For the 22nd year, UW-Milwaukee's Department of Filmpresents the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival. For 11 consecutive days startingOct. 15, the festival will screen features, documentaries and shorts thatinclude Midwest premieres, restored works andseveral programs dedicated to the experimental video of a certain artist whosefame has endured well beyond his allotted 15 minutes.
One of the city's longest-running film festivals,LGBT Film/Video offers a fine selection of lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender works of moving pictures. But that's a limited way to think aboutit. The festival is not just about gay cinema; it's about new forms of cinemaand unconventional expressions. Program Director Carl Bogner calls it“redirecting the power of queer.” Beyond a mere slang term, Bogner appreciatesthe disruptive quality of “queer,” a word that goes against what is normative,challenges categories and keeps personal expression unmoored from anyconventional narrative.
Bogner was a film student at UWM when he was firstasked to take over festival programming. Twelve years later he continues todirect the festival, although now as a film teacher at UWM's Peck Schoolof the Arts. The first few years of the festival under Bogner's direction,which came without any financial backing, were much more do-it-yourself.Eventually, though, the Peck School of the Arts andcommunity donors helped to shape the program into a more fully realized filmfestival.
But the historically well-attended festival has notgrown into the community event it is today without adversity. There have beenbomb threats against the event as well as visits by religious organizationsthat criticized the festival's so-called “sinful” nature. These kinds ofoccurrences have largely subsided, as has being denied permission to postfestival fliers at businesses purporting to be “family establishments.” Butthis is not an indication of less need for the festival, Bogner explains.
“The festival has always been about bringingrepresentations of gay and lesbian/bisexual/transgender life to the big screenbecause they're not available on the screen otherwise. And that, for the mostpart, still seems to be true,” he says.
Opening night of the festival will take place at theOriental Theatre with a showing of the Swedish film Patrik, Age 1.5, followed by a post-screening reception at Beans& Barley. Unique to this year's festival is a free program from DanielBarrow, who, employing an overhead projector, narrates a story whilemanipulating transparencies to create “live animation.” Teaming up with theMilwaukee Art Museum (MAM) exhibit “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade,” the festivalunrolls Andy Warhol Video & TV.An experimental video extravaganza ofWarhol and his Factory cohorts will play at the MAM's Lubar Auditorium as wellas on the UWM campus. The festival closes Oct. 25 with the regional premiere ofthe recently restored Word Is Out:Stories of Some of Our Lives. This 1978 film is the first documentary aboutgays and lesbians made by gays and lesbians.
Filmmakers scheduled to be in attendance for thefestival include John G. Young, director of the powerful drama Rivers Wash Over Me, and H.P. Mendoza, director ofthe fun ensemble film Fruit Fly.Complete program information on the festival can be found atwww4.uwm.edu/psoa/programs/film/lgbtfilm/.
