Photo via mkefilm.org
With opening night of the much anticipated 2017 Milwaukee Film Festival just days away, Anna Sampers of Milwaukee Film took time to talk about her passion for programming and the screenings she is most excited about.
Thursday is opening night. What’s the mood like in the Milwaukee Film offices?
Things are a bit chaotic. This is my ninth film festival with the organization so I don’t get too stressed out anymore. By now we have it down to a science and our staff has grown quite a bit since our first festival. Everyone is running around but it’s like an organized dance.
How did you get involved in the process?
I started as intern for the short film program with our previous incarnation, the Milwaukee International Film Festival, back when I was at school in UWM. I fell in love with the art of programming and curating. Specifically, I fell in love with the way that shorts can tell a complete story in 3-20 minutes. That really fascinated me. I knew then that I had found what I want to do with my life: watch short films forever.
What goes into programming a film festival?
As Lead Programmer of Shorter Is Better, this year I watched just over 500 short films. My intern watched more than 300. We have a committee of volunteers from the community who come in six times over the summer to watch three hours of shorts that we have pre-selected. They rate them and then we run the numbers and the highest rated films get in. It’s a pretty democratic process, although as Lead Programmer I have final say. We are screening 63 short films this year. I couldn’t have done it without my volunteers.
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You are also the Co-Programmer of Cinema Hooligante. If the Documentary Festival Favorites is for people who like their films with an educational bent and Film Feast is for foodies, what sort of person will Cinema Hooligante appeal to?
Cinema Hooligante is curated for those who like films that are a little more… out there. That being said, we try to vary the ways that these films are “out there.” We have weird animation. We have intense horror films. We have bizarre documentaries. We want Cinema Hooligante to appeal to more than just the late night crowd.
What are some of your favorite offerings in the Cinema Hooligante category this year?
