Originated in 1981, the UWM Student Film & Video Festival is one of Milwaukee's longest running juried movie festivals with recent editions documented on DVD. The Spring 2010 disc includes 19 short subjects. Many simply revel in the sense of exploring how to see or imagine the world through the lens of the camera and the aid of photographic effects. Others are in search of stories to tell through angles less seen. Among the most accomplished are David Busse's "Sherwin Meets Palloff," which creates a colorful world and an amusing narrative from low-budget animation, and Patrick Walter's "When Do We Ever Really Go Home," an enigmatic homecoming mounted with visual precision. Antonio Vargas finds intensely noticed scenes of beauty from around the city in "Milwaukee 07-/09 and 11/27/10." Nathaniel Winter's "Chung Shin Spirit Warrior" is an interesting look at the compassionate awareness of a life in martial arts.
As chairman of UWM's film department, Rob Yeo has been instrumental in promoting the student festival. Yeo and five other filmmakers from UWM have been selected to screen at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Yeo's "Of a Feather" is an 11-minute close look at the fluorescence of life filmed over the course of a year in Horicon Marsh. The other UWM participants in the prestigious French festival include faculty member Kate Balsley, graduate students Ericka Frederick and Josh Weissbach and graduates Matthew Newman and John Roberts.
