Originally scheduled for the Avalon Atmospheric Theater in Bay View, Milwaukee’s annual Film Girl Film Festival will be held virtually this year. However, the run has been extended with programs available November 13-20 on Eventive. Founder Andrea Thompson picked up several notable titles for this year’s festival, including Maria Finitzo’s The Dilemma of Desire, previously seen at SXSW, and a conspiracy thriller starring Milwaukee’s Mark Borchardt, director Shalyse Dominque’s Legal ThreaT.
There will also be a Milwaukee shorts block, a Bitchin’ Shorts Block, the FGFF late-night shorts, as well as several award-winning shorts which screened at Cannes and Sundance. To purchase tickets and find out more information, click here. More information can also be found on the Film Girl Film Festival’s social media and website.
I asked Andrea Thompson some questions about the Fifth Annual Film Girl Film Festival:
What was your original concept in starting Film Girl and has it evolved over the past few years?
My original concept was a mixture of activism and self-interest, to put it bluntly. I was tired of just writing about the problem of sexism in the film industry and wanted to take more direct action to solve the problem. I was also in something of a rut career wise and wanted to make a change. I was also friends with Chris House and Stephen Milek before they started the Twisted Dreams Film Festival, and I thought a passion project like that was just a fantastic idea. And thus, the Milwaukee Women's Film Festival, which is now the Film Girl Film Festival, was born!
It has definitely evolved, and not just in name. The first year actually occurred a few months before the 2016 election, which was of course emotionally devastating. It really solidified my commitment to not just continue the festival and do my part in helping to ensure that women's voices were heard, but to really keep expanding and remain conscious of including a wide range of voices.
At what point did you decide to go virtual for this year?
Oh, far too late. The festival had always taken place at the Underground Collaborative, which sadly hasn't survived the pandemic. This year was supposed to be the first year the Film Girl Film Festival took place at an actual movie theater, the Avalon, which is actually my favorite theater, not just in Milwaukee, but anywhere. And it has the absolute best popcorn I've ever tasted. I was working with the Avalon and made all these plans, but as the pandemic stretched on, it became pretty clear that I couldn't have the festival at an actual theater, or any physical venue at all. So around about the end of the summer, I realized my choices were either canceling or going virtual. Obviously, I chose virtual.
What is the process of choosing films? Do you emphasize work by local directors?
I don't have to look far to choose films I think would be good for the festival. I’m a film critic, and also the submissions coordinator for the nonprofit the International Children's Media Center, which uses short films to teach kids and older audiences to increase empathy and media literacy. In my work as a film critic, I also watch short films at other festivals, such as the Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW and Sundance. So pretty much all day every day I run across a multitude of features and shorts. And of course, often filmmakers find my festival on their own and submit their films for consideration. So actually, the problem is narrowing down my choices.
I also always emphasize work by local directors, especially this year. While I of course want to select films that have played on the festival circuit, I always keep in mind that this is a Milwaukee film festival, and I want to emphasize that and celebrate the local arts community. So this year I not only have offerings such as Kristin Peterson's Ringolevio, which played at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, and Cohabitation, which is the feature directorial debut of Milwaukee filmmaker Lauren Barker, there’s also Shalyse Dominique’s Legal ThreaT, starring Mark Borchardt, which probably makes it the most Milwaukee film at FGFF this year.
Are women making progress within the film industry in terms of getting decision-making jobs and being able to express female perspectives through film?
I think they are definitely making a kind of progress that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. But how much is hard to measure. As I write this, the election still hasn’t been called, despite one of the candidates going out of his way to prove himself an incompetent, racist, sexist, homophobic force of destruction whose administration has brazenly made it their mission to undo years of progress while defrauding the American public. And exit polls are showing that larger numbers of white women voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. So not only is the patriarchy fighting tooth and nail to retain its power, but many women are willing to vote not just against themselves, but their gender.
And in areas where no one is looking, where the film industry is much smaller and still reliant on gatekeepers, it may still be business as usual. So, while we're seeing an incredible amount of films that feature ever more diverse perspectives, not to mention the rediscovery of earlier filmmakers such as Kathleen Collins, we’re not just still on incredibly shaky ground, the ground itself could evaporate under our feet at any moment. So while I’m optimistic, I’m also aware that the only reason we're having these discussions is because 2016 basically forced us to. So, in summary, is there progress? Yes. But we must always be prepared to push back.
To read more film previews and reviews, click here.
To read more articles by David Luhrssen, click here.
