State and a host
of indie comedies that have gone before. But Green (which was a quick
sellout at the Wisconsin Film Festival earlier this month) is a slight but winning
entry in the genre, largely devoid of the melodramatic touches that marked some
of Braff’s film.
[original site : pdf]
Like
Butta: Wisconsin Fest Tastes a Line-up of Merit
IndieWire : Friday 20 April 2007
In searching for the perfect title for the donor’s
fund for the Wisconsin Film Festival, which celebrated its 9th year running last
weekend, festival director Meg Hamel hit upon the idea of “The Real Butter
Fund.” “I
didn’t want to call it the ‘Platinum Fund’ or the ‘VIP Club’ or
anything so exclusive,”
says Hamel. “I figured Wisconsin, dairy. It has to be butter… real butter
represents the deepest, truest essence of what’s good in Wisconsin, and
what’s
good in film.” Hamel,
in her second year as director (and seventh involved in the festival), knows
her audience well; applause met each mention of The Real Butter Fund during the
trailers for all 185 films in the festival’s four-day run.
[original site : pdf]
Film Fest Touts Record Crowd, Satisfied Fans
The Capital Times : Friday 20 April 2007
The ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival drew in a record
attendance of 28,700, according to final ticket tallies released Thursday. The
four-day festival exceeded last year’s tally of 26,000, taking over 10 theaters
in downtown Madison last weekend with a mix of independent, foreign and classic
films. Festival director Meg Hamel said she doesn’t consider the raw attendance
figures to necessarily be a benchmark for the festival’s success. She said she
puts more weight on the quality of the audience’s experience at the festival. “What
I’m happy about isn’t some raw number, that it’s more than last year,” she
said. “It wouldn’t have failed if 24,000 had came to the festival. What
I’m excited about is how much people talked about the movies during the festival,
how many comments I got from people who were really enjoying it, how many people
came to the festival for the first time. How much I think a lot of these films
will linger in the audience’s minds.”
[original site : pdf]
Renting the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Dane101.com : Wednesday 18 April 2007
Dane101 spent the last week compiling this list of Wisconsin
Film Festival films. The goal of this list is to help you catch the movies you
may have wanted to see but just couldn’t make.
Wisconsin Film Fest 2007: That’s a Wrap!
Dane101.com : Wednesday 18 April 2007
Wisconsin Film Fest 2007 is a wrap now that festival director
Meg Hamel has released the award winners and final ticket totals. According to
Hamel attendance was up this year with 28,700 attendees. That’s a good sign for
next year when the festival celebrates it’s 10th anniversary and potentially
has even more screens to work with if the Sundance Theatre gets involved. Although,
Hamel did express on Sunday that she was happy that the festival went so well
and that it was “all within walking distance.”
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival Announces 2007 Audience Awards
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 18 April 2007
Film fest organizers announced the winners of its two audience
awards on
Wednesday afternoon. The offbeat love story Wristcutters won the Wisconsin
Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Film, and the Ugandan story of
hope told in War/Dance won the Wisconsin Film Festival Audience Award for
Best Documentary Film.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival Attendance Up in 2007
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 18 April 2007
Organizers of the Wisconsin Film Festival announced Wednesday
that
attendance at the ninth annual event was 28,700. The count is based upon
ticket stubs collected and passes counted at all theater entrances over the
four-day event. It is also an increase of nearly 3,000 tickets over the 2006
edition of the festival, when official attendance was around 26,000.
Both numbers continue a trend of steadily increasing attendance at the festival
since the beginning of the decade.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival Delivers Exceptional Films » 28,700 Attend 2007 Festival
Channel3000.com (CBS) : Wednesday 18 April 2007
The ever-growing Wisconsin Film Festival had another record-breaking
year.With a total attendance of 28,700, this year’s festival shattered the previous
attendance record of 26,000 tickets in 2006.The first film I saw at the 2007
Wisconsin Film Festival, a 10:45 p.m. showing of the documentary Air
Guitar Nation on the first day of the four-day event, set a high bar for quality.
Happily, the several other films I was able to catch over the weekend also mostly
met or exceeded my already-high expectations.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Sean on ‘THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE’
Dane101.com : Tuesday 17 April 2007
To what extent is The Spirit of the Beehive a
precursor to Pan’s Labyrinth? A girl in 1940s Spain gets caught up in
escapist fantasies which only intensify as she is subjected to cruelty, and,
galvanized by the death of an anti-fascist rebel, she flees from her father figure
(and ineffectual mother) in pursuit of fantasies that she is sure are real. They’re
different in that Pan’s Labyrinth is more interested in exploring fantasy
as a response to fascism, where The Spirit of the Beehive is more interested
in the experience of childhood, and it studies this marvelously.
[original site : pdf]
Schabow
Wraps the Wisconsin Film Festival and His Taxes
Dane101.com : Tuesday 17 April 2007
I woke up Sunday with good intentions, doing my taxes in
the morning and heading out for a full day of festival fun afterwards. Since
I had not seen any of the shorts yet, I knew I wanted to go to ShortTimes
Ten. Uncharacteristically of me, I slept in and woke up later than expected.
I had a choice to make. It was either do my taxes or go see the shorts. I foolishly
thought to myself, “I will still have time today. It will only take me an
hour to do my taxes.”
[original site : pdf]
Volunteers,
Director Fuel Film Fest
Badger Herald : Tuesday 17 April 2007
One hundred and eighty-three films were shown on 10 screens
in four days throughout downtown Madison this
weekend for the ninth Wisconsin Film Festival. The showings ranged from a 64-minute
collection of 13 shorts done
by Wisconsin students to full-length films, which included everything from a
documentary about air guitar
competitions to surrealist, symbolism-laden spaghetti Westerns.
University of Wisconsin alumna Meg Hamel is the director and sole film festival
employee hired by the UW Arts
Institute. The festival relies heavily on the generosity of others through university
grants for funding, sponsorships
from local businesses and hundreds of volunteers who devote their time during
the festival to take tickets and
introduce films.
[original site : pdf]
Popcorn & A Movie With Adam » Wisconsin Film Fest Review
WOLX radio : Monday 16 April 2007
Another great year is behind us and I’m already looking
forward to next
year. Here’s some of the movies that I caught over the four days.
[original site : pdf]
Threading
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Sunday Projections
Dane101.com : Monday 16 April 2007
Here is the Sunday list of reviews collected from around
the Internet. We will update this throughout the day as more Sunday film reviews
pop up, but be sure to check back tomorrow morning as we compile all of the film
reviews from around the Internet in one easy to navigate entry as well as provide
you with a list of wide release or DVD release dates for many of the films at
the festival so you can create your own Wisconsin Film Festival 2007 at home.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007: British Television Advertising Awards
Dane101.com : Monday 16 April 2007
The British Television Advertising Awards was one of the
most highly anticipated tickets in my pack of 12 this Wisconsin Film Festival
weekend. While I have issues with the concept of advertising I do enjoy a well
done commercial that can tug at my heart strings or tap on my funny bone.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Schabow on ‘LINDA LINDA LINDA’
Dane101.com : Monday 16 April 2007
As a musician and pop lover, I knew I would find Linda,
Linda, Linda (a Japanese film about 4 schoolgirls who start a rock‘n’roll
band) at the very least, interesting, but to be honest, my expectations were
optimistically higher than that. After all, the synopsis of the movie read to
me like Shakespeare: “Where for art thou rock and/or roll and where for
art thou girls dressed in thus school-uniforms performing thus afternoon spring
pop?” I’m happy to say that Linda, Linda, Linda is exactly what
I thought it would be which is actually a good thing this time.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Dean on ‘ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT’
Dane101.com : Monday 16 April 2007
Zinédine Zidane gained national exposure outside
the sports world for his headbutt to Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final.
However, soccer fans worldwide know Zidane as one of the best in the game. “Zidane:
A 21st Century Portrait” is a documentary about one game in Zidane’s
extraordinary career. 17 cameras focus exclusively Zidane from to opening whistle
until he leaves the field as his Real Madrid squad plays Villareal on April 23, 2005.
[original site : pdf]
‘SHORT.TIMES.SIX’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
A Fistful of Funny Shorts Deliver Laughs at Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
With four days of frenetic film viewing drawing rapidly
to a close Sunday
evening, I couldn’t have guessed upon entering Monona Terrace to see short.times.six that
it would be one of my favorite screenings of the weekend.
[original
site : pdf]
‘POISON
FRIENDS’ at
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The French Drama Screened Sunday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
I didn’t want to be inside a dark, humid movie theater
on Sunday afternoon
when Poison Friends (Les Amitiés Maléfiques) began and
I didn’t start feeling
better about my decision as a familiar character from my own life showed up on
the screen.
[original
site : pdf]
‘EL
TOPO’ at
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The Bizarre Epic Screened Sunday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
By Sunday afternoon of the Wisconsin Film Festival, you
can often tell who the
truly die-hard cinephiles are.
Probably the best place to find them this year was at 4070 Vilas Hall, as the
fest
closed down with an encore double-feature of two films shown earlier in the
weekend — Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo and The
Holy Mountain.
[original
site : pdf]
‘ZIDANE:
A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
» The Starkly Beautiful Film Screened Sunday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, while waiting in line
to see Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, that I encountered maybe the
worst aspect of the film fest: The know-it-all.
[original
site : pdf]
‘CUT:
TEENS AND SELF-INJURY’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
» The Intimate Documentary Screened Sunday at the Historical Society
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
“It’s important that I produced this film to be really
accessible to educators, parents and teens, that it does not exploit the behavior,” says
Madison musician, filmmaker, and arts advocate Wendy Schneider about Cut,
her documentary about teens who engage in self-injury.
[original
site : pdf]
‘DIGGERS’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Finding the Serious Humor in Clams
on Saturday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
Upraised middle fingers abound in Diggers, a 2006
release about struggling
Long Island clam harvesters. Like the phrase it represents, the salute has a
variety of meanings in the film. Most are more benign than you might think,
involving gradations of respect not always associated with one’s middle digit.
[original
site : pdf]
‘LONG
SHADOWS: VETERANS’ PATHS TO PEACE’ at
the 2007 Wisconsin Film
Festival »
This Documentary About Madison Activists Screened
Sunday at the Historical Society
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
Opening to the strains of “Ashokan Farewell” on
a solo violin and a quote from
Howard Zinn, Long Shadows travels through 65 years of war to introduce
veterans of the United States Armed Forces who have since turned to working
for peace.
[original
site : pdf]
‘BRITISH
TELEVISION ADVERTISING AWARDS’ at the 2007
Wisconsin Film Festival » Getting Pitches for Brits on Sunday at Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
Advertising is fun, and it pays the bills! If something
popped up in your browser
when you clicked on this, I hope you gave it a chance. WFF imported the British
Television Advertising Awards, a series of “witty, inventive, impeccable
little
films” from their sold-out run at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Between
this and Sportsfan, who knew Minnesota had so much to offer?
[original
site : pdf]
‘U-CARMEN
EKHAYELITSHA’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Reimagined Opera Screened Saturday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 16 April 2007
One of the pleasures of attending WFF films is the chance
to be an armchair
traveler. So far I’ve been to Paris, Russia, Poland, Niger, the Amazon jungle,
China, Bangladesh and the steppes of Mongolia.
My latest virtual trip took me to Cape Town, where I was part of the small but
enthusiastic and multicultural audience attending U-Carmen
eKhayelitsha.
[original
site : pdf]
Festivals
Keep Wisconsin Filmmaking Alive
UW–Oshkosh Advance-Titan : Monday 16 April 2007
In the March 29 issue of the Advance-Titan, the lack of
opportunities for filmmakers in Wisconsin was examined. Without government support,
many filmmakers have trouble making a living in Wisconsin. Although the problem
is being alleviated through a tax break that will be implemented in the fall
of 2008, filmmakers still need a way to get their art out to the masses. How
do they do it? Film festivals. Despite the stereotypical images conjured up by
independent film screenings, festivals like the Wisconsin Film Festivals, Wildwood
and the Central Wisconsin Film Festival, among many others, show a plethora of
narrative, experimental and animated films.
[original site : pdf]
Film
Aids Cultural Awareness
Badger Herald : Monday 16 April 2007
Hundreds of students and teachers representing eight Wisconsin
high schools flocked to the Orpheum Theatre Friday afternoon for the fourth annual
World Cinema Day. World Cinema Day is a high school outreach program designed
by the University of Wisconsin Language and Art Institutes, with support from
the Global Film Initiative and the Wisconsin Film Festival. The event aims at
promoting the understanding of world cultures through foreign cinema. This year,
the UW Language Institute selected the Indonesian film Of
Love and Eggs out of
a possible nine international films being offered by the Global Lens Series of
the Global Film Initiative.
[original site : pdf]
Film Festival Headed For A Record
Wisconsin State Journal
: Monday 16 April 2007
Good weather can be a
bad for film fests. Fortunately, the weekend warm-up didn’t lead to a dud of
a festival. A record attendance for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival was nearly
assured by advance ticket sales alone. According to film festival director Meg
Hamel, advance sales were around 28,500 and walk-up attendance through the first
three days appeared to have been strong. Thursday’s faux documentary “Chalk” and
the Saturday screening of the British horror film “Severance” led the
pack.
[original site : pdf]
From
Director’s Chair, Film Fest’s a Success
The Capital Times : Monday 16 April 2007
The equipment is still being packed and the tickets still
being counted, but Wisconsin Film Festival director Meg Hamel is confident that
festival attendance hit record levels this past weekend. Hamel, in her first
full year as permanent festival director, seemed ecstatic with how things went
at the ninth annual festival, which brought 182 foreign, classic and independent
films to 10 downtown and campus venues. Last year, a record 26,000 advance tickets
were sold. The biggest screening was the Thursday night sold-out showing of the
mockumentary Chalk, which drew about 1,200 people to the Wisconsin
Union Theater. Other films that drew big houses were the Hal Hartley comedy Fay
Grim, which brought about 950 people to the Orpheum, and Ten
Canoes, a
wry movie about Australian aborigines, which drew 900.
[original site : pdf]
The
World, 2 Hours at a Time
The Capital Times : Monday 16 April 2007
Here’s a few vignettes from a weekend spent at the movies.
For a complete recap of four full days of festival-going, visit The
Capital Times’ festival blog.
* It’s Happiness :
It’s not every post-show question-and-answer
session at the Wisconsin Film Festival that adjourns to the Essen Haus for further
discussion. But that’s where the filmmakers, and likely most of the audience,
were going after a rowdy screening of the Wisconsin polka documentary It’s
Happiness.
[original site : pdf]
New
Film, ‘KING CORN,’ Captures The Limelight in Wisconsin:
Will This Be The Next Hot Food Documentary?
sugarshockblog.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
It certainly sounds like we’ll be definitely hearing a
lot more about this new offbeat feature documentary, King
Corn, about
two Bostonians-turned-neophyte-farmers, who grow an acre of corn destined to
become high fructose corn syrup or feed for cattle being fattened up for slaughter.
[original site : pdf]
Caught Up in the Wisconsin Film Festival
Letters in Bottles : Sunday 15 April 2007
Gypsy music, a rush line for polka, and a Hurricane Katrina
party gone awry. What more could you ask for? Yesterday was a great day to jump
into the Wisconsin Film Festival for the first time. A crew of us kicked things
off in the afternoon when a regular LIB reader procured free tickets for Gypsy
Caravan at the MMOCA. I ended up next to the Isthmus reviewer who wrote the linked
review and thoroughly enjoyed the exposure to the story of the Roma people.
[original site : pdf]
Day
4: The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
KilltheSnark.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
Almost (though not quite) a work of magical realism, Madeinusa is
a film that’s bound to win over more admiration than outright love, if only because
it intentionally distances the viewers from its characters. Set in a fictional
village in the mountains of Peru, and told equally through the eyes of the mayor’s
virginal daughter, Madeinusa, and the drifter Salvador who wanders into town,
it divides its time — and its heart — between the insider and the
outsider.
[original site : pdf]
Day
3, Part 2: The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
KilltheSnark.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
[All the Days Before Tomorrow] Scholarly, introverted
Wes (Joey Kern) has a friendship with polar opposite Alison (Alexandra Holden)
which borders on the intimate, but never crosses the line. On a trip to Utah,
which is told in extended flashbacks in this film’s jigsaw-puzzle structure,
they approach that line just about as closely as they can, testing the boundary
with their tacit mutual attraction.
[original site : pdf]
Threading
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Saturday Projections
Dane101.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
Lunch and then back on the film circuit. But first, here
is a round up of reviews from around the Internet concerning Saturday’s films.
As with the Thursday and Friday projections this will be updated as more reviews
pop up and then on Monday we will have the finale listing from all four days.
For those of you following our threads and who read my complaints about embargoes
yesterday, Kristian Knutsen gives some insight on The Daily Page as to why studios
choose to set embargoes and how the film festival thinks the media should approach
such embargoes.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Russell on ‘TIM’S ISLAND’
Dane101.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
I went into Tim’s Island thinking I was going to be put
off by the group of friends who ended up stranded and surrounded by water in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When faced with a category four storm baring
down on their city and doom and gloom in the news, they chose not to take the
path of evacuation and instead chose to wait it out. I thought I would find it
hard to sympathize with individuals who could leave, but chose not to.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Russell on ‘RED ROAD’
Dane101.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
Unless one of the four films I’m slated to see today blows
me away, Red Road will end the festival as my favorite film of the weekend.
I’m almost tempted to scrap my 7:30 p.m. and catch it again today at 7:15 at
the Stage Door — but that would be wasteful and from what I hear The
Boss of It All may be the film to unseat Red Road.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Schabow on ‘FAY GRIM’
Dane101.com : Sunday 15 April 2007
In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about my love and
attraction for funny women and named a few in the process. But shame on me -
what was I thinking? How could I forget to mention Parker Posey? Well, after
seeing Fay Grim Friday night, I will never make that mistake again. I was reminded
how Posey is a true comic artist that has the ability to be completely zany,
yet completely believable as a real person stuck in the middle of a shitstorm
of devilment. This was the lead role I was waiting for her to do and she pulls
it off splendidly.
[original site : pdf]
‘PUNK’S
NOT DEAD’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Late Night Rock Blasts
the Bartell on Saturday
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
It wasn’t immediately noticeable how loud the sound was
turned up at the Bartell Theatre late Saturday night until it briefly flickered
out a couple of times. But given that the film on the screen was Punk’s Not
Dead, the volume was perfectly appropriate.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Student Short Films at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Thirteen Lucky Films
Screened Together Saturday
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
Saturday was a day of fleeting film for me, the Wisconsin
Student Short Films screening in the evening the third collection of quick hits
that I viewed over the course of about six hours. This set of films mostly featured
the creations of students of Wisconsin colleges and universities along with a
couple of state residents going to school beyond its borders.
[original
site : pdf]
‘CORK
N’ BOTTLE STRING BAND: THE KEN’S BAR STORY’ at the 2007 Wisconsin
Film Festival » Still Pickin’ After All These Years
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
For seven years starting in 1996, every Wednesday evening
the downtown tavern Ken’s Bar hosted a bluegrass hootenanny performed by a group
whose members, by their own admission, didn’t know the first thing about playing
bluegrass. At least not at first.
[original
site : pdf]
‘SEVERANCE’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. But Don’t Be
Afraid to Laugh
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe. You’ll groan and squirm in
your seat. Written and directed by Christopher Smith, Severance is one
of the funniest scary movies in memory. The pitch-perfect ensemble cast is exquisite
as a busload of defense contractors out for a team-building retreat at a remote
lodge in eastern Europe.
[original
site : pdf]
‘IT’S
HAPPINESS: A POLKA DOCUMENTARY’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The State Dance of Wisconsin is Still Bouncing Along
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
When the credits finished rolling, spectators at the Wisconsin
Film Festival’s Saturday night screening of It’s Happiness: A Polka Documentary might
have thought the polka dancing was over. But during the question-and-answer session
that followed, someone in the audience at the Wisconsin Historical Society had
the temerity to ask the young director Craig DiBiase: “Do you polka?” In
his yellow It’s Happiness T-shirt, he grinned incredulously and paused
several moments. “Of course we do,” he said. “Let see it!” someone
yelled.
[original
site : pdf]
‘JIM & JOE’S
ANIMATED SHORTS’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » This Experimental
Series Debuted Saturday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
“We are trying to show animation that people wouldn’t
necessarily associate with the word,” explains Jim Kreul, a co-founder of
the Wisconsin film fest and one of programmers of Jim & Joe’s Animated
Shorts. It is the first year for this animation series that screened on
Saturday afternoon in front of a capacity room at Cinematheque. Created by Jim
Kreul and Joe Beres (who works with the film and video program at the Walker
Art Center in Minneapolis), their self-titled series consisted of 11 animated
films running from three to seventeen minutes in length.
[original
site : pdf]
‘FAY
GRIM’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Hal Hartley’s Irresistible
Sequel to ‘HENRY FOOL’ Screened Friday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
Deeeee-lishus. I savored Fay Grim throughout its
screening on Friday night amidst a large and enthusiastic audience at the Orpheum
Theatre. Writer-director Hal Hartley’s 2006 sequel to Henry Fool is
an escalating series of exaggerated implausibilities that prove as irresistible
as Parker Posey’s turn in the title role. Like the rest of the cast, she counters
the implausibles with an over-the-top, wink-wink deadpan tone that sucks in viewers
who are able to suspend their disbelief and surrender to this wild ride of a
comic espionage thriller.
[original
site : pdf]
‘GYPSY
CARAVAN’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » This Documentary About
the Roma Musical Tradition Screened Saturday at MMoCA
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
“Now they’re still learning,” a northern Indian
man told to the camera in the opening scene of the documentary Gypsy Caravan.
It panned to show a group of smiley young boys, awkwardly holding instruments.
Without so much as counting off, the group effortlessly creates a beautiful sound.
The first chills of the film quickly followed.
[original
site : pdf]
‘SHORT.TIMES.TWELVE’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The Collection of Wisconsin Shorts Screened
Saturday at the Play Circle
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
Without a doubt, the centerpiece of the short.times.twelve
screening on early Saturday afternoon was the world premiere of Walk Into
Hell/Purgatorio, a 15-minute double feature created by Madison artist Dal
Lazlo and his collaborator Charles Johannsen.
[original
site : pdf]
‘WRISTCUTTERS:
A LOVE STORY’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » A Film about Death
Breathes Life into the Dying Originality of Hollywood
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
The sunny weather did not deter folks from catching Wristcutters:
A Love Story at the Orpheum Stage Door. It was so dark inside the crammed
space, finding a seat was nearly impossible. Carefulness was even needed in the
balcony — that lumpy thing you sat on had a 50/50 chance of being a seat
or a small person. The film was so good, however, even those who had to kneel
stayed until the credits.
[original
site : pdf]
‘EVERYTHING’S
GONE GREEN’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The Canadian Drama Screened
Saturday at MMoCA
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
Upon learning that the Douglas Coupland-penned movie Everything’s
Gone Green would be screening at this year’s film fest, I knew that I had
to see it. Alas, this was not to be. The early Saturday afternoon screening in
the lecture hall of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art unfortunately overlapped
with a couple of others on my must-see list. The film is still worth discussing,
though, as it helps illuminate a couple of the challenges of programming the
Wisconsin Film Festival.
[original
site : pdf]
An
Intermission Interview at the Wisconsin Film Festival
Programmer Shares Factoids Behind Festival Trailer and Design
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
“I’m running around to introduce films and lead question
and answer sessions,” says Tom Yoshikami when asked how his festival is
going. A programmer and assistant with the Wisconsin Film Festival, the UW grad
student is finishing his third year as programmer for Cinematheque and is embarking
upon his second summer of organizing a four week experimental film series on
the rooftop garden of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
[original
site : pdf]
Blogging
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Act Three
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 15 April 2007
Fin. Though the last reels have rolled at this year’s Wisconsin
Film Festival,
more reviews and reports about the four-day event continue to make their way
online.
[original
site : pdf]
Day
3, Part 1: The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
KilltheSnark.com : Saturday 14 April 2007
[Son of Man] Set in “Judea, Afrika,” this
exhilarating film squeezes the life of Jesus into one 90-minute film set in a
contemporary African landscape. The screenplay pretty much sticks to the source
material, to the point of often using King James poetry, but what transports
the film into a higher sphere is the clever way it tells its overly-familiar
story.
[original site : pdf]
Day
2: The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
KilltheSnark.com : Saturday 14 April 2007
Friday night’s 7pm screening of the Mel Brooks comedy classic Young
Frankenstein was the first WFF event held in the Capitol Theatre (formerly
the more dignified-sounding Oscar Meyer Theatre), as WFF director Meg Hamel noted
in her introduction. She also noted that there were plenty of children in the
audience, and was encouraged that there were parents willing to show their kids
the wide scope of what cinema has to offer. Then
began the movie with the sex jokes, the Marty Feldman mugging, and Gene Hackman
as a blind hermit setting Peter Boyle’s thumb on fire.
[original site : pdf]
Threading
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Friday Projections
Dane101.com : Saturday 14 April 2007
Phew…a brief window of no film. Over the past 24
hours I have traveled from Turkey (Fay Grim) to New Orleans (Tim’s
Island)
to the Island of Macau (Exiled) to Vancouver (Everything’s Gone
Green) and finally Finland (The Lights of Dusk). Dane101 will have
reviews of all of the films above and more once we have some free time to write.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Schabow on ‘WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY’
Dane101.com : Saturday 14 April 2007
It’s 1:30 a.m. and I should be in bed right now. After
all, my plan was to get a good night’s sleep and be well rested when I write
my movie reviews. But after seeing a movie like Wristcutters:
A Love Story, I
realized that there is no getting sleep for me tonight. It’s just one of those
movies you can’t help but immediately talk about afterwards — or in my case tonight,
write about afterwards.
[original site : pdf]
Images and Anecdotes from the Leslie and the Lys Wisconsin Film Fest party
Dane101.com : Saturday 14 April 2007
The Wisconsin Film Festival tried something new this year.
In past years they hosted an opening night VIP gala featuring some top notch
local acts. This year they changed it up hosting two parties at Cafe Montmartre
on Friday and Saturday. It is a nice change of pace and hopefully a precursor
to the potential for parties every night next year. One thing I felt the fest
lacked in the past was opportunities for film fans to mingle outside of standing
in line (for example, today’s unique mingling opportunity at Steep and Brew on
State Street from 3 to 5 p.m. when you can flex your film trivia knowledge by
playing Cineplexity).
[original site : pdf]
Leslie
Hall Brings the LY’s, and Her Gem Sweaters, to Madison »
The Iowa Artist Cruises Through Her Show at the Wisconsin Film Festival party
at Café Montmarte
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
It’s important to understand that Leslie Hall, School of
the Museum of Fine Arts
graduate and Ames, Iowa native, is brilliant. The gem sweater proponent is the
most brilliant regionalist, perhaps, since fellow Iowan Grant Wood.
Not only can she really sing, but she is also fiercely at the top of her game.
And
the name of her game is performance art of the zaftig, gold-pantsed kind.
[original
site : pdf]
‘SPORTSFAN’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
Minnesota Vikings Superfans Are Explored in This Documentary
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
“Good evening Vikings fans,” began film fest
programmer Tom Yoshikami as
he introduced Sportsfan, quickly receiving scattered cheers and a few more
hoots from the late night audience sitting before him. This documentary about
those blonde-braided, horn-helmeted and purple-painted fanatics from the land
of ice and snow was one of the final movies to be screened Friday.
[original
site : pdf]
‘BALL
SAVED: PRESERVING AN AMERICAN PASTTIME at the 2007
Wisconsin Film
Festival »
This Short Documentary about Pinball Screened Friday at
Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
The pinball machines in The Plaza Tavern on Henry Street
don’t take care of
themselves, nor have they always been there.
The vitality of this form of interactive mechanical entertainment ebbs and flows
like all diversions of generations past, sustained by a small, committed group
of enthusiasts. This community is the focus
of Ball Saved, a short documentary by Chicago-based student filmmaker Ben Olson,
one that introduces viewers to
pinball preservation.
[original
site : pdf]
‘TIM’S
ISLAND’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The Documentary about Hurricane Katrina Screened Friday at the Play Circle
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
Tim’s Island could be described as one the most important
movies that was
never supposed to be made.
A documentary about surviving Hurricane Katrina, it follows the lives of 16
people, 7 dogs and 8 cats as they take shelter at Tim’s house. A mutual friend
to each and every one of them, and are trapped there because of the storm for
seven days.
[original
site : pdf]
‘WHEN
PIGS FLY’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Documentary about an Animal Lover Screened Friday at Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
Kicking off with a barbershop-style Christmas carol performed by a group of matrons in central Florida, When Pigs Fly gets right down to business. Life in a swine sanctuary, as created by an animal-loving woman in a wheelchair, is the story told by producers/directors Eric Breitenbach and Phyllis Redman.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
RAPE OF EUROPA’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Documentary Screened Friday at the Bartell Theatre
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
War is hell, and as ably documented in The
Rape of Europa,
it can be
particularly hard on art.
Playing to a packed, at times sniffling crowd (myself among the weepiest) at
the
Bartell, the movie documents the plunder and destruction of art — Klimts,
DaVincis, Vermeers, Rembrandts — during the Third Reich.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
HIP HOP PROJECT’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Inspirational Documentary Screened Friday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
The crowd at the screening of the award-winning documentary
The Hip Hop
Project at the Cinematheque Friday night was not unusual for the weekend, a
packed house and a line out the door. The mostly older and white audience
was certainly unusual, though, for anything in Madison related to hip hop.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
COST OF LIVING’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Short Work of Choreography Screened Friday at Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
Described by the festival as a series of vignettes set
in the wilting glamour of an
old resort town on the English Channel, The Cost of Living is also a
meditation on motion.
This 2004 film from the U.K. is one of eight films programmed in the
Film·ABLE series at the festival, one that seeks to highlight
creations that
escape from conventions (victim, hero, and redemptive catalyst) found in movies
made about persons with disabilities.
The Cost of Living amply escapes these clichés, not to mention
other basic elements of your typical flick.
[original
site : pdf]
‘KING
CORN’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The Secret History of a Ubiquitous Grain
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
A long, warm ovation greeted the filmmaker Aaron Woolf
Friday night after the
Bartell Theatre screening of his documentary King Corn. He looked relieved
amid the applause. It was, he said, the first heartland screening of his film
about the heartland, and he was nervous about the reaction.
He needn’t have been. King Corn is penetrating and graceful, an uproariously
funny and unexpectedly moving look at America’s food supply, and especially at
the massive corn-farming operations
that have come to dominate the placid landscapes of the American Midwest.
[original
site : pdf]
‘IT’S
IN THE BLOOD: LEO ABSHIRE AND THE CAJUN TRADITION’ at the 2007 Wisconsin
Film Festival »
This Documentary about Cajun Music Screened Friday at Monona Terrace
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
It was unfortunate that I arrived late for the double documentary
screening of
Everybody Promenade and It’s in the Blood. Though missing the entirety of the
first offering (an introduction to square dancing tractors), I was able to catch
more of the latter, directed by Eric Scholl and Cyndi Moran.
[original
site : pdf]
Blogging
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Act Two
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 14 April 2007
The ninth annual edition of the Wisconsin Film Festival
is already three-quarters complete, but the online reviews, discussions, and
storytelling about Madison’s celebration of cinema is only beginning. Blogging
about the second day of the festival follows below.
[original
site : pdf]
Would You Believe Corn As Villain? » Documentary Leads Film Fest
The Capital Times : Saturday 14 April 2007
It’s a cheery shade of bright yellow, goes great with melted
butter, and if you pop the kernels it makes the perfect movie-going snack. Can
corn really be such a villain? The documentary King Corn, which was
screened Friday as part of the second day of the Wisconsin Film Festival, makes
an offbeat but powerful case that the glut of high-production, low-quality corn
is wreaking havoc on America’s diet and its environment. It made for a somewhat
fitting film to show so close to Earth Day, except that while most people consider
Earth Day a time to think about what humans are doing to the planet, King
Corn looks at what we’re harvesting from it. If that sounds like a dry
and didactic subject, filmmakers Aaron Woolf, Curtis Ellis and Ian Cheney, who
at tended the screening at the Bartell Theater and conducted a post-show question-and-answer
session, actually made a wryly funny and fascinating documentary.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival: ‘KILLER OF SHEEP’
Fearful Symmetries : Friday 13 April 2007
Immediately after work yesterday I headed downtown to begin
the Wisconsin Film Festival. Things got off to a nostalgic start as I found myself
in room 4070 of Vilas Hall where I’d spent many an hour in Comm Arts classes
as a student at the UW. It got even more nostalgic when Jim Kreul, a former TA
and co-founder of the festival, got up on stage to greet us and introduce the
film we were to see. Kreul’s sartorial sense has shifted since the mid-90s and
he was clad in dress shirt, jacket, and slacks — a far cry from his jeans/grey
hoodie days. Jim, leave the professorial get-up in North Carolina and bring back
the hoodie!
[original site : pdf]
Day 1: The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
KilltheSnark.com : Friday 13 April 2007
I’m seeing more movies at
the Wisconsin Film Festival
this year than in any
previous year, but it was
only today that I realized I’m
seeing a curious amount of
films from the 1970’s. Most
people go to film festivals to
see new films, but I always
end up gravitating toward
the revivals. Some of my
fondest WFF memories over
the last couple of years
involve revivals — A Hard
Day’s Night with a Roger Ebert-hosted discussion afterward, Au
Hasard Balthazar,
and even
Giant Spider Invasion!
[original site : pdf]
Threading
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Thursday Projections
Dane101.com : Friday 13 April 2007
With Thursday under our belt and festival-goers packing
up to hit the Friday slate of film fare, Dane101 has put together this directory
of reviews from around the web. We will update this if more Thursday reviews
come up and then of course put a Wisconsin Film Fest “Finale” entry
up on Monday afternoon. We are also compiling a list of release dates for movies
that are showing so in case you miss a movie during film fest you can catch it
on wide release or DVD. We will also pop that up on Monday.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Fest In-Focus: Part One
Dane101.com : Friday 13 April 2007
In addition to a number of writers out capturing the spirit
and films of the Wisconsin Film Festival, Dane101 also has photographers and
a videographer out capturing the visual aspects.
[original site : pdf]
Wis.
Film Fest 07: Dean on ‘CHALK’
Dane101.com : Friday 13 April 2007
What do you get when two high school teachers get together
and make a movie about the “front lines” of teaching? The answer
is Chalk, the mocumentary that kicked off the Wisconsin Film Festival
Thursday. Stating that 50 percent of teachers quit within their first three years,
the film follows three teachers and an assistant principal through a year at
Harrison High.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Schabow on ‘HEART OF AN EMPIRE’
Dane101.com : Friday 13 April 2007
The second movie I saw last night at the Wisconsin Film
Festival was Heart of an Empire, a documentary about The Fighting
501st, a group of fanatic Star Wars lovers (the movie, not the missile defense
system) which nerdishly dresses up in Storm Trooper outfits to spread good deeds
around the world.
[original site : pdf]
WisFilmFest2007:
Schabow on ‘CHALK’
Dane101.com : Friday 13 April 2007
My Dad used to tell me as a kid not to “bite off more
than you can chew.” Of course, I took that advice as an excuse to ignore
my studies when growing up. Now that I am older and slightly wiser, I find myself
striving against that concept my father warned me of. I love being busy and I
love when my hands are in too many different cookie jars. I was reminded of that
simple thought about myself last night when juggling watching movies from the
film festival, playing a show with my band The Shabelles at the Dane101 birthday
party (cheap plug) and rushing home to get this article completed on time for
the editor before heading to my day job.
[original site : pdf]
‘AIR
GUITAR NATION’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » This Real Documentary
about Mock Rock Screened on Thursday Night at the Stage Door
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
The crowd that filled nearly every seat in the Orpheum
Stage Door for its final
screening on the first night of the festival was young and boisterous, eager
to
see one of the most-fun-looking films of the weekend. This was Air
Guitar Nation, a hilarious documentary following the journeys of two Americans
bringing their imaginary axes to the world stage.
[original
site : pdf]
‘RADIO
ON’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The 1979 British Road Movie Screened Thursday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
Perhaps it was the late hour or perhaps the line for Radio
On was actually that
confusing.
The queue sparked endless debates about beginnings, middles, and ends, but
listening to the confusion was rather joyous — for the first time in Madison
outside of an ethnic restaurant, I heard multiple international accents. Equally
interesting was how many people exited
the previous film and jumped into the mix to see Radio On.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
DISTRICT!’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
This Animated Tale from Hungary Screened Thursday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
The Orpheum was awash in film fest activity well into Thursday
night, as a line
stretched around the block for the late-night Hungarian animated feature The
District! Luckily, the movie was more amusing than the one-liners sent off by
people waiting in the cold, but that wasn’t hard to do.
[original
site : pdf]
‘HEART
OF AN EMPIRE’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
Darth Vader and His Minions Keep Order at the Wisconsin Union Theater
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
It was like any Wisconsin Film Festival screening. Except
that in the lobby of
the Wisconsin Union Theater, guys in white plastic body armor were milling
about. At least I assume they were guys.
Their costumes, impressive reproductions of the Star Wars films’ stormtrooper
uniforms, entirely covered their bodies and faces. So it was sort of hard to tell.
[original
site : pdf]
‘FAMILY
LAW’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The Argentine Drama Screened Thursday at the Stage Door
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
Family Law is the kind of movie that regular patrons of
the Wisconsin Film Festival have come to rely on year after year. A foreign-language
film with subtitles, it simultaneously allows the cultural elites to feel slightly
smug in viewing it, while those who are predisposed to dread these kinds of events
will think, “that wasn’t too bad.”
[original
site : pdf]
‘MANUFACTURED
LANDSCAPES’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » Edward Burtynsky’s Terrible
Beauty Screened Thursday at the Orpheum
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
At the Orpheum Theater last night, a big audience sat
rapt throughout the perverse, unconscionable and terrible beauty of Manufactured
Landscapes. Opening with one of the longest tracking shots this side of Russian
Ark or Touch of Evil, Jennifer Baichwal’s award-winning 2006 documentary shows
us the damage our species does to the natural landscape and forces viewers to
confront our own culpability in this despoilment.
[original
site : pdf]
‘CHALK’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
The Opening Night Movie Screened Thursday at the Wisconsin Union Theater
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
“Alright, who is a teacher?” director Mike Akel
asked before the screening of Chalk, an eagerly anticipated opening film on Thursday
night. “Raise ’em high…” Hundreds of moviegoers in the packed
Wisconsin Union Theater quickly raised their hands. The teacher-filled crowd
did not prove hard to win over; from the very first shot, the crowd erupted in
laughter that hinted at relief as if, finally, someone understood. Apparently
the foibles of paper cutters and tensions in the teachers’ lounge translate well
on screen.
[original
site : pdf]
‘TOOTS’
at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
A Documentary bout a Midtown Legend Screened Thursday at the Stage Door
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
This year’s Wisconsin Film Festival, held weeks later than
it has been in the past, still feels pretty much the same. Maybe that has to
do with the slushy streets and freezing temperatures endured by patrons as they
hurry up and down State St. to get in line for their next screening. Inside the
Orpheum’s Stage Door, just prior to the 6:15 p.m. showing of Toots, festival
director Meg Hamel greets those already in their seats by asking for a show of
hands from those who will see eight or more films over the weekend. “The
rest of you,” she admonishes, “we need to talk.”
[original
site : pdf]
State
Rep. Gordon Hintz rawks in ‘AIR GUITAR NATION’ »
Oshkosh assemblyman earns cheers as ‘Krye Tuff’
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
Air Guitar Nation, which screened late on the
opening night of the Wisconsin
Film Festival, was without a doubt tremendously entertaining. It will be tough
to
beat this weekend in terms of laughs.
The most interesting element in this documentary about the tongue-in-cheek
performance art is one of its Wisconsin connections, though. Namely, the air
guitar competitor who finished second at the L.A. competition to eventual 2003
world champion “C-Diddy” had his own cheering section at the Orpheum
Stage
Door.
[original
site : pdf]
A
Busy Orpheum on Opening Night at the Fest » View Photos from the Central
Cinema Hub
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
As evening deepens into night on Thursday, the Orpheum
Theater is hopping with the comings and goings for the opening night of the Wisconsin
Film Festival. The pair of theaters in the faded movie palace serves as the central
hub for the fest every year, with lines forming at multiple points: outside the
main entrance on State Street, outside the Stage Door entrance on Johnson Street,
at the main box office, at the bar, and at the entrance to the main theater.
[original
site : pdf]
Blogging
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Act One
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
Now that the first night of this year’s Wisconsin
Film Festival has come and
gone, more than a few persons attending the annual celebration of cinema in
Madison are sharing their experiences online.
[original
site : pdf]
Blogging
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Prologue
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
The Wisconsin Film Festival is one of those events in Madison
that attracts
online attention like little else in town. Every year during the two weeks that
bookend the event, there is a flurry of previews, reviews, reports and photos
from many of the movies that screen at the fest. The 2007 edition is no
different.
[original
site : pdf]
Hangin’
at the Live WORT Broadcast in Four Star Video »
Mel & Floyd Host a Special Film Fest Show Friday afternoon
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 13 April 2007
Four Star Video Heaven played host to a special live radio
broadcast of two WORT programs early Friday afternoon, in which filmmakers featured
in the Wisconsin Film Festival stopped by to chat about their works. The center
portion of the video institution located just of State Street was cleared of
its used-DVD and t-shirt racks to make way for the impromptu studio.
[original
site : pdf]
A
Feast Of Film » Ninth Annual Festival’s Off To A Roaring Start
The Capital Times : Friday 13 April 2007
Wouldn’t it be great if fans dressed up for the indie
and foreign films at the Wisconsin Film Festival the way the way “Star
Wars” fans dressed up? Guys with shaved heads and long robes would wait
in line for the austere monk documentary “Into Great Silence,” or
wear dirty hip waders for the clam diggers comedy-drama “Diggers,” or
soccer uniforms for “Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.” It won’t
happen, most likely, and the only people to come out in costume at this year’s
festival were, of course, “Star Wars” fans. There was a Darth Vader
and about a half-dozen Stormtroopers in the audience Thursday night at the Wisconsin
Union Theater for “Heart of an Empire,” a moving documentary about
some big-hearted fans. But just because the audience wears street clothes doesn’t
mean their ardor for the festival, which puts 182 films in 10 downtown venues
through Sunday, is any less fierce. Now in its ninth year, the festival has quickly
grown into a destination event for film fans looking for foreign films, independent
dramas, shorts and restored classics that rarely if ever see the inside of a
cineplex.
[original site : pdf]
Best
Bets: Film Fest
The Capital Times : Friday 13 April 2007
Some movie lovers may just now be thinking about maybe
seeing a movie or two this weekend at the ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival,
which is taking over 10 downtown venues this weekend. But they may be discouraged
that they’ve missed the boat because they didn’t snap up any advance tickets.
Don’t fret. Tickets are plentiful at the door at the largest venues, including
the Orpheum Theatre and Capitol Theater. And the smaller venues will have tickets
available for walk-up business, even for the hottest films that sold out their
advance tickets, as audience members who bought those tickets a month ago opt
at the last minute to go see something else. Really, it’s just as easy to go
see something great at the festival this weekend as it is to go see Wild
Hogs at the multiplex.
[original site : pdf]
Threading the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest: Part One
Dane101.com : Thursday 12 April 2007
With the Sun breaking through the clouds here in Madison
I’m reminded of Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King. The Wisconsin Film Festival
is opening in Madison tonight, like Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges lying out
naked in Central Park “cloud busting.” After days of cold and cloud,
spring weather has arrived to share this annual event with us. Let’s see what
the internet is saying before we head out…
[original site : pdf]
Ready
Steady for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Fest » View Photos of the Final Preparations
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 12 April 2007
State Street is soggy and fairly quiet Thursday afternoon,
except for the patter of snowmelt dripping from awnings along with some would-be
students in town to tour the UW. Though the final preparations for this year’s
Wisconsin Film Festival are not evident, they are certainly under way.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The
Restored Spanish Masterpiece Screened Thursday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 12 April 2007
It was clear from the outset that The
Spirit of the Beehive was one of the most eagerly anticipated films programmed
for this year’s Wisconsin film fest. For one, the initial round of tickets for
the screening of this Spanish film from the ’70s sold out almost immediately
last month. More visibly this evening, the number of people looking to attend
the screening via will-call tix was tremendous, festival volunteers working assiduously
to make sure every last seat in Cinematheque at the UW’s Vilas Hall was filled
with an eager cinephile.
[original
site : pdf]
‘KILLER
OF SHEEP’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival » The Formerly ‘Lost’ American
Classic Screened Thursday at Cinematheque
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 12 April 2007
I found it easy to understand why Charles Burnett’s Killer
of Sheep was among the first 100 films named to the United States National
Film Registry after seeing it at Cinematheque this evening. The preservation
organization operated by the Library of Congress selected this 1977 film directed
by Charles Burnett alongside classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and The
Godfather as an essential milestone in American cinema. It’s rarely been
seen, though, due to difficulties in securing the rights for its music.
[original
site : pdf]
Smells
Like Mystery: A Q&A with Aaron Ohlmann » Producer/Cinematographer Previews
his Wisconsin Film Festival Appearance
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 12 April 2007
Appleton native and University of Wisconsin alumnus Aaron
Ohlmann returns to
Madison as the editor, cinematographer and co-producer of Here
is Always Somewhere Else, which he will screen for the Wisconsin Film Festival
at 9:15 p.m. Friday, April 13, in the Cinematheque venue at UW’s Vilas Hall.
The 2005 documentary focuses on the career and life of Dutch conceptual artist
Bas Jan Ader, who disappeared in 1975 somewhere off of Cape Cod while
attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a 13-foot sailboat.
[original
site : pdf]
Movies,
Movies, Everywhere » Kent Williams Cuts a Path Through the Jam-Packed
Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 12 April 2007
I’ve never thought of myself as a true-blue cinephile.
I have trouble watching
more than two movies a day. (The third one erases the first one.) And I’m not
one of those guys who, if it came down to it, would hold strips of film up to
a
bare light bulb, blinking 24 times a second to create the illusion of motion.
But
the Wisconsin Film Festival, which returns April 12–15 with a whole new slate
of
art movies, indie flicks, documentaries and foreign films, has a way of turning
all of us into cinephiles, intrepid explorers of the cinematic medium.
[original
site : pdf]
Film
Festival Opens In Downtown Madison » Festival Runs April 12–15
Channel3000.com (CBS) : Thursday 12 April 2007
The ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival begins on Thursday,
and film fans have more selections than ever in this year’s event. This year’s
festival runs April 12–15 and features more than 150 films screened at 10 theaters
in downtown Madison and on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. A program
of the UW Arts Institute, the festival has grown in prominence each year. In
1999, some 30 films were screened with an estimated attendance of 3,000. Last
year, the festival featured 177 films and saw the highest attendance yet at 26,000
tickets taken.
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival
NBC15 : Thursday 12 April 2007
We’re all familiar with blockbuster movies like The
Departed or Spiderman. But a huge budget and megawatt star power
don’t guarantee a meaningful, insightful or entertaining film. In fact, there
are plenty of movies being made on smaller budgets that are just as worthy of
your attention and appreciation. Thursday is the kickoff of the Wisconsin Film
Festival. Meg Hamel is the Festival Director and is here today to give us some
more information on this week’s events.
[original site]
Now
Playing: Wisconsin Film Festival
Badger Herald : Thursday 12 April 2007
Gaining visibility in a largely rural state can be rough
on little-known independent films. While Wisconsin residents are able to visit
the cineplex to see big-production blockbusters, independent pictures are generally
reserved for the New York City or Los Angeles scenes, among other more popular
locales. Although it is possible to catch the occasional low-budget flick at
smaller venues across the state, the independent film truly gets its heyday each
spring with the much-celebrated Wisconsin Film Festival, this year playing from
April 12–15 in no fewer than 10 downtown Madison theaters.
[original site : pdf]
The Consumer’s Guide to the Wisconsin Film Festival
The Onion : Thursday 12 April 2007
Where the hell do you start? The Wisconsin Film Festival
is an excellent roundup for those who can’t go skipping about the globe to Cannes
and Sundance. It also showcases the finer work of Wisconsin filmmakers. All that
variety tends to get overwhelming for non-festival junkies, so as a jumping-off
point, The A.V. Club offers these brief suggestions for taking in as
much of the festival’s range as possible.
[pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival Entry or Archie Comic Plotline?
Shepherd Express : Thursday 12 April 2007
This week marks Madison’s Wisconsin Film Festival, where
indie films get beer battered and deep fried. But what separates high-minded
cinema from America’s most wholesome comic book? Can you separate the storylines
from this year’s cream of the crop from those from Archie Comics?
[original site : pdf]
Wisconsin
and the World » Madison Film Fest Takes Us Everywhere
Shepherd Express : Thursday 12 April 2007
We live in an amazing age when we can travel to virtually
any destination on the planet within hours and immerse ourselves in a foreign
culture. Unfortunately, few of us can afford to do so. But don’t fret:
From April 12 to April 15, you can explore the world simply by driving to Madison.
With some 100 films by local, national and international filmmakers, the ninth-annual
Wisconsin Film Festival can take you anywhere you want to go. This year’s
festival provides an ample menu of movies to satisfy almost any film fan. You
will discover independent films by visionary filmmakers telling stories in original
and profoundly personal ways. More often than not, you will leave the theater
deeply affected by the movies—unlike the Hollywood hits that barely resonate
in the mind beyond the closing credits.
[original site : pdf]
‘SOMEWHERE
ELSE’ Documents Artist’s Life
The Capital Times : Thursday 12 April 2007
A person who gives up his life for a cause is often called
heroic, especially in nationalistic, military terms. Witness the tragic power
of Clint Eastwood’s acclaimed film Letters From Iwo Jima. The official
morality isn’t deeply troubled if the cause appears to justify human sacrifice.
But if an artist does something comparable - driven by profound alienation or
a need to understand and communicate - the instinct is to question his sanity.
An extraordinary documentary film, Here Is Always Somewhere
Else, attempts
to document and interpret such an act, which culminated a lifelong quest for
meaning by the Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader.
[original site : pdf]
Your Film Sold Out? Branch Out
Wisconsin State Journal : Thursday 12 April 2007
Remember that movie ticket you meant to buy in advance
for the Wisconsin Film Festival? Somebody might have beaten you to it. Dozens
of the 182 films scheduled for the four-day festival, which begins tonight, are
already sold out. But take heart, procrastinators. Plenty of seats at the film-feast
table remain — not only for you, but also for your stodgy friend whose idea
of a creative film adventure is waiting in line to see the latest Spider-Man blockbuster. “Despite
the attention that gets put on the sold-out shows, during the real, live Wisconsin
Film Festival, there are actually very few instances of people who can’t get
in to see a film,” said festival director Meg Hamel.
[original site : pdf]
audio:
Wisconsin Film Festival
Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders : Wednesday
11 April 2007
Filmmaker Rajnesh Domalpalli (Vanaja) and Wisconsin
Film Festival director Meg Hamel are Jean Feraca’s guests on this edition of
Wisconsin Public Radio’s Here On Earth.
[original
site : listen
with RealPlayer]
Film
Fest In Focus » 4 Days, 10 Theaters, 182 Movies — Organizers Are Ready
For Action
The Capital Times : Wednesday 11 April 2007
All over downtown Madison, projector bulbs are being replaced,
sound systems are being tweaked and new high-end equipment is being installed
as volunteers get ready for this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival to kick off Thursday.
Festival director Meg Hamel is even doing her own sort of technological tune-up;
she got a new pair of contact lenses. “Throughout festival-land, we’ve been
giving everything a tune-up so that it’s in the best shape possible, better than
it has been even for doing what they normally do in these theaters,” Hamel
says. “The best I can do is to make sure that I’ve got a current prescription
and my eye doctor says I’m good to go.”
[original site : pdf]
Film Proves Punk’s Alive And Well
The Capital Times : Wednesday 11 April 2007
They were writing punk rock’s obituary almost from the
day it was born. Even today, some will maintain that the genre expired along
with Sex Pistols singer Sid Vicious in 1979. That mind-set overlooks the do-it-yourself
ethic that sustained punk rock in the 1980s, the explosive crossover success
of bands like Green Day and the Offspring in the 1990s, and the thousands of
kids who pack stadiums every summer for the Vans Warped Tour today. “It’s
been called dead since the ’70s,” filmmaker Susan Dynner says. “And
clearly it’s not. There’s still kids getting into it, there are still kids that
have a lot to say. These bands have been touring for 30 years, and there are
still audiences who want to go see them.”
[original site : pdf]
Less
than 48 Hours to Go Until the Film Fest
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 10 April 2007
The ten to twelve inches of snow forecast to start falling
early Wednesday
morning may bode well for the Wisconsin Film Festival. “I think it’s great,”
says
organizer Meg Hamel about the possible winter storm.
[original
site : pdf]
Teachable
Moments » Festival Opener ‘CHALK’ Takes a Mockumentary Look at The Struggles
of First-year Teachers
Wisconsin State Journal : Sunday 8 April 2007
The ninth-annual Wisconsin Film Festival officially begins
Thursday evening with a screening of Chalk — an apt choice for the
occasion. A faux-doc comedy, Chalk is well-crafted in the post-millennium
mockumentary style: tight, wobbly zooms and intimate straight-into-the-camera
confessions. It’s also quirky, wonderfully acted, often funny, and sprinkled
with the best type of social commentary: the kind that hurts just enough to make
us squirm, without subjecting us to fingernails on the blackboard. It contains,
in other words, many of the qualities that one hopes to discover over a weekend
of film festing.
[original site : pdf]
‘Keep
Making Movies,’ Urges Film Fest Juror
Matt Sloan on Jurying Student Shorts, Cinema in Madison, and Plo Koon
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 6 April 2007
Madison filmmaker Matt Sloan is perhaps best known as a
partner in the viral Chad Vader series, a principal in Blame Society Productions
and one of the co-founders of Wis-Kino, but the Milwaukee native has a background
encompassing improv and live sketch comedy, theater and Cherry Pop Burlesque.
As a juror for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival, he helped select the Wisconsin
student shorts that will be seen at the festival. In a Q&A conducted via
email, Sloan shares his perspectives on the jurying process, his advice for other
filmmakers, and what he might do if he had to give up filmmaking.
[original
site : pdf]
A
Movie ‘MADE WITH LOVE’
Capital Times : Friday 6 April 2007
This is a story about a student named Madison, who got
help from a film editor in Madison, to make his documentary about what happened
after a hurricane in Louisiana. It has a happy ending, with Madison, the student,
having his documentary accepted into a film festival this month in Madison, the
city. The film has also been accepted into the International Swansea Film Festival
in Wales, which runs May 29 through June 10 and which may be hard for
the young filmmaker to attend. “We have finals that week,” Madison
Tift was saying Thursday.
[original site : pdf]
Seven
Days to the Film Fest
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 5 April 2007
As preparations for the Wisconsin Film Festival approach
the finish line, one of the final tasks will be a private screening of Heart
of an Empire. This documentary about Star Wars enthusiasts who do charity appearances
in full Imperial costume is the second official opening film of the weekend.
It is the U.S. premiere of the film, in fact; it screens at the Wisconsin Union
Theater late Thursday, April 12. In addition to director Jay Thompson, the screening
will also be attended by members of the 501st Legion, the group featured in the
film.
[original
site : pdf]
Jurying
the Wisconsin Film Festival »
Tona Williams on the Process of Selecting the Wisconsin Student Shorts
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 4 April 2007
A member of Blame Society Productions, Tona Williams is
a cinematographer
and art director for the Chad Vader series, a documentary filmmaker
(the Earth
Walls and God Project through Bigbite Productions), a Web site
and graphic
designer, illustrator and sculptor who holds a Ph.D. in sociology.
Her film work has been seen at previous Wisconsin Film Festivals. As a juror
for this year’s event, she helped select the Wisconsin Student Shorts that will
be screening next weekend.
[original
site : pdf]
‘ABSOLUTE
WILSON’
by Katharina Otto-Bernstein
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 3 April 2007
The New York Times has called Robert Wilson “a towering
figure in the world of experimental theater and an explorer in the uses of time
and space onstage. Transcending theatrical convention, he draws in other performance
and graphic arts, which coalesce into an integrated tapestry of images and sounds.”
[original
site : pdf]
‘RETRIBUTION’
by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 2 April 2007
Sakebi, which translates from Japanese into English as “the
scream,” is the original title for Retribution. It describes the most distinctive
sound in the film, a piercing wail that haunts this serial killer meets ghost
story set on the Toyko waterfront. In wide release in Japan for barely more than
a month, the movie is the latest work by J-horror maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
[original
site : pdf]
‘Brain-damaged
surrealism’ at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival »
Dal Lazlo Previews his Award-Winning Collaboration with Charles Johannsen
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 2 April 2007
Dal Lazlo and Charles Johannsen’s Walk
into Hell and Purgatorio have, in combination, been awarded Best Wisconsin Experimental Short Film for
the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival. Produced 30 years and 10 miles apart, the twinned
surreal shorts will enjoy their world premiere as part of the short.times.twelve
program at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, April 14; and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15, both
in the UW Memorial Union’s Fredric March Play Circle.
[original
site : pdf]
Counting
Down the Days until the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 30 March 2007
There are only thirteen days until Madison’s biggest cinematic
celebration of the year begins in the late afternoon on Thursday, April 12. With
the screening of the thirty-year-old lost-and-found classic Killer
of Sheep at
the Cinematheque late that afternoon, the Wisconsin Film Festival will run 76-and-a-half
hours until its conclusion that following Sunday night.
[original
site : pdf]
‘PUNK’S
NOT DEAD’ by Susan Dynner
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 26 March 2007
The death of punk — or any musical genre simultaneously
beloved or hated, in quiescence or full flower — is among the most overdiagnosed
of ailments, particularly of the terminal variety. In Punk’s
Not Dead, University
of Wisconsin graduate Susan Dynner distills the lifeblood of the music and the
people who both create and consume it into an elixir that’s as aggressively drawn
from the DIY spirit as its inspiration.
[original
site : pdf]
‘INTO
GREAT SILENCE’ by Philip Gröning
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 22 March 2007
The most calming, no make that
contemplative experience to be found at next month’s Wisconsin Film Festival
will likely be during the Saturday morning screening of Die
Große Stille in the main room of the Orpheum Theatre. Also titled Into
Great Silence,
Gröning immerses
viewers for two hours and forty-two minutes amidst the rhythms of the monastery
of Grand Chartreuse.
[original
site : pdf]
‘MAN
PUSH CART’ by Ramin Bahrani
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 21 March 2007
Man Push Cart, the story of the Sisyphean struggles faced
by a Pakistani immigrant living in New York, is arriving a year late to the Wisconsin
Film Festival. Originally planned to hit the screens in Madison last year, it
was delayed for scheduling purposes.
[original
site : pdf]
Planning
for the Film Fest Enters Final Stage
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 21 March 2007
“We had a marvelous opening weekend at the box office,” says
Wisconsin Film
Festival director Meg Hamel. In the first three hours of ticket sales, starting
at
noon last Saturday, some 11,000 tickets were sold online and at the Memorial
Union box office to eager film-goers.
As of mid-Wednesday afternoon, 17,555 tickets had been sold.
[original
site : pdf]
‘FAMILY
LAW’ by
Daniel Burman
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 20 March 2007
The second film in three years directed by Daniel Burman
to be screened at the Wisconsin Film Festival, Derecho de
Familia follows the
life of a young and laid-back Buenos Aires attorney who gets married and starts
a family in the shadow of his father’s similar path through life.
[original
site : pdf]
‘CHALK’ by
Mike Akel
Isthmus Daily Page : Monday 19 March 2007
Though the first reels at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
will start rolling at Cinematheque with Killer of Sheep, the official premiere
for the four-day celebration of cinema begins two hours later with a screening
of Chalk at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
[original
site : pdf]
Tracking Wisconsin Film Fest sold out shows
Dane101.com : Sunday 18 March 2007
Tickets for the 2007 edition of the Wisconsin Film Festival
have only been on sale for 16 hours but we are already seeing a number of sell
outs at some of the smaller capacity venues. The Madison Museum of Contemporary
Arts holds 230 bodies, the Bartell’s Drury Theatre holds 199, and I would estimate
the UW Cinematheque holding around 100. Sold out shows as of 4 p.m. Sunday are
below.
[original site : pdf]
Ticket
sales proceeding quickly for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 18 March 2007
The process of purchasing tickets for the Wisconsin Film
Fest every spring has
certainly evolved over the last nine years since the first edition was held in
1999.
As the festival has grown increasingly prominent and popular, demand for
tickets has concurrently skyrocketed, the result being long lines at festival
box
office (at the UW Memorial Union) the day sales start. At the same time,
though, the ease of purchasing tickets online has also grown commensurately.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Fest 2007 preview: Restorations and Revivals
Dane101.com : Friday 16 March 2007
The great thing about film festivals is the ability to
sit down in a theater and get something you were never expecting, lured only
by a title, or a précis in a festival guide, or the fact that
it’s just sandwiched between two other movies you want to see. Festivals have
a great capacity to surprise…and so, to that end, it’s hard to pre-blog
a festival full of unseen films, because I don’t have any more information than
you.
[original site : pdf]
Jury
Awards Selected for Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Friday 16 March 2007
Over the course of January and early February, two sets
of three-person juries reviewed 196 films submitted for inclusion in the Wisconsin’s
Own and Wisconsin Student Shorts showcases at this year’s film festival. In addition
to selecting 48 of these entries for screening, the juries also singled out 11
of the films for special awards at the festival.
[original site : pdf]
Tickets
on sale for film festival » Madison lineup shows movies not coming to a theater
near you
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : Friday 16 March 2007
Films to be shown include: Fay Grim, a sequel
to Henry
Fool by
Hal Hartley; Finishing the Game, by Better Luck
Tomorrow director
Justin Lin, about auditions to replace the late Bruce Lee in a kung fu film;
The Ghosts of Cité Soleil, Danish director Asger Leth’s documentary
about Haiti, co-produced by Wyclef Jean, who composed the score; Heart
of an Empire, a
documentary about hardcore Star Wars fans; Man
Push Cart, about
a Pakistani trying to make ends meet in post- Sept. 11 New York; Manufactured
Landscapes, about large-scale photographer Edward Burtynsky, as he chronicles
the environmental impact of China’s industrialization; Paper
Dolls, about
Filipinos in various stages of gender transformation who work as caregivers for
elderly Israelis; Red Road, a thriller about a woman working for
a closed-circuit security company in Scotland who becomes obsessed with someone
she sees on her screen; Ten Canoes, Australian film and Cannes Film
Festival prize winner based on aboriginal oral traditions that tells two ancient,
interwoven stories; and Vanaja, colorful and folkloric Indian film
with first-time actors, about the hardships a lower-caste girl who hopes to
become a dancer.
[original site : pdf]
Film
Captures Band’s Magic
Capital Times : Friday 16 March 2007
It was an unlikely band in an unlikely venue at an unlikely
time in front of an unlikely audience. Naturally, this being Madison, it became
an unlikely runaway success. Early every Wednesday night for six years starting
in 1996, at Ken’s Bar and Grill on Butler Street just off the Capitol Square,
the Cork n’ Bottle String Band (CBSB) played bluegrass music to a young and old
crowd that on many nights managed to be raucous and laid-back at the same time. “A
small bar packed with drunk people and not one fight in six years,” Greg
Dierks, who plays mandolin for CBSB, was saying Thursday.
[original site : pdf]
Linking
to the films of the Wisconsin Film Festival 2007: A–M
and
Linking
to the films of the Wisconsin Film Festival 2007: N–Z
Dane101.com : Thursday 15 March 2007
Dane101 has put together two lists linking to mostly official
websites (if we couldn’t find official sites we went with other descriptive websites)
of nearly all of the feature length films showing at the Wisconsin Film Festival
on April 12–15.
‘THE
LIFE OF REILLY’ by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 14 March 2007
Anyone searching for evidence of how life — or at least
life as portrayed on TV — isn’t as much fun as it was 30 years ago need only
compare the current slate of Brit-produced game shows to what we had in the ’70s. “Deal
or No Deal” relies on gimmicky themes because the game itself is so weak
and the host, Howie Mandel, so devoid of personality. The others, like that fifth-grader
wit-matching show and the one with Bob Saget are virtually indistinguishable,
hosted by failed sit-com stars in dark suits.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin-Made
Films Well Represented in Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 14 March 2007
Anyone searching for evidence of how life — or at
least life as portrayed on TV — isn’t as much fun as it was 30 years
ago need only compare the current slate of Brit-produced game shows to what we
had in the ’70s. “Deal or No Deal” relies on gimmicky themes
because the game itself is so weak and the host, Howie Mandel, so devoid of personality.
The others, like that fifth-grader wit-matching show and the one with Bob Saget
are virtually indistinguishable, hosted by failed sit-com stars in dark suits.
[original
site : pdf]
Festival
Movies Easier To See In ’07 » Tickets Will Be Sold Online, and There Will
Be More Seats, Says the Director
Wisconsin State Journal : Wednesday 14 March 2007
The ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival in mid-April will
present movies ranging from a collection of British TV ads to an air guitar documentary
to acclaimed international dramas to Sportsfan, featuring Minnesota
Vikings zealots, backed by executive producers “Daily Show” host Jon
Stewart and UW-Madison grad Ben Karlin. In all, 182 films running from three-minute
shorts to 2 1/2-hour epics. The complete list of films will be posted Thursday
on the festival’s Web site, www.wifilmfest.org. Tickets go on sale at noon Saturday
at the box office in Memorial Union. But most tickets will be sold online —
the fastest, most convenient way to buy tickets and to avoid limited parking
Saturday on campus, said festival director Meg Hamel.
[original site : pdf]
Films
Alive! » Wisconsin Film Festival Lineup Comes To Life This Week
Capital Times : Wednesday 14 March 2007
“It’s alive…ALIVE!” Gene Wilder’s
exclamation in Young Frankenstein (echoing Chris Clive’s in the original
1931 version) comes to mind as the ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival sparks
to life this week, with the full schedule being announced on Thursday and tickets
going on sale Saturday. The 110-film behemoth will rampage across the entire
downtown for four days April 12–15. Young Frankenstein also
comes to mind because a restored print of the 1974 Mel Brooks classic will be
part of a trio of Frankenstein-related films at the festival. It’s
also the rare classic film (a few others, including a sparkling new print of
The Lion in Winter with Peter O’Toole, are also among this year’s offering)
in a bracing list of new independent features, documentaries, foreign films and
shorts, including a healthy dose of films by filmmakers with Wisconsin ties.
[original site : pdf]
Teachers,
Monsters and ‘Star Wars’ Fans Fill Fest
Capital Times : Wednesday 14 March 2007
Some films slated for this year’s festival include: Chalk,
a mockumentary about new high school teachers that has been compared to “The
Office.” Writer-director Mike
Akel and co-writer Chris Mass, childhood friends and former teachers, are tentatively
scheduled to introduce and talk about the film on the opening night of the festival.
“What’s different about Chalk in comparison to ‘The Office’
is that they have a lot of affection and a lot of respect for the teachers that
they represent in this movie,” Hamel says. “They’re writing about this from a
position of affection and sympanthy, probably a different point of view than
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have for the office.”
[original site : pdf]
‘VANAJA’ by
Rajneesh Domalpalli
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 13 March 2007
Written and directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli for his MFA
thesis at Columbia University, Vanaja made its world premiere at the 2006 Toronto
International Film Festival. This coming-of-age drama, shot with a cast of non-professional
first-time actors in rural southern India, received an even greater honor when
it was given the Best First Feature Award last month at the 2007 Berlinale.
[original
site : pdf]
‘THE
RAPE OF EUROPA’ by Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham,
and Bonni Cohen
Isthmus Daily Page : Sunday 11 March 2007
The relationship between art and the Third Reich has long
been a pop culture punch line, from jokes about Hitler’s failed painting ambitions
in The Producers to the rapacious Nazi collectors in the Indiana Jones series.
The actual history behind the fight over and fate of European art before, through,
and long after World War II remains obscure, though, one that is explored in
The Rape of Europa.
[original
site : pdf]
Wisconsin
Film Festival to Feature Three Special Series »
‘Diaspora Melacholy,’ ‘African Action Figures,’ and ‘Film·Able’
Ready to Go
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 10 March 2007
Among the scores of movies hitting the screens at the Wisconsin
Film Festival in April, twenty of them will be featured as part of three special
series. Organized annually in conjunction with a variety of departments at the
UW-Madison, these series offer a collection of films that “have a greater
theme or purpose,” says festival director Meg Hamel.
[original
site : pdf]
‘AIR
GUITAR NATION’ by Alexandra Lipsitz
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 7 March 2007
The Club Tavern in Middleton recently played host to the
first major public Guitar Hero competition in the Madison area last week. This
Playstation-aided pastime is nothing compared to the might and majesty of the
air guitar, however, that relatively ancient art of karaoke with one’s hands.
Like many iconic totems of rock, the art of air guitar playing comes complete
with its own set of stars and an annual world championship.
[original
site : pdf]
‘CLOSE
TO HOME’ by Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hagar
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 6 March 2007
“There are other movies being made about the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict, but they tend to focus on political issues,” says Meg Hamel, director
of the Wisconsin Film Festival. One of the films slated in its programming this
year — Karov La Bayit, or Close to Home — looks at the issue by following the
daily lives of two dissimilar women serving in the Israeli military.
[original
site : pdf]
‘SEVERANCE’
by Christopher Smith
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 3 March 2007
The winner of two “Golden Keppi” awards in 2006
at the genre-centric Puchon International Film Festival in South Korea, Severance is the second recent film directed by Christopher Smith that is grounded in horror.
Unlike his 2004 film Creep, though, his latest film also plays directly for laughs.
[original
site : pdf]
‘KILLER
OF SHEEP’
by Charles Burnett
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 1 March 2007
Shot on location over the course of numerous weekends with
a budget of less than $10,000, Killer of Sheep is among the most honored
American films of all time. Written and directed by Charles Burnett in the mid-’70s
while he was a student at UCLA, the film examines the daily struggles, compromises
and victories of a slaughterhouse worker living with his family in the post-riot,
proto-gang cityscape of Watts, Los Angeles.
[original
site : pdf]
‘ZIDANE’
and the Fighting 501st Legion Heading for Madison »
Programming at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival Nearly Set
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 28 February 2007
“The process of assembling a complete festival takes
months,” says Wisconsin Film Fest director Meg Hamel. “We’ve just
finished locking in two of the final films.” As the weeks count down
to the festival weekend, a four-day film feast running from Thursday, Apr. 12
through Sunday, Apr. 15, the organizers are wrapping up the scheduling phase
of the event and moving on to arrange all of the final details.
[original
site : pdf]
‘EVERYTHING’S
GONE GREEN’ by Paul Fox
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 27 February 2007
The daily rhythms of 21st-century economic life amid flippant
technological and pop-culture ennui are a primary focus in the work of Douglas
Coupland, the post-modern Canadian author behind books like Generation X, Microserfs,
and 2006’s JPod. Last year also marked the release of a film based on
his first screenplay, Everything’s Gone Green.
[original
site : pdf]
UW
Programs Partner With Wisconsin Film Festival
Wisconsin Week : Tuesday 27 February 2007
As film festivals sprout up around the state, UW–Madison’s very own event returns for its ninth year, running Thursday–Sunday, April 12–15.
The Wisconsin Film Festival will “unspool,” as they say in the industry, more
than 150 films in theaters on campus and in downtown Madison. There are now film
festivals in Milwaukee, Beloit, Stevens Point, Racine, Door County and elsewhere,
but the Wisconsin Film Festival holds a special place as one of the biggest and
longest running film events in the state. Presented by the Arts Institute as
an outreach program for the university, the festival sets a high standard that
its director, Meg Hamel, credits to the fusion of campus and city supporters.
[original site : pdf]
‘YOUNG
FRANKENSTEIN’ by Mel Brooks
Isthmus Daily Page : Saturday 24 February 2007
When the “In Memoriam” sequence that honors motion
picture contributors passing away in 2006 airs at the 79th Academy Awards on
Sunday evening, actor Peter Boyle will be due a warm ovation. He will be remembered
in part for his role as “The Monster” in the 1974 comedy Young
Frankenstein.
[original
site : pdf]
‘EXILED’ by
Johnny To
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 22 February 2007
Fans of Hong Kong action flicks can look forward to the
latest from director Johnny To at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival. Titled Fong
juk — or Exiled — it follows a pair of hit men in the
gamblers’
paradise of Macau as they seek a wayward associate and are pursued in turn in
the midst of the former Portuguese colony’s transfer to China in 1999.
[original
site : pdf]
From
‘LINDA LINDA LINDA’ to Hurricane Katrina » More
details about Programming at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 21 February 2007
This year’s edition of the Wisconsin Film Festival is now
less than two months away, with the tickets going on sale in only a matter of
weeks. Fest director Meg Hamel and her crew of volunteers are getting busier
as the weeks tick way, preparing to screen everything from a documentary about
a photographer to a program of award-winning British commercials.
[original
site : pdf]
Hal
Hartley, ‘SEVERANCE,’ and New Punk Rock Doc on Board for the Fest » Only
8 Weeks until the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Wednesday 14 February 2007
There are just over eight weeks remaining until the opening
of the ninth annual Wisconsin Film Festival, to be staged in movie theaters and
lecture halls throughout downtown Madison from Thursday, April 12, through Sunday,
April 15. Things are very busy at the WFF offices in the UW’s Vilas Hall, where
festival director Meg Hamel, a small team of pro-bono assistants and two part-time
student employees are busy lining up this year’s film selections, organizing
volunteers, and performing the seemingly endless tasks remaining in the two months
before the event.
[original
site : pdf]
‘SWEET’ Return » Film Fest Favorite Comes Back As a Success
Capital Times : Friday 9 February 2007
When Ali Selim appeared at the Wisconsin Film Festival
last April to present his first film, Sweet Land, he couldn’t exactly
hang around. It was one of four festivals in four cities, including one in Vail,
Colo., that Selim presented the film at in a four-day period. That’s what you
do when you’re shepherding a labor of love, especially a low-budget independent
feature, especially a decidedly un-Hollywood movie like Sweet
Land, a
tender love story set in rural Minnesota in 1920.
[original site : pdf]
Film
Festival’s Meg Hamel Seeking Volunteers, ‘YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN’ »
Only 9 Weeks until the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Thursday 8 February 2007
There are a mere nine weeks remaining until this year’s
Wisconsin Film Festival, which will be held at multiple venues throughout downtown
Madison over the weekend of Thursday, Apr. 12 through Sunday, Apr. 15. Since
the new year, festival director Meg Hamel and her team of assistants have been
lining up this year’s offerings; watching films, talking to distributors and
filmmakers, and generally juggling a dozen things at once.
[original
site : pdf]
Well-observed,
Subtle ‘SWEET LAND’ is a Sweet Movie
Wisconsin State Journal : Thursday 8 February 2007
Sweet Land, which shared the Audience Award
for Best Dramatic Film at last year’s Wisconsin Film Festival, is framed by sort
of a double flashback device that seems ungainly at first, until you understand
what’s going on. The film, based on a short story by Will Weaver, begins in present-day
rural Minnesota, where middle-aged Lars is weighing whether
to sell the family farm to real estate developers. He flashes back to when he
was a teenage boy in the mid-1960s, sitting next to his grandmother Inge at the
wake for his grandfather, Olaf.
[original site : pdf]
7
To Watch in 2007
Wisconsin State Journal : Sunday 31 December 2006
Yes, Brett Favre may (or may not) retire his throwing arm
next year. Gov. Jim Doyle and the Republican Leaders in the Assembly may (or
may not) see eye to eye on the state budget. Madison may (or may not) elect a
mayor whose name most of us will be able to spell. But 2007 will also be a pivotal
year for many who don’t make the headlines. Whether they’re on the
cusp of a scientific breakthrough or straining to fill seats for next year’s
Wisconsin Film Festival, here are seven people we expect to have a big year in 2007.
[original
site : pdf]
Hamel
No Longer is Interim
The Capital Times : Thursday 21 September 2006
Meg Hamel, who took the reins of the Wisconsin Film Festival
as interim director last year, has now been hired as its permanent director.
The UW Arts Institute, which runs the four-day festival, hired Hamel for the
position after a nationwide candidate search. She just spent the last week at
the Toronto International Film Festival scouting potential films for next year’s
event.
[original
site : pdf]
Getting
Set for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival
Isthmus Daily Page : Tuesday 9 September
2006
The gears are rolling for the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival,
which is just over six months away. The biggest news is that the tentative dates
for the event have now been solidified, with the festival set for April 12–15,
2007. This is two weekends later than the usual date, with the change resulting
from the timing of spring break at UW–Madison. This was only one of several
announcements made this Tuesday afternoon by Meg Hamel.
[original
site : pdf] |
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