​After covering both the Milwaukee Short Film Festival and the Milwaukee Short Festival we here at Milwaukee Movie Talk noticed that there were no film festivals in Milwaukee that catered to the horror crowd.  After talking about it to numerous people we decided if we want to have a horror film festival in Milwaukee we will have to do it ourselves. 
 
Not knowing a whole lot about how to plan a film festival we sought the help of Ross Bigley at The Milwaukee Independent Film Society.  After having an initial meeting we realized that we can do this and it got us really energized.  

by Stephen Milek

One of my most anticipated movies at the Milwaukee Film Fest was 30 Seconds Away: Breaking the Cycle and it didn’t disappoint. Made over 6 years, Faith Kohler and her crew talked with the homeless, the cops, and activists in Milwaukee to help better understand the chronic homelessness. The movie humanizes the men and makes the audience see them more than just bums on the street.

The Milwaukee Film Fest is officially over and the audience awards have been announced.
If you made it to the festival then you know before each screening they ask you to vote for the Allen H (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award (probably the longest award name ever). Using their secret counting system (I asked once and they refused to tell me how they do it) they come up with a winner.

This year the feature film winner was the documentary Romeo is Bleeding. The movie about a California High School as the students write their own version of Romeo and Juliet based on gang violence in their neighborhood.

The short film winner was Grounded (Au Sol) a French Film that played during the Modern Family short program. The film is about a mom and daughter who are stuck at the airport as they try to get to the grandmothers funeral.

The festival continues to grow and this year saw it's largest attendance yet. This year attendance was 70,885 with 77 sold out screenings. In 2014 the attendance was 64,1857 with 72 sold out screenings.

The Jury award winners that were previously announced are

Herzfeld Competition Award
No One's Child (dir. Vuk Ršumović)

Cream City Cinema
Lemon (dir. John Roberts)

Cream City Cinema Special Jury Prize
The Sound Man (dir. Chip Duncan)

Documentary Jury Award
The Look of Silence (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)

Shorter Is Better Award
Giovanni and the Water Ballet (dir. Astrid Bussink)

Shorter Is Better Special Jury Prizes
We Can't Live Without Cosmos (dir. Konstantin Bronzit)
De Smet (dirs. Thomas Baerten, Wim Geudens)

Kids Choice Short Film Award
A Place in the Middle (dirs. Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson)

Kids Choice Special Jury Prizes

Papa (dir. Natalie Labarre)
Johnny Express (dir. James Woo

We Can't wait to see what next year brings. And stay tuned here as we finish up writing our reviews from the festival.

​It’s the last day of the festival and they are ending it with a bang. Raiders! looks like it will be great fun.
Raiders! is a documentary about two childhood friends that recreated Raiders of the Lost Ark scene by scene using their friends and a home camera. Check out our interview with director Jeremy Coons. http://milwaukeemovietalk.weebly.com/festival-talk/10-questions-with-jeremy-coon-director-of-raiders

Prior to Raiders! We have a busy day. First up is Uncle John. The movie takes place in Wisconsin and has been compared to David Lynch films. Then it's on to Cartel Land a much more serious documentary than Raiders! Cartel Land is about the war on drugs at the US/Mexico border. Told from both sides of the border it looks to be an intense documentary about the crisis that area is facing.

Only 3 days left of the film festival but still lots of exciting things to see.

Today the only movie are able to make it too is The Shining and that's our pick of the day. For the last couple of years former Milwaukee Brewer pitcher John Axford has presented a movie during the festival. This is the third year in a row he has chosen a Stanley Kubrick movie. Axford will be at the screening and we are excited to see what he has to say about this classic.

The Milwaukee Film Festival is wrapping up on Thursday night and the closing night film is the documentary Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.  The fan film the title references is Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaption that was made by Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala.  After watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 Chris (11) and Eric (12) decided they wanted to make their own version.  It took them 7 years but they recreated the movie shot for shot using their friends as extras.  There was only one shot they didn’t get but after 30 years they are going to complete their masterpiece. 
 
The documentary Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made uses interviews and archival footage to tell the story about how Chris and Eric made their amazing adaption.  We were lucky to have Raiders! director Jeremy Coons answer some questions for us in this part of our 10 Question With… series.  

Two Days left and we got two picks for the day.

I hope you have a membership because that's the only way you are getting into the super secret screening. In the past the have screened movies like Silver Linings Playbook and Short Term 12. Last year it was the documentary Last Days in Vietnam. What will it be this year? Let us know your guesses.

If you're not a Milwaukee Film Member then be sure to check out our pick of the day Shorts: Stranger than Fiction. Short documentaries are a great way to learn about unique subjects that you might not have heard of. They can be fun or informative. But they are always fascinating.

Yesterday at an award brunch for the filmmakers Milwaukee Film Announced the jury award winners for the festival.  
There are 4 jury awards handed out each year.  The Herzfeld Competition Award is handed out to the best film in the Competition Program.  The documentary jury award is handed out to the best film in the Documentary Favorites program. The Shorter is Better award is handed out to the Best Short Film, and the Cream City Cinema Award is handed out to the best local film that played as part of the Cream City Cinema program.  

​The winners this year are 
Herzfeld Competition Award - No One's Child directed by Vuk Rsumovic
Documentary Jury Award - The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer 
Shorter is Better Award - Giovanni and the Water Ballet directed by Astrid Bussink from the Shorts:  Sport Shorts . Shorts about Sports program. 
The Cream City Cinema Award - Lemons directed by John Roberts a short film that played during the Milwaukee Show Part 2.

Only a few more days left of the Milwaukee Film Festival. But still plenty to see. Today we taking off from movie watching to work our regular jobs. But that doesn't mean you have to.

The pick of the day is The Look of Silence. Yesterday it was announced The Look of Silence was the winner of the Documentary Jury Award. So if it wasn't a must see before it is now.
Joshua Oppenheimer directs this sort of sequel to his The Act of Killing.  The Act of Killing was about the perpetrators of mass executions in Indonesia.  The Look of Silence tells the same story from the viewpoint of one of the victims.  

Check out The Look of Silence  today at the Avalon at 7 pm.  

After a disappointing end to our Festival movie last night (besides a few standouts the Midnight Shorts were lackluster) we hope to start things off on the right foot today.

Today we start off with our Pick of the Day Extraordinary Tales at 4:45 at the Fox-Bay Cinema. Raul Garcia has worked in the animation department for Disney on a number of their big films like Alladin and Pocahontas. But branching out on his own he takes a different path. Here he tackles 5 Edgar Allen Poe short stories. Using voice talent of Roger Corman, Guillermo Del Toro, Christopher Lee, and Bela Legosi. The animation looks cool and we are looking forward to seeing these stories told in a unique way.

After Extraordinary Tales we make our way to Violet. Have heard mixed reviews but sounds like an interesting story of a kid who deals with grief and depression after he witnesses his friends murder.

The final movie of the night is Almost There. A documentary about an artist.
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Tickets can be found here at mkefilm.org