The Wisconsin Film Festival
Founded in 1999, the Wisconsin Film Festival is Wisconsin’s premier independent film event and film festival. This four-day annual festival takes place each spring in campus and downtown Madison venues. The Festival presents the best new independent film (feature, documentary, experimental), world cinema and new media; cultivates discovery through talks, panels, performances, and coffeehouse discussions with filmmakers; and showcases the work of Wisconsin filmmakers through juried competitions. The Festival is committed to independent film culture, quality programming, community involvement, and a filmmaker-friendly environment.
The Festival is a public program of the UW Arts Institute, a nonprofit educational University unit. Governed by arts faculty and staff, the Arts Institute represents the collective voice and strength of the arts at the University, and works to make the campus arts more visible and effective. The Arts Institute funds and supports projects with university- and community-wide impact, including artist residencies, awards and fellowships, public programs, and arts marketing and outreach.
Of course, the Festival would not be possible without the support and contributions of the many Festival Sponsors and Partners. We hope you join us in thanking and supporting the businesses and organizations that support the Festival.
2005 Festival
The 2005 Wisconsin Film Festival (March 31–April 3) presented 151 films from 27 countries—from Argentina to Armenia, Bhutan, France, Mali, Mexico, Norway, Israel, South Korea, Turkey and Senegal—plus talks, panels, coffeehouse discussions, multimedia performances and installations. The lineup included more than 60 projects by filmmakers with Wisconsin ties. More than 80 filmmakers, speakers and industry professionals and 50 student and youth filmmakers participated. Ticket sales topped 24,000.
The Festival marked a number of “firsts” in 2005.
The Festival expanded into new venues such as the Monona Terrace Community and
Convention Center and the Overture Center for the Arts. Isthmus, Madison’s
weekly newspaper, threw the Festival a highly successful Preview Party. With
the support of Steep & Brew, audience members voted for the first-ever
Audience Awards for Narrative and Documentary Features. Favorite Wisconsin films
from past festivals were offered on Madison’s Charter OnDemand and Milwaukee’s
Time Warner OnDemand. Madison’s
Central Business District provided free downtown trolley service to festival-goers.
The
2005 Festival kicked off and closed with films from legendary filmmakers—Samuel
Fuller’s magnum opus The Big Red One (Warner Brothers), fully reconstructed
and presented by Time film critic and UW-Madison alumnus Richard Schickel,
and Moolaadé (New Yorker Films) from African cinema’s “founding
father,” Ousmane Sembene and winner, Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Chris
Gore (Film Threat, The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide) presented
the Midwest premiere of his indie spoof My Big Fat Independent Movie.
The “Wisconsin’s
Own” showcase included Taggart Siegel’s
Slamdance Audience Award-winning The Real Dirt on Farmer John,
Ben Wolfinsohn’s Sundance-featured High School Record, and Sean
Anders’ NBT: Never Been Thawed. Other highlights included “The
Roof of the World”—films from the Himalayan region—including
the Midwest premiere of François Prévost and Hugo Latulippe’s What
Remains of Us (7th Art Releasing), Werner Herzog’s Wheel of Time and
Khyentse Norbu’s Travellers & Magicians (Zeitgeist Films). Documentaries
included Ruth Leitman’s Lipstick and Dynamite (Koch Lorber Films),
Mark Wexler’s Tell Them Who You Are (THINKFilm), Amanda Micheli’s Double
Dare,
the U.S. premiere of Pola Rapaport’s Writer of O (Zeitgeist Films),
and Peter Raymont’s Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo
Dallaire (California
Newsreel), winner of the World Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.
World
cinema standouts included Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s Brothers (IFC
Films), winner of the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award; Crónicas (Mexico/Ecuador),
Sebastián Cordero’s powerful follow-up to Ratas, Ratones, Rateros,
starring John Leguizamo; the searing Turkish-German love story Head-On (Strand
Releasing), winner, Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin International Film
Festival; and the stylish Hungarian thriller, Kontroll (THINKFilm), winner,
Prix de la Jeunesse, Cannes Film Festival. New films from Argentina included
the docudrama Whiskey Romeo Zulu, about an airline pilot turned whistleblower
and the Woody Allen-esque coming-of-age comedy, Lost Embrace (New Yorker
Films, winner, Silver Bear, Berlin Film Festival). As one of fourteen Global
Film Initiative partners nationwide, the Festival hosted the Global Lens series
of international films including the Algerian feature Daughter of Keltoum,
and partnered on youth outreach programs reaching more than 600 high school and
college students.
Experimental and avant-garde film included a program of shorts
and the feature Certain
Women by
fiercely independent filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh. Festival juror and School of the
Art Institute of Chicago faculty member Chris Sullivan presented, for the first
time, all four chapters of his new animated feature Consuming Spirits,
featured in the Whitney Biennial. Special performances included a 1928 silent
Indian film, Shiraz, accompanied by original live music performed on North
Indian instruments.
In the fall of 2005, long-time director Mary Carbine resigned
to pursue other opportunities in Madison. The UW Arts Institute appointed
Meg Hamel, former Festival volunteer, to be the Interim Director
for 2006.
2005 Competition Winners
The winners of the 2005 Wisconsin’s Own and Student Filmmaker Competitions and the Audience Award winners.
Buzz
Media and participants on the 2005 Wisconsin Film Festival:
- “Seven years after its founding, the Wisconsin Film Festival has become both a harbinger and highlight of the spring arts season.”—Tom Laskin, Isthmus.
- “It’s in my opinion one of the strongest regional film festivals.”—Chris Gore (Film Threat, The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide) as quoted in The Capital Times.
- “Unspooling a typically eclectic selection of foreign and independent features, documentaries, revivals, cult items and homegrown fare, the 2005 Wisconsin Film Festival continues to establish itself as one of the most important in the Midwest.”—The Onion A/V Club.
- “The Wisconsin Film Festival is having a profound effect…not just on film-lovers, but on the local filmmaking scene.”—Aaron Conklin, Madison Magazine.
- “So many fine documentary and regional movies (and moviemakers talking about them).…How can you beat it? You can’t.”—Jacob Stockinger, The Capital Times.
- “The Wisconsin Film Festival continues to thrive as an intense and energetic event.”—Steven Snyder, TimeOut, Southeastern Wisconsin’s Weekly Entertainment Guide.
- “If you’re any kind of movie fan at all, you really do owe it to yourself to take part in this year’s festival.”—Rob Thomas, The Capital Times.
- “Best Festival” of “Top Live Shows” (2004).—Tom Alesia, Wisconsin State Journal.
- “Some of us march to a different drummer. Some of us march to a really different drummer. And some of us appear to be picking up signals from a different planet altogether. But we all manage to squeeze ourselves into the definition of human. And one of the great pleasures of attending the Wisconsin Film Festival…is finding out that we are not alone.”—Kent Williams, Isthmus.
- “My wife and I were both so impressed by the growing, huge success that the Festival has clearly become…everything about the Festival experience was really outstanding.…We plan on telling everyone we know—both potential audience members and filmmakers alike—that the Wisconsin Film Festival is an experience they shouldn’t miss out on.”—UW alumnus, filmmaker, entertainment attorney and Festival juror, Ian Rosenberg.
- “I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful festival experience.…We feel your heart in everything you touch. From publicity to volunteers and tech support, you have created a wonderful festival.”—Teri Lang, Producer, The Real Dirt on Farmer John.
Crew (2005)
These are the folks who made it all possible.
- Mary Carbine, Director, Wisconsin Film Festival
- Tino Balio, Interim Executive Director, UW-Madison Arts Institute
- Meg Hamel (volunteer), Venue and Logistics Management
- Travis Gerdes, Festival Assistant
- Vanessa Shipley (volunteer), Filmmaker and Guest Liaison
- Reina Gonzales, WUD Film Committee Festival Intern
- Falicia Roper, WUD Film Committee Festival Intern
- Erik Gunneson, Faculty Associate, Communication Arts
- Catherine Reiland, World Cinema Day Coordinator, UW Madison Language Institute
Programmers:
- Mary Carbine
- Joe Beres (Walker Art Center)
- James Kreul (Communication Arts Department)
- Meg Hamel
- Tom Yoshikami (UW Cinematheque)
- Reina Gonzales (WUD Film Committee)
- Falicia Roper (WUD Film Committee)
Wisconsin’s Own Competition Jurors:
JULIE GOLDEN is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles. Prior to becoming a screenwriter, she worked extensively in Hollywood as a film production executive. As Executive Vice President of Production, Intermedia Films, she was responsible for finding, developing, packaging and supervising projects through production, including K-19, Adaptation and The Wedding Planner. Golden also worked as Senior Vice President of Production, Larger Than Life Productions, and as Vice President of Production, Lakeshore Entertainment, where her projects included Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, Arlington Road, and Mothman Prophecies. Golden is a UW-Madison alum.
When LAURIE SCHEER left Milwaukee she knew one thing—she wanted to work in show business—and she did, from ABC-TV, to Viacom, Nickelodeon, MTV, and Showtime. She also produced a handful of independent films and then served as V. P. of Programming for the WE network. Her many adventures in the business prompted her to teach, write a book (Creative Careers in Hollywood), and star in a DVD about pitching/selling screenplays. Laurie is currently a media consultant on film and TV projects.
CHRIS SULLIVAN is an animator, filmmaker and performance artist. He has been creating experimental film and theater for over 20 years. He has shown his work in festivals, theaters and museums all over the country and in Europe. Most recently he has been producing a feature length animation called Consuming Spirits, to be finished in winter 2005. In 1999, Sullivan received a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue production on the film; in 2000 he received a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship and the first 35 minutes of Consuming Spirits was included in The Whitney Biennial. Sullivan Lives in Chicago with his wife Susan Abelson, and their daughters Carmen and Silvia, and teaches Animation and Film at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Screenings: Whitney Biennial, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Apex Gallery, NY; Flaherty International Film Seminar; Guggenheim Museum; Pacific Film Archives; Zagreb Animation Festival, Zagreb, Yugoslavia; Ottawa Animation Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Boston Museum. Performances: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Cleveland Performance Festival; Franklin Furnace, NY; LACE Gallery, Los Angeles.
Student Shorts Competition Jurors:
AMY BESTE is a Ph.D. candidate in Media Studies at Northwestern University and an independent film and video curator. She was involved with Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee from 1993-1997, and served as a Starlight Program Coordinator in 1995-96 and as Film Committee Director in 1996-97. She programmed for the Chicago Underground Film Festival from 1998-2003 and served as curator at the Gene Siskel Film Center last fall.
DIDIER LEPLAE has been involved in making music, film and video in Milwaukee for many years. In recent years, he has played an integral role in Pumpkin World, a collective which has been the base of many music- and film-related projects and provides resources for fellow artists to realize their works. Didier won the Wisconsin Film Festival Wisconsin’s Own award for Best Animated Short in 2001 for The Sculpture, co-directed two Wisconsin’s Own Best Feature Award-winning films, The Foreigners (2001) and Chaza Show Choir (2004), and also worked on I’m Bobby which earned the 2004 Wisconsin’s Own Honorable Mention for Experimental Film.
IAN ROSENBERG is a 1995 graduate of UW-Madison, and a former WUD-Film Director and Wisconsin Union President. He is a founding member of the NYC arts collective OVO, for which he has directed and produced a number of plays and films. He is the Producer of OVO’s short documentary, The World’s Best Prom (Wisconsin’s Own Best Documentary Award, 2001 Wisconsin Film Festival), and a feature-length version of the documentary to be released in 2005. He is also the Associate Producer of the award-winning yoga documentary Ashtanga, NY which premiered at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival (Broadcast on Discovery Fit TV; now available on DVD from First Run Features). In his spare time, Ian is a media attorney at ABC.
Festival Advisory Board:
- Steve Amundson (Director, Campus Information and Visitor Center (CIVC), University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- David Bordwell (Professor Emeritus, Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Ben Brewster (Assistant Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research)
- Lisa Heller (Vice President of Original Programming, HBO)
- Sarah Klavas (Director, Bureau of Marketing Services, Wisconsin Department of Tourism)
- Jeffrey Kurz (Producer / Consultant, Belle City Pictures)
- Jennifer Montgomery (Filmmaker / Assistant Professor - Film/Video, University of Illinois at Chicago)
- J.J. Murphy (Filmmaker, Professor, Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- James Schamus (Co-President, Focus Features)
- Laurie Scheer (Writer / Producer / Professor)
- Susan Schmitz (President, Downtown Madison Inc.)
- Matt Solomon (Writer / Producer, John Roach Projects)
- Mike Verveer (Alderperson, City of Madison)
History
In just six years, the Wisconsin Film Festival has exploded in size, programming scope, and community support. The first Festival in 1999 was organized by University of Wisconsin-Madison students James Kreul and Wendi Weger. Funded by the Arts Institute with support from the Wisconsin Film Office, the Festival featured free screenings of some 30 films in two small campus venues. Estimated attendance was 3,000.
In 2000, the second annual Festival added a professional director (Mary Carbine), expanded into downtown venues such as the Orpheum Theatre and Madison Art Center, and offered a mix of free and paid admission programming featuring 70 films and 40 visiting filmmakers. The Festival more than tripled its attendance and earned substantial funding from corporate sponsors and granting agencies.
The 2001 Festival marked the third year of considerable expansion and, for the first time, a significant international lineup. It added another downtown venue (the Majestic Theatre) and featured 110 films from 21 countries and some 60 local and visiting filmmakers and speakers. The 2001 Festival again increased attendance to more than 14,000 and doubled the number of corporate and community sponsors.
Programs included “Light in the East: New Asian Cinema,” featuring the Midwest premiere of The Foul King (South Korea) with director Kim Ji-Woon in person; the three films of acclaimed Korean director Hong Sang-Soo, including the US premiere of Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, with Hong in person; the US premieres of Attack the Gas Station (South Korea) and Bangkok Dangerous (Thailand); and film introductions and talks on Asian cinema by program advisor and film critic Tony Rayns.
The Festival also presented the Wisconsin premieres of George Washington (filmmaker David Gordon Green in person), Series 7, Calle 54, American Chai (filmmaker Anurag Mehta in person), The Gleaners and I, Samia, Scout’s Honor (filmmaker Tom Shepard in person) and Yi Yi; the Midwest premiere of the D.FILM Digital Film Festival 2001 World Tour (with digital projection); the retrospective “A Well Spent Life: The Cinema of Les Blank” featuring Academy Film Archive restored prints and Blank in person; and programs by Los Angeles-based video artists Animal Charm. In addition, the Festival showcased work by more than 20 Wisconsin filmmakers, including the Wisconsin premiere of Sarah Price’s Caesar’s Park.
The Wisconsin Film Festival continued to grow in 2002, adding yet another venue (the Bartell Theatre) and increasing programming by 30 films to 140 total, and attendance by 30% to 18,500. The Festival was one of only fourteen nationwide to receive a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The international lineup included films from 20 countries, numerous Wisconsin and Midwest premieres, and a showcase of films by regional makers. Highlights included the Midwest premiere of Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (Sony Pictures Classics), with filmmakers Jill and Karen Sprecher in person; the Wisconsin Premiere of Big Bad Love (IFC Films) with Debra Winger and Arliss Howard in person; a tribute to Israeli director Amos Gitai; a showcase of new cinema from Quebec; world cinema including Promises (Cowboy Pictures), an Oscar-nominated documentary about the Mideast conflict; and the Midwest premieres of the acclaimed Inuit film The Fast Runner (Lot 47 Films) and Milwaukee filmmaker Chris Smith’s latest documentary, Home Movie (Cowboy Pictures). Panels included “Independent Distribution,” featuring speakers such as Jeff Lipsky of Lot 47, John Vanco of Cowboy Pictures, Rodney Hill of Wellspring, and moderator Reid Rosefelt of Magic Lantern, Inc.
In 2003, the Festival screened more than 150 films from 25 countries, including 50 films by filmmakers with Wisconsin ties, with record-breaking attendance of 21,000.
Festival highlights included special appearances by Roger Ebert, who presented A Hard Day’s Night and a Q & A session with filmmaker Justin Lin after the Wisconsin premiere of Better Luck Tomorrow (MTV Films/Paramount). Ebert praised the Festival as “an important way to give attention to good films.” Lin told USA Today that the Wisconsin festival screening was “the best screening we’ve had.” Sean Welch, producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound (THINKFilm), told reporters “my hope is that I do a film in the future that’s worthy of this film festival, because it’s been just a fantastic experience.”
Other highlights included the opening night presentation of Bend It Like Beckham (Fox Searchlight) and the Wisconsin premieres of Stevie (Lions Gate), Divine Intervention (Avatar Films), Morvern Callar (Cowboy Pictures), Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten (Zeitgeist Films), Sam Green & Bill Siegel’s The Weather Underground, XX/XY (IFC Films), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Son (New Yorker Films), the Pang Brothers’ The Eye (Palm Pictures), Open Hearts (Newmarket Films), Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (Roxie Releasing), Shaolin Soccer (Miramax Films), Greg Pak’s Robot Stories, and Abderrahmane Sissako’s Waiting for Happiness, part of a Festival series on Contemporary African Cinema.
Festival Director Mary Carbine received a 2003 “Best of Madison: Editors’ Choice Award” from Madison Magazine and was named as one of the Midwest film community’s 2002 “People of the Year” by the Chicago-based Screen Magazine. Festival cover stories appeared in issues of On Wisconsin and Wisconsin Woman. At the 2003 American Advertising Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, the Madison-based Festival marketing partner Planet Propaganda won a prestigious national Gold ADDY® Award for Advertising in the Arts for their 2002 Festival marketing campaign.
In 2004, the Festival screened more than 140 films from 26 countries, including 45 films by filmmakers with Wisconsin ties, with record-breaking ticket sales of 24,000.
Highlights included the opening night Midwest premiere of The Yes Men (United Artists) with Milwaukee filmmakers Chris Smith, Sarah Price and Dan Ollman in person, special appearances by Danish filmmakers Lone Scherfig with Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (ThinkFilm) and Anders Thomas Jensen with the premiere of The Green Butchers (Newmarket), and the Wisconsin premiere of the award-winning documentary The Corporation (Zeitgeist) with co-director/producer/writer Mark Achbar and co-writer Harold Crooks in person. The Festival hosted a special live “IFC Ultimate Film Fanatic” film fan competition (premieres on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) TV this summer) with celebrity host Chris Gore (Film Threat) as well as a taped-for-broadcast “From the Wisconsin Film Festival” edition of the nationally-syndicated National Public Radio interview program “To the Best of Our Knowledge.” The Festival also partnered with the New York-based Global Film Initiative and UW College of Letters & Science to present the “Global Lens” series of international film and a “World Cinema Day” educational outreach program for more than 400 high school students.
Archive
Visit the archive to see highlights and programming information from past Festivals since 2001. |
UW Arts Institute
Susan C. Cook, Executive Director, 5539 Humanities,
263-4926, sccook@wisc.edu
Judy Buenzli, Arts
Outreach Program, 5544 Humanities, 263-4086, jbuenzli@wisc.edu
Ken
Chraca, Administration and Special Projects, 5542 Humanities, 263-4086, kjchraca@wisc.edu
Meg
Hamel, Wisconsin Film Festival, 6038 Vilas Hall, 262-6578, mphamel@wisc.edu
Kate
Hewson, Arts Residency Program, 6038 Vilas Hall, 263-9290, kahewson@wisc.edu
Sarah
Schaffer, Recording Project, 72 Music Hall, 263-9222, slschaffer@wisc.edu
The 2006 UW Arts Institute Executive Committee
Jim Escalante, Chair, Department of Art
Beverly Gordon, Professor, Department of Environment, Textiles
and Design
Vance Kepley, Chair, Department of Communication Arts
Claudia
Melrose, Chair, Dance Program
Russell Panczenko, Director, Elvehjem Museum of
Art
Gene Phillips, Chair, Art History
Ralph Russo, Director of
Cultural Arts, Wisconsin Union
Norma Saldivar, Assistant Professor, Department
of Theatre & Drama, and Director,
University Theatre
John Schaffer, Director, School of Music
Andrew Taylor, Director,
Bolz Center for Arts Administration
Michael Vanden
Heuvel, Chair, Department of
Theatre & Drama |
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