Illustration by Melissa Lee Johnson
“With the growth of the festival, we’re working on building out the breadth of the experience for the customer. The festival begins with great movies, but it’s so much more than that—it’s the experiences that we build around them," says Jonathan Jackson, artistic and executive director of the Milwaukee Film Festival (MFF). 2017 does, indeed, mark a year of significant expansion for the festival, but the core mission remains: “to make Milwaukee a center of film culture." In a recent interview, Jackson addressed pressing issues such as the place of film festivals within a culture of streaming media, MFF’s upcoming acquisition of the lease to the Oriental Theatre and some of his favorite offerings in this year’s festival.
Why a Film Festival?
Asked how Milwaukee Film Festival remains relevant and competitive in the era of streaming, on-demand content from giants like Amazon and Netflix, Jackson shares a few observations. First, counter to the prevalent assumption that film festivals screen only art house pictures that viewers wouldn’t be able to find in a conventional movie theater (much less streaming online), Jackson notes that MFF happily screens a small percentage of content available on-demand.
“We’ve studied how those films perform versus other films, and we actually think it might boost the attendance [overall] because it’s on demand and, our theory is, it’s familiar … Maybe people saw it scroll across their screen and, because the festival has 297 films, most of which you’ve never heard of, it might help you identify something that you like or feel more comfortable with if you’ve actually heard of a title before." This year, look for favorites like Aladdin and Dark Crystal.
As to the uniqueness of a festival vs. a home-viewing experience, Jackson says MFF utilizes “the special recipe of atmosphere in a venue, like the Oriental Theatre, the number of people who are there, and the great programming. And I like to see things on the big screen—you can’t say it any simpler than that." The festival’s unique movie-going experience is bolstered by numerous panel discussions and events—among the latter, a craft cocktail tasting following the documentary Schumann’s Bar Talks (Oriental Theatre, Saturday, Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m.)—and the ever-popular Pitch Us Your Film event in which the public is invited to watch local filmmakers compete for a $2,500 cash prize to begin work on a new project (Milwaukee Film Festival Lounge, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2:30 p.m.).
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The festival likewise provides multiple education programs throughout the year, including Reel Talks, an initiative that runs concurrently with the festival and brings some 30 international filmmakers into local middle school, high school and college classrooms. During these visits, they converse with the teachers and students, share a clip from their film and discuss its subject matter, as well as their lives as independent creative artists.
In addition to providing events and outreach, MFF undoubtedly fills a gap for viewers in what is commercially available. For instance, Jackson shares that attendance for their Documentary Festival Favorites program track (of which the Shepherd Express is a sponsor) has significantly increased in the past few years, to the point where more people attend the festival’s documentaries than its fiction films. Most of these documentaries would not be screened in Milwaukee in any other context and, as Jackson observes, the unique offerings present “alternative ways of understanding the world today beyond traditional media or research … I think Milwaukee likes to learn and likes to be exposed to the world, and I think documentaries are a great way to do that today."
Finally, Jackson speaks to the relationship of trust and curatorship that a film festival builds with its patrons. “Now, the challenge is that there’s so much content out there, and where I hope Milwaukee Film proves its value is in being a good curator and developing a trust with its audience so that, while you might not love everything that we show, you’re probably going to find value in it or find it interesting."
Major Expansion in 2017
In June 2018, MFF will replace Landmark Theatres as the leaseholder for the Oriental Theatre, making the 1927 movie palace its permanent venue and expanding its events and programming to encompass the entire year. Jackson shares, “For most of the arts nonprofits in this town, one of the biggest challenges is, what is our home base, what is our permanent venue for our performances or festival? We have the same challenges. We don’t have year-round control over dictating when our dates are, or what screens we get. It inhibits our ability to plan long term and also restricts our ability to raise funds and sell sponsorships. Securing the Oriental Theatre long term gives the festival permanence and the ability to design the festival perfectly for its own benefit."
He also notes that acquiring the Oriental will allow for expansion of programming specifically offered in that theater. Whereas previous festivals have used only two screens, going forward, MFF will make use of all three and, throughout the year, dedicate one of them to themed programming such as classic films, silent films or genre film series. The dedicated venue will also allow for increased programming with MFF’s nearly 300 community partners.
“We really want to open up the space to partner with other nonprofits, small businesses and universities and have them help inform the programming of the space and create events around the screenings,” Jackson says. He notes that, heretofore, these individual film sponsors have had to organize their own events around the screenings, utilizing venues such as bars, restaurants and community centers. The Oriental acquisition will allow for such programs to find a unified home and reach a more diverse range of patrons. “Cinema can be a great way to build community and to create a forum for dialogue where people who don’t typically interact with each other get to do so," Jackson says.
Responding to the idea that patrons may be fearful of losing the usual high-quality programming the Oriental has supplied for years, Jackson assures that MFF has done six years’ worth of due diligence on the project and plans to provide the same level and frequency of programming to which Oriental patrons have become accustomed. The difference, as he puts it: “Our goal is to be a bit more exclusive about our content in that we ask, ‘If it’s already screening on a dozen multiplexes in the area, what is the value of us screening it at the Oriental Theatre?’ This creates opportunity for more unique programming." Also, MFF plans to invest several million dollars into the structure itself—particularly focusing on improving its sound and projection capabilities. “We intend to be a great custodian for an architectural jewel of Milwaukee and try to activate it further,” Jackson says.
A New Frontier in Virtual Reality
In terms of the 2017 festival’s offerings, patrons will find the same 15-program track lineup as last year, with one important addition—the VR Gallery, located in the former East Side Framing Shop (2021 E. Ivanhoe Place) just around the corner from the Oriental. MFF’s operations director, Kristen Heller, says that for the past two years VR (virtual reality) experiences have been connected to the festival’s Public Forums Program (which organizes speaker panels), but this year marks the first time they have become part of the general program and received a run-time of more than a few days.
From Sept. 30 to Oct. 8, the gallery will hold regular hours and make a wide array of VR experiences available, along with staff to assist patrons with the cutting-edge VR gear. Experiences include Across the Line , a groundbreaking VR film that places patrons alongside a young woman entering Planned Parenthood amid a stream of protestors; Notes on Blindness , an immersive experience that uses binaural sound to replicate the sensations of a blind person; and Kinoscope , a family friendly animated work.
Asked what she believes the unique power of VR is Heller shares her thoughts on another one of the gallery’s offerings: “I think it’s the immersion. It basically puts you in places that you never would have experienced; like with Step to the Line , it puts you within a maximum-security prison and shows what that experience is like for someone who’s leaving prison. It’s one thing to watch a film on screen, but it’s another to look around and suddenly be encased in an environment. It’s immersing viewers in the environment and involving them in the story, rather than them just being spectators."
Top Picks for the 2017 Festival
In addition to highly recommending the VR Gallery to festivalgoers, Jackson shares a few of his top movie picks and program tracks:
The Blood is at the Doorstep
A locally produced documentary and MFF’s centerpiece film, this offering follows the non-violent protest and community organizing efforts of the Hamilton family following the police shooting of their unarmed son, Dontre, in Red Arrow park in 2014.
The Lost World
This silent film adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dinosaur epic will be accompanied live by the Alloy Orchestra, acclaimed for using electronic synthesizers and a “rack of junk” to create their unique sound.
AlphaGo
A riveting documentary in a style Jackson compares to sports coverage, AlphaGo tracks the battle between the world’s foremost player of the ancient board game Go in his match against a supercomputer designed by DeepMind, the artificial intelligence arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Inc.
Black Lens
This programming track includes numerous submissions from African American filmmakers exploring topics and stories derived from the black community and germane to all. Submissions include fiction and documentary and reflect both established and emerging artists.
Cine Sin Fronteras
This programming track, whose name translates to “Cinema Without Borders,” showcases the little-told stories of the Latinx diaspora worldwide, including Latinx, Chicanx, Indigenous, Afro-Latinx and Latin American populations.
The Milwaukee Film Festival takes place Sept. 28-Oct. 12 in Landmark’s Oriental and Downer theaters, as well as the Times and Avalon theaters and Fox Bay Cinema Grill. To learn more, view a complete schedule and purchase tickets, visit mkefilm.org.
