2023 Milwaukee Film Festival banner
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, setting a high bar for all science fiction films to come, was released in 1927, the year the Oriental Theatre opened on Milwaukee’s East Side. How fitting, then, that Metropolis returns again this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, whose hub is the Oriental but whose spokes extend south to the Avalon and west to the Times cinemas.
This year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, running April 20-May 4, will include 283 movies from 51 countries. Of that number, 135 are features and 148 are short films, 30 minutes long or less. For 2023, only 41% of the festival’s lineup will be available virtually. “Filmmakers and distributors are concerned about piracy,” explained Artistic Director Cara Ogburn at the festival’s March 31 media preview. She also emphasized the importance of cinema, as opposed to couch surfing, for “that communal experience.”
After all, the festival screening of Metropolis will be accompanied by a live performance by the Anvil Orchestra (formerly the Alloy Orchestra). They’re not going to play their original score for you in your living room!
World Premiere
The 2023 festival opens with a world premiere, Justin Superstar’s Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory, a zany-sounding but true story about a cottage industry in Eau Claire, Wis. After their mother’s mastectomy, the entrepreneurial family began manufacturing artificial breast nipples in their home. Other showcased films include Lisa Cortez’s Little Richard: I Am Everything, examining the Black queer root of rock and roll; and A Disturbance in the Force, Jeremy Koon and Steve Kozak’s documentary on George Lucas’ biggest flop, his 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special.”
Most of the festival’s usual program tracks are on tap this year. Arts & Artists includes documentaries on Ennio Morricone, Mary Tyler Moore and Hipgnosis; Black Lens features new work as well as Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground (1982), said to be the first feature film by an African American woman; Cine sin Fronteras highlights the Latinx experience; Cinema Hooligante gathers quirky midnight movies; Cream City Cinema celebrates local filmmakers; Documentary Festival Favorites mixes old and new, including Join or Die, about the role of clubs and fraternal organizations in building community and sustaining democracy. GenreQueer and North American Indies are self-explanatory; The selections for Rated K: For Kids were chosen, according to programmer, Marielle Allschwang, for “cultivating a sense of kindness and compassion, awareness that we are part of a community, stewards of our ecosystems.”
Many screenings will be accompanied by panels or Q&As with filmmakers and cast members.
As OnMilwakee’s Matt Mueller put it in his media preview remarks, “Watching stuff from home works when necessary but movies in theaters are better—it’s just a better experience.”
