Wisconsin film fests reel in spring
By Francesca Bonifacio
Movie-goers pick up ballots before the show to vote for the year’s audience favorites at the Wisconsin Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Christopher James Norris.
It’s nearly April, which means spring is nestling in, signaling the comeback of the rain boot, road trips, love in the air, bands, beers and brats on the Terrace, and of course – the return of film season.
First up is the Wisconsin Film Festival – eight blissed-out, jam-packed days of screening after screening, from international filmmakers to homegrown talent and the bits in between. Turning 15 this year, the festival will be held from April 11 to April 18 and will show movies across seven different screens, three of which will be at Sundance Cinemas. Other venues playing host this year are UW Cinematheque, the Chazen Museum of Art and Elvehjem Building, and our very own Marquee at Union South.
Spectators in a full house eagerly anticipate the start of another screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Christopher James Norris.
Continuing its tradition of bringing some of the best world-renowned and local talent to the state, the Wisconsin Film Festival has a couple of new perks this year. For one, it’s longer. More days means more films means more for everyone to enjoy. And second, there will be a free festival trolley running from the Madison Concourse Hotel to Sundance Cinemas on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – courtesy of Hilldale Shopping Center and Sundance Cinemas.
Between its extensive repertoire and this year’s new offerings, the Wisconsin Film Festival is one of this spring’s must-sees. But as these eight days come to a close, film fever picks up again with a smaller, student-run endeavor that gives Madison a taste of the world of independent film.
Enter the Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD) Film Committee Mini Indie Film Festival. Now in its fifth year, this not-so-hidden gem brings the quirky and the obscure, the yin to Hollywood’s yang, to the Madison community.
Spanning five days, from April 24 to April 28, Mini Indie brings the best of the Sundance Film Festival and independent film to the public, free of charge.
And yet for being so “mini,” the process of pulling together this event is anything but. WUD Film Committee director Rayna Christman gave us a play-by-play of what might sound like an enterprise based in obsessive compulsion, bordering on insanity – but only in the best way.
“We only have two guidelines: The films have to be from 2011, 12, or 13, and we have to have seen them. Other than that, anything is fair game,” said Rayna. “We always want variety. We always want quality.”
Choosing just 12 to 13 films is an ongoing endeavor that begins in Utah and continues in Wisconsin. To kick off the selection process, a group of WUD Film aficionados travel to Sundance in Park City Utah each January for a week to find a worthwhile collection of films to bring back. The trip is both exhilarating and exhausting. Each day of consists of waking up and making a mad dash to the box office before sunrise, watching up to five screenings (the last of which starts at midnight), attending panel discussions that end around 2:30 a.m., and finally making it back to bed, only to squeeze in a half hour of sleep, then repeating the entire process again the next day.
Up close and personal with some of the intricate equipment used during the film festival season in Madison. Photo courtesy of Christopher James Norris.
After Sundance ends and the students return, the selection process continues back in Madison. Just last week, a group of WUD Film members met with lists in hand of every film that had potential and watched about 40 trailers altogether. And this process is just a small part of what goes into coordinating this five-day festival. Then comes the logistical planning, marketing, and technology of screening the actual films.
The committee even had the privilege of having their suggestion (Gideon’s Army) chosen as the opening film at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival – Mini Indie’s bigger, beefed-up cousin, if you will. In this sense, Mini Indie cushions the hard blow for cinephiles who may not be ready to say goodbye to an eight-day cinematic binge.
While no titles have been finalized yet, this year’s Mini Indie looks just as promising as last year’s, if not more. Turnout in previous years is estimated at 150 to 200 people per screening, with some reaching the maximum capacity of 330.
“It’s always really fun, and it’s completely student-run,” Rayna said. It’s an entirely independent film festival, and it grows every year.”
