Photo Courtesy of Milwaukee Film.
17 Blocks
Sometimes, I begin to think that fiction is obsolete. How can even the wildest fantasy compete with the madness of today’s world? Then, I stop myself and realize that fiction can still cast a new light on human behavior—and that facts can often show that people continue to struggle to make the world a better place.
Documentary filmmaking flourishes today as never before. One reason is the unprecedented availability of digital channels for presenting fact-based film. However, there remains something irreplaceable about sharing a film in a crowded theater. Cinema has always been about a communal experience, playing out before an audience larger than one or two. Seeing documentaries in a theater afford unique opportunities for conversation and feedback—for taking action?—that watching them on Amazon can never accomplish.
With these thoughts in mind, the Shepherd Express is proud to sponsor the Documentary track of this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, Oct. 17-31 at various locations. The box office opens Oct. 1 for Milwaukee Film members and Oct. 3 for the general public.
For more information, visit mkefilm.org.
Milwaukee Film 2019 Documentary Series
17 Blocks
USA | 2019 | Director: Davy Rothbart
America’s most dangerous neighborhood is in Washington, D.C., just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol building. That’s where the Sanford family began filming their daily lives in 1999, and 20 years later, that footage forms the basis of this incredible saga of modern inner-city life. Crafted in collaboration with noted This American Life contributor Davy Rothbart, 17 Blocks captures four generations of the hopes, dreams, struggles, and failures of an American family and their troubled community.
Advocate
Israel | 2019 | Director: Philippe Bellaiche & Rachel Leah Jones
An underexamined aspect of the Israel/Palestine conflict is how the Israeli justice system can be biased against Palestinian defendants. Lea Tsemel, an Israeli human-rights lawyer, fights to ensure everyone receives a fair trial, but her beliefs are tested when her activist husband is charged with treason. This fascinating doc—which cleverly uses elements of animation to hide defendants’ identities—is both an inspiring portrait of a strong woman and a complex look at legal and ethical quagmires.
Always in Season
USA | 2019 | Director: Jacqueline Olive
When Claudia Lacy’s 17-year-old son was found dead by hanging in Bladenboro, NC, it was quickly ruled a suicide. But several facts didn’t add up, and Claudia believes her son was lynched. In Always in Season, an examination of the Lacy case inspires a larger exploration into America’s painful history of lynching, and what emerges is one of the most provocative, informative, and thoughtful entries into our current dialogue on race in America.
Bleed Out
USA | 2019 | Director: Stephen Burrows
When Judie—the mother of Milwaukee filmmaker Steve Burrows—needed a second emergency hip surgery in 2009, the procedure ended with her in a coma and suffering permanent brain damage. Eventually Burrows filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, and he captured the ensuing 10 years' worth of bills, red tape, and insurance company nightmares on film. This cautionary tale has local relevance, but in a broader sense, it just feels frustratingly, uniquely American.
Building the American Dream
USA | 2019 | Director: Chelsea Hernandez
Texas is in the middle of a construction boom—cities are growing across the state, with high rises being built and new opportunities abounding. However, this is possible only because of the work of undocumented immigrants who are laboring in abysmal conditions for little pay. This eye-opening doc brings a fresh perspective to the immigration discussion as it highlights the stories of those who are fighting back and striving for their shot at achieving the American dream.
Carmine Street Guitars
USA | 2018 | Director: Ron Mann
Defying the gentrification of Greenwich Village, Rick Kelly and his shop, Carmine Street Guitars, still honor the old New York by making custom guitars out of reclaimed wood from around the city. This heartfelt doc follows five days in Kelly’s life, as he caters to—and jams with—dedicated clients like Jim Jarmusch and the guitarists for Wilco, Patti Smith, and Bob Dylan. Carmine Street Guitars is a love letter to a classic, dying breed of elite craftsmanship.
Cold Case Hammarskjöld
Belgium/Denmark/Norway/Sweden| 2018 | Director: Mads Brügger
The still unsolved 1961 plane crash death of United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld gets a fresh look by MFF alum director Mads Brügger and a pair of unexpected investigative journalists in this freewheeling conspiracy theory documentary. Comedic, irreverent, ironic, and ultimately chilling, the new insights into this cold case will lead you on a wild ride down the rabbit hole of secret societies, buried government secrets, and shocking revelations that just might be true.
Cooked: Survival By Zip Code
USA | 2019 | Director: Judith Helfand
It’s widely known that extreme weather conditions disproportionately harm people in lower income areas, but it’s chilling to see the laser-precision with which this happens. In examining the 1995 Chicago heat disaster, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand looks at exactly why and how a ZIP code can turn into a death sentence in a major Midwestern city. Helfand connects the dots between economic disparity, climate change, and racial segregation, finding an often-deadly link between them.
Ernie & Joe
USA | 2019 | Director: Jenifer McShane
As a depressing deluge of headlines and cellphone footage constantly remind us, some of our nation’s police officers sorely need to take a more compassionate approach to their work. Ernie and Joe—two officers in the San Antonio Police Department’s Mental Health Unit—provide an inspiring example of how this can be achieved. As we watch Ernie and Joe handle their daily rounds of helping people in crisis, a vision of compassionate community policing emerges.
For Sama
USA | 2019 | Director: Waad Al-Khateab & Edward Watts
Winner of Cannes’ Golden Eye (given to the festival’s best documentary), For Sama captures life in war-torn Syria through the eyes of the female experience. Shot by the film’s protagonist, Waad al-Kateab, this video diary tracks five years of life in Aleppo, and it serves as a love letter from a mother to her young daughter. For Sama is a powerful answer to the question of why people don’t simply leave homelands where they have already sacrificed so much.
Framing John DeLorean
USA | 2019 | Director: Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce
John DeLorean was a larger-than-life figure who embodied the dark side of the American dream. He founded a car company and married a supermodel, but shady financial dealings (and an infamous drug bust) led to an epic downfall. Hollywood consistently failed at adapting this crazy saga, but two MFF alums cracked the case. Starring Alec Baldwin as DeLorean, this clever blending of interviews and reenactments will expand your notions of what documentary filmmaking can be.
Hesburgh
USA | 2018 | Director: Patrick Creadon
For over 50 years, University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh was at the forefront of fighting for equal rights and peace. This inspiring doc follows Hesburgh’s journey alongside some of the biggest moments of the 20th century, from the civil rights movement to his experience advising presidents and mediating fierce differences. Through it all he held fast to his guiding Catholic faith, emerging as one of the most influential leaders of our time.
The Hottest August
USA | 2019 | Director: Brett Story
A collective portrait of the American experience, this moody documentary immerses us in NYC, August 2017, complete with rising temperatures and postelection unrest, resulting in a quietly expressive essay film. Through exchanges with various subjects in disparate parts of the city, The Hottest August embodies the angst of the people showcased, the city they live in, and the country as a whole.
If the Dancer Dances
USA | 2018 | Director: Maia Wechsler
Choreographer Stephen Petronio leads a dance group in recreating the late Merce Cunningham’s groundbreaking 1968 modern dance piece RainForest in this immersive dance documentary. A beautiful and intimate film, If the Dancer Dances explores the world of dancing, as well as how art is learned and taught and how educators translate artistic knowledge, resulting in a piece that illuminates the intense work dancers do to create their work which appears so seamless.
The Infiltrators
USA | 2019 | Director: Cristina Ibarra & Alex Rivera
Part prison break thriller, part social justice documentary, The Infiltrators is unlike anything you’ve seen—a seamless melding of documentary footage and thrilling reenactments, exposing our broken immigration and detention system. This docu-thriller follows a group of radical "Dreamers" who purposefully get thrown into a for-profit detention center to fight for change from within. Both exciting and terrifying, The Infiltrators offers a new lens into the dramas unfolding along the southern border.
Jay Myself
USA | 2018 | Director: Stephen Wilkes
On the opposite spectrum of Marie Kondo lies renowned artist and photographer Jay Maisel, who spent decades filling up his 36,000-square-foot Manhattan building before having to sell it. What emerges in Jay’s relocation process is an archaeological excavation into the life of an artist seen through their accumulated treasures. Captured by Stephen Wilkes—one of Jay’s followers (and a noted artist himself)—Jay Myself is a love letter to a life spent appreciating the literal small things.
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
USA | 2019 | Director: Midge Costin
Film is constantly referred to as a visual medium, but it’s far less frequent to hear (no pun intended) about how important sound is to the cinematic arts. Using interviews with a host of major filmmakers (Spielberg, Nolan, Lynch, Lucas, and Redford), Making Waves goes on a deep dive into the world of movie sound design—what it is, how it works, what foley artists do, and what type of creative and stylistic decisions are involved.
Midnight Traveler
USA | 2019 | Director: Hassan Fazili
This dynamic and powerful documentary follows a family as they flee Afghanistan, searching for a safer life in Europe. Compiled completely from the family’s personal cellphone footage and masterfully edited, this film tells a compelling, heartbreaking, and deeply human story of survival, family, and the fight for dignity in the current refugee crisis.
Mike Wallace is Here
USA | 2018 | Director: Aaron Schimberg
As the host of CBS’ groundbreaking 60 Minutes for its first four decades, Mike Wallace set new standards in interview journalism. His legendary interrogation tactics were used on the most important figures of the 20th century, and his showmanship changed the way TV news operated. Using a treasure trove of both classic and unseen footage, Mike Wallace Is Here explores what made Wallace tick, what motivated him, and how he was able to change the very art of broadcast journalism.
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements
USA | 2019 | Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky
Presented with Open Caption
Trailer
When filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky’s 11-year-old deaf son, Jonas, receives cochlear implants, his discovery of music leads to Beethoven. Jonas learns "Moonlight Sonata" on piano, which is inspirational to his deaf grandparents. Moonlight Sonata weaves these generational stories—which include aging parents, dementia, and Beethoven’s own struggle with hearing loss (incorporated through impressive animated watercolor sequences)—into its own sonata about how we’re connected through art, hardships, and inspiration.
N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear
USA | 2019 | Director: Jeffrey Palmer
Pulitzer Prize-winner Navarro Scott Momaday is one of history’s most celebrated Native American authors, and his work explores how our collective origins connect and inform us. From his years at Stanford to his work in the Native American Renaissance, Words From a Bear works as both a biography and as a stunning tone poem that breathes visual life into Momaday’s words, through both evocative photography of the Great Plains and storybook-like animations of his poetry.
Q Ball
USA | 2019 | Director: Michael Tolajian
Two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant executive-produced this inspirational look at one of California’s lesser-known basketball teams: the San Quentin Prison basketball squad. Inmates at “the Q” use the team to help them create structure and goals, and for many it provides a key step in their path to rehabilitation. Q Ball shows how the focus and emotional power of sports can, for some, serve as catharsis against the horrors of mass incarceration and the toxic masculinity of prison life.
The Raft
USA | 2018 | Director: Marcus Lindeen
In an infamous 1973 scientific experiment that the press dubiously named the “sex raft,” 11 strangers spent three months drifting across the Atlantic Ocean on a raft. The researchers who arranged the study hoped to learn about group behavioral dynamics, but that’s not all that happened. Mixing astonishing archival footage with a present-day reunion of the surviving members, The Raft takes viewers inside that strange, unforgettable journey.
Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins
USA | 2019 | Director: Janice Engel
In the 1970s, Texan feminist Molly Ivins broke into the boys club of journalism. Bringing a new perspective to her deep-red state, Ivins made waves in local and national politics, shining a light on injustices and hypocrisies in a witty and searing style, while also forging a new path for women in journalism. This doc follows the firebrand reporter through her sparring with conservatives, presidents, and anyone foolish enough to try to match wits with her.
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
USA | 2019 | Director: Matt Wolf
For over 30 years, from the 1979 Iran hostage crisis to the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, Marion Stokes recorded television for 24 hours a day, commercials and all. By the time of her death, Stokes had amassed 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing not just world history, but who we were: what we watched, what we valued, and what we thought. The story of this remarkable archive—and the enigmatic woman behind it—provides a fascinating look into the media’s crafting of history, and our complicity in watching it.
Red, White & Wasted
USA | 2019 | Director: Matthew Burns
The Redneck Yacht Club is Florida’s premiere social group for mudding and is also a center of Confederate flags, alcohol, racism, and scantily clad twerking. This provocative doc, edited in Milwaukee, follows one of these mudding-obsessed Floridians as he navigates the world he loves, and ultimately learns about himself in the process. Red, White & Wasted is a surprisingly honest and human window into racism, classism, and one of the forgotten corners of our country.
The River and the Wall
USA/Mexico | 2019 | Director: Ben Masters
For years pundits have argued about how a U.S.-Mexico border wall would affect immigration and budgets, but what about the environment? In an effort to answer this question, a team of experts hike, bike, and raft the 1,200 miles from one end of the border to the other. Part adventure, part wilderness documentary, and part sociology dissertation, The River and the Wall treats a complex issue like immigration with the nuance it deserves, and looks stunning doing it.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street
USA | 2019 | Director: Roman Chimienti & Tyler Jensen
In 1985, Mark Patton starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street sequel Freddy’s Revenge, as cinema’s first male “scream queen.” As a gay man playing a role that was trashed as “too gay,” his career was ended. This doc explores the 1980s horror film industry, Hollywood fame and infamy, and Patton’s current fight to set the record straight on his legacy. From horror conventions to in-person confrontations with Freddy’s Revenge cast and crew, this film lifts the veil on Hollywood, homophobia, and the horror industry.
Stuffed
USA | 2018 | Director: Erin Derham
Art and science intersect in the surprising world of taxidermy, showcased through interviews and footage of several taxidermists. These talented and passionate individuals show how their work takes immense creative artistic skill, meticulous attention to scientific detail, and a passion for preserving nature. While it might seem that those who practice taxidermy are obsessed with death, this fascinating doc shows that taxidermists are actually at the forefront of saving animals’ lives.
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
USA | 2019 | Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
The world lost one of the greatest writers of our time when Toni Morrison died this year. This doc, filmed before her death, is an ode to her groundbreaking work as a multi-award-winning writer and her life story from childhood through the Civil Rights movement and beyond, offering an intimate look at race and humanity in America. Both a meditation on African-American art and Morrison’s story in her own words, this film reminds us that the strength of her spirit remains.
The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary
USA | 2019 | Director: Benjamin Berman
What happens when you try to make a documentary about an elusive subject whose entire life is based around trickery and showmanship? Can the subject be trusted? Is it even a documentary, or just a nonfiction account of a possibly fictional sequence of events? These questions (and many, many others) will hijack your brain after watching what is ostensibly about a magician’s comeback from terminal illness, but quickly morphs into a search for the nature of truth in documentary filmmaking.
Well Groomed
USA | 2019 | Director: Rebecca Stern
Among many great documentary subgenres are films that spotlight world-class practitioners of bizarre skills, like the excellent Man on Wire or The King of Kong. But trust us, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Welcome to the wacky world of competitive creative dog grooming, where pups of infinite patience are transformed by multicolored dye jobs and fur sculpting. Yet beneath the magenta façade, you’ll be touched by this loving story of our human needs for community and artistic expression.
The Weight of Water
USA | 2018 | Director: Michael Brown
The whitewater rapids of the Colorado River that wind through the Grand Canyon are among the most iconic and dangerous in the world, but that danger is compounded for Erik Weihenmayer, a blind man determined to kayak them. If you loved both the stunning vistas and the death-defying thrill of recent Oscar-winner Free Solo, don’t miss this inspiring documentary that proves disability can never disable the human spirit.
Who Let the Dogs Out
USA | 2019 | Director: Brett Hodge
“Who Let the Dogs Out” may be one of those novelty songs that you never think about until it gets stuck in your head, but it has one of the strangest secret origins in music history. In an NPR-like pop-culture history excavation, Ben Sisto weaves a tale about gender, race, cultural appropriation, showbiz, and (of course) legal battles. But most of all, this is a story about the power of influence, and how it often stretches back much further than we realize.
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes
USA | 2018 | Director: Alison Reid
Dr. Anne Innis Dagg revolutionized zoology in the 1950s when she became the first biologist to observe giraffes in the wild. However, male-dominated academia repeatedly blocked her from getting tenure and pursuing a career. This uplifting doc sets the record straight, following Dagg as she retraces the steps of her original journey to see her beloved giraffes again, while showing how the impact she made in the field—and for future female scientists—is still felt today.
You Don’t Nomi
USA | 2019 | Director: Jeffrey McHale
In a pairing that makes the phrase “double feature” sound like a double entendre, the infamous cult classic Showgirls is being shown in 35mm, back-to-back with a vivid exploration into the film’s legacy. You Don’t Nomi is the superhero origin story of how a film that was panned and bombed upon release can, over time, become something like a cultural touchstone. After hearing impassioned defenses from several prominent critics and scholars, you may find yourself among the
See all of our film festival coverage here 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival here.
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