A still from Shakedown, one of this year's festival films
As we enter the fall season and await the annual LGBT Film Festival, many followers may be asking themselves, “WTF!?” No, not the term we are all aware of, but “Where’s The Festival!?” In its 33rd year, the film festival is transitioning into a long format of viewings spanning the course of the next 11 months.
Carl Bogner, UW-Milwaukee instructor and director of the LGBT Film Festival, is trying this experiment to find the most sustainable way of continuing the festival. The approach gives faculty more time to prepare as well as reach out to the community. The hope is that these regularly scheduled viewings will continue a dialogue that can be put toward fall 2019’s programming. Whether it keeps this extended format or returns to its 11-day event, Bogner is certain the festival is here to stay.
What was the reason for changing the format in running the LGBT Film Festival?
I’ve always wondered about the ecology of the festival, given the resources we have. Everyone who has worked on the festival on [UWM’s] campus has had other duties. It’s not small work to program a film for one night, and it can be expensive.
I’ve always thought it remarkable that the film department has hosted it the last 28 years, despite all the other things it has going on. Hopefully, this new format will allow us to work more efficiently with our community supporters and even forge new connections. I don’t see the film festival as over; I see it as working in a different format this year.
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How will the festival be different?
Instead of our previous 11-day run of viewings, we will be breaking it up into one or two films per month for the next 11 months. I wouldn’t say we have an ongoing theme for the festival. Rather, each month’s films center around a different aspect of the LGBTQ community—especially those who don’t have as big a voice compared to others.
This month, our two features focus on women’s music and women’s social spaces that promote community and advocate for safety. Also, in November, we are partnering with the Jewish Museum Milwaukee for a screening about gays and lesbians that were targeted within the federal government. All the different films bring a wide range of energies with them and hopefully a diverse group of viewers.
Over your 18 years of service, how have you seen the community grow in response to the festivals?
The festival started with the mission of bringing representations to the screen that otherwise were not available. When I first started working on LGBT+ film festivals, a major concern that needed to be addressed was the AIDS crisis. As the years went on, the focus moved on to same-sex marriage and then to gays in the military. And now, I think, the “T” in LGBTQ has become better represented.
Trans cinema has become more of a thing. It may be arrogant to say the rest of the world caught up with us. The world has changed, the arc of history favors progress, and the representations of gay, lesbian and trans people are more readily available. In the early years, outside of PrideFest, there weren’t many social spaces for people to gather besides bars. For there to be a welcoming space open to both younger and older people that the bar scene isn’t satisfying—I think the festival can do that.
Is there a specific movie or documentary premiere you are looking forward to?
One of the documentaries we are screening on Thursday, Sept. 27—Shakedown—features a group of black women in Los Angeles during the underground lesbian scene that put on a show to create a social space but still understood it as an activist gesture. It’s an offered space by black women for black women. I’m really excited we get to bring that to town.
The LGBT Film Festival kicks off at 6 p.m. Sept. 27 in the UWM Union Cinema, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. For more information, visit uwm.edu/lgbtfilmfestival.
