Mixed Metaphors

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another city. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael

The 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) #wifilmfest wrapped up a little over two weeks ago. I feel like I’m just beginning to recover from eight days of filmgoing, seeing multiple films each day, standing in queues to secure a good seat in sold out theaters in what amounted to four seasons of weather (winter returning again today), plotting logistics for travel in between venues, finding parking, coordinating plans with filmgoing friends, and grabbing caffeine or sustenance as required. As a person on the eve of becoming a septuagenarian, it also means getting enough rest while still working a part-time day job.  As a cinephile and not a critic, to mix metaphors, I’m more like a filmgoing weekend warrior than a true filmgoing athlete.

A little of my backstory this year leading up to the film festival: 2019 began with my first trip to the ER on New Year’s Day with a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop (totaling three ER visits so far this year), the death of my sister to cancer on my birthday, and cataract surgery on both eyes. I share this not for sympathy but to highlight the physical, emotional, and spiritual fatigue that preceded my festival filmgoing experience this year, and the time it’s taken me to process the cinematic experience. I’m grateful however that Pauline Kael’s assessment of moviegoing is true for me, “A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again.”

As in other years the WFF featured an array of films to choose from, beginning with Wisconsin’s Own Shorts, Big Screens, Little Folks, restorations and reprises of classic films, narrative and foreign films, experimental and animated movies, documentaries, and premieres of films before they appear in theaters. Yes, a filmgoer’s delight.

Dispatches from the Festival

Following are excerpts from my social media posts beginning with the First Look at the Fest event and each day of the festival:

First Look at the Fest – Filmgoing Friends & Family: Here’s the First Look at the Fest, the preview event of the 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) by the numbers:

6 – I was 6th in line to enter the event (yes, it was practice standing in lines to see films at the WFF).

8 – The WFF is eight days in April, beginning Thursday, April 4 – Thursday, April 11.

9 – Tickets go on sale to the public, Saturday, March 9th.

17 – I purchased 17 individual tickets), averaging 2 films per day over the course of 8 days.

21 – This is the 21st WFF

• Day 1 – Again this year, I’ll blog about the 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival #wifilmfest on Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! Tonight is the opening night of this year’s festival. There are 17 films on my list this year, beginning tonight with Woman at War which is already receiving buzz as one of the Best Films of 2019. As a reminder, I write from the perspective of a cinephile and not a film critic. See you at the movies! I’ll be that chatty woman in line with you.
• Day 2 – TGIF Update: It’s all about the Wisconsin Film Festival #wifilmfest this weekend. Today, it’s all about “the girls.” First up a documentary, Betty White: First Lady of Television, next, Inquiring Nuns. The documentary from 1968 is described in the festival guide as, “A cinéma vérité gem inspired by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s Chronicle of a Summer. Inquiring Nuns follows Sisters Mary Campion and Marie Arné as they ask strangers across Chicago a seemingly simple question: “Are you happy?”
• Day 3 – On my schedule, Toni Morrison: Pieces I Am, Knock Down the House and The Hidden City. I’ll see the latter two films with my filmgoing friend, Janet (Louise to my Thelma).
• Day 4 – Yesterday, Janet and I saw two documentaries together, Knock Down the House, profiling four women candidates for the House of Representatives highlighting Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez’s historic win and journey to the Capitol, followed by The Hidden City an aural and visual exploration of the underground life of a city. Today we are seeing another documentary together, Making Montgomery Clift. I have two films afterwards, Little Woods and Ray & Liz.                                                                                                               
• Day 5 – I’ve seen 7 films so far, unfortunately 2 additional films fell off my list. I’m still recovering from my recent visits to the ER and my spring cold/sinus infection/allergy situation, so I’ve been forced to pace myself and include time to rest and recharge. It’s back to work today at my day job and I have two films each night the next four days. If I make them all, which I hope to do, I will have seen 15 films this year. Tonight, two documentaries, Meeting Gorbachev and Hail Satan? It ought to be a thought-provoking evening.
• Day 6 – First, last night I saw the documentary Hail Satan? If you have any interest in the constitutional protection of the separation of church and state, and any concerns about the role of evangelical Christians and their undue influence in politics and government, see this film. You may be surprised by the message.

On tonight’s schedule, first up Light from Light starring Jim Gaffigan. From the WFF film guide, “In 2014, prize-winning filmmaker Paul Harrill presented the first-ever screenings of his debut feature, Something, Anything at WFF. Now he returns with his acclaimed follow-up, fresh from its premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Like the previous film, Light from Light is a thoughtful, moving story told with quiet precision and patience…this is a compassionate film that is first and foremost about people trying, through extreme grief and everyday hardships, to live in the here and now.”

Next up, Chained for Life from the WFF film guide, “Shot on wondrously grainy 16mm, Chained for Life questions many things—notions of beauty, PC good intentions, the history of disfigurement in cinema from Freaks to The Elephant Man—and has the wisdom to reject pat answers. An intoxicating whirlwind of ideas, spectacularly moving and entertaining. Chained for Life could be a defining film about representation for any group that Hollywood marginalizes.”

• Day 7 – Today is requiring sufficient coffee to get me through “hump day” of the film fest and possible “weather.” Tonight, I see two films, the first is Midnight Traveler. From the WFF film guide, “When the Taliban called for the death of filmmaker Hassan Fazili in 2015, he and his family fled their home in Afghanistan. After 14 months of failed asylum applications, Fazili, his wife Fatima Hussaini, and their young daughters Zahra and Nargis were deported from Tajikistan, and they began creating this deeply personal document of their experience as refugees.”

Next up, when I attended the WFF First Look at the Fest while reviewing the Isthmus film guide, I was sitting next to Jim Healey, WFF Director of Programming and asked for a recommendation for a film to see at the festival. Jim suggested, The Girl in the Window. Check, ticket purchased!

• Day 8 – The final filmgoing day of the 2019 fest #wifilmfest. Full disclosure: My endurance waned yesterday after snow covered my car and winter returned to Madison. I ran out of filmgoing steam and needed to practice H.A.L.T. (my recovery friends will understand) and spent the evening bundled up on the couch with the fireplace going.

Now rested, I’m amped up for tonight’s narrative double-feature, beginning with John Lithgow and Blythe Danner in The Tomorrow Man. From the WFF film guide, “The two form an unlikely bond and are happy together despite their combined emotional baggage—until, one day, it all spills out before them. In his debut feature, writer/director and cinematographer Noble Jones candidly explores modern society’s unacknowledged fear of aging and the erroneous assumption that getting older means losing control.”

Next up, I go back in time to when an ensemble of young actors at the beginning of their careers starred in Joan Micklin Silver’s, Between the Lines. The 1977 film which I saw when it was originally released mirrored my own 27-year-old-life after moving to Madison. As described in the WFF film guide, “The journalists, photographers, and office staff of the (fictional) Boston weekly, ‘The Back Bay Mainline,’ are unflinchingly depicted in seriocomic episodes that show how they spend their time exploring romantic dalliances, planning for their futures, and plotting their escape to greener pastures.” The end of that sentence pretty much summarized the status of my life in 1977 Madison, Wisconsin.

Now that it’s over, I take a final look back at the films that I liked, what surprised me, what disappointed, what left a lasting impression, and which films fell off my list.

First, let me go on record that I never regret seeing a film. One of the pleasures of film festivals is exploring new works, whether or not the films have the potential to succeed commercially or make my recommendation list. I respect the filmmaker’s experimentation, commitment to their vision, and willingness to take risks with their craft.

Another gift of the WFF is seeing films in sold-out capacity theaters joined by other cinephiles, willing to talk about the movies they’ve seen while standing in line or waiting for the film to begin; they share films still on their lists to see, what they would recommend, and what films may have disappointed. The Q. & A.’s that follow some movies feature filmmaker guests and allow another opportunity to engage as illustrated in Pauline Kael’s quotation.

“The romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on the screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what you’ve seen. You do meet them, of course, and you know each other at once because you talk less about good movies than about what you love in bad movies.” — Pauline Kael

What I Liked

(Not ranked)

Woman at War

Before I share my reflections on the opening night selection of the 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival, in what I assume was a hat tip to April’s National Poetry Month, Ben Reiser, Wisconsin’s Own Programmer for the WFF, and writer and director of the official WFF Trailer, opened the festival and provided thanks to staff and programmers in haikus, a feat few could pull off. For some, it was questionable whether he succeeded, yet it was entertaining. Pete Schwaba followed and introduced the three Golden Badger Award winners with clips from their films.  The winners and their films: Life on the Mississippi, Bill Brown, Elephant Path, Todd McGrain and Played Out, James Runde

Woman at War is one-part Icelandic travelogue, one-part suspense story of an eco-activist, by day a choir director who doubles as a woman warrior with archery and singular skills to undermine the grid in defense of the environment, and finally one-part whimsical fairy tale. The film is directed by Benedikt Erlingsson with breathtaking cinematography of its primary location of Reykjavik, Iceland by Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson. Halldora Geirharosdottir portrays Halla our heroine and her yoga teacher identical twin sister.

A second storyline emerges when Halla receives a letter that a Ukrainian adoption application from three years earlier has been approved, creating a dilemma and causing her to choose between her activism and desire to be a mother. Now before you begin to believe this is all too dark and serious there are whimsical touches of humor and humanity woven through the narrative that make this film a joy to watch and an uplifting story in the end.

Betty White: First Lady of Television

One bonus of the WFF are the guest filmmakers and panelists who introduce films and return for Q & A’s afterwards. Another plus, the short films that precede some features. This was certainly the case with Meet Uncle Paul, a Wisconsin’s Own selection by director, Jessica Bursi. It was a moving portrait of her Uncle Paul, a 62-year-old with a BIG personality with Down’s Syndrome who was experiencing the early stages of dementia. It was a heartwarming, uplifting profile of Paul and his family caregivers, his sister Susie and her husband Lee.

Betty White: First Lady of Television was also a Wisconsin’s Own selection and a perfect pairing with Meet Uncle Paul. The director and writer, Steve Boettcher, is from Wisconsin and the second Wisconsin connection was White’s beloved husband, Wisconsin-born, Allen Ludden, who was the host of the TV game show, Password where Ludden met White and where they fell in love. Betty White throughout her 80-year career was a trailblazing TV personality and wildlife activist. She began in radio and easily transitioned into television, the first woman to helm a variety talk show, star in a family situation comedy, and be rediscovered later in life as a comedienne hosting Saturday Night Live, and appearing in reoccurring roles in a series of successful sitcoms including the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls, and Hot in Cleveland. If you need a laugh and enjoy the refreshing humor of an enduring spirit and a smart wit with a big heart, see this film.

Knock Down the House

Much like last year’s showing of RBG in the full-to-capacity UW Shannon Hall, Knock Down the House was a rousing documentary journey which follows the campaigns of four women, progressive outsiders, primary challengers for the House of Representatives across the country. Paula Jean Swearingen in West Virginia coal country, Cory Bush in St. Louis, and Amy Vilela in Nevada, and the breakout winner in the group and star of the film, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).  Against all odds and with passion for their policies, ideals, and a desire to make a difference, these four candidates, campaign with heart and commitment to their causes and the constituents they hope to represent.

From a review in Variety, “Pure fist-pumping inspiration”, Knock Down the House is “a tribute to the energy of every woman who pledged that in 2018 they would make a difference.” For filmgoers who missed this film at the festival, Netflix will be premiering it on May 1^st.

The Hidden City

Experimental films, including documentaries, seldom make my must-see list at festivals. I admit to making conventional choices for the most part, narrative films and documentaries, yet I’m always delighted when a filmmaker and film challenges me to look at something through a unique lens or point of view. This was certainly the case with The Hidden City. What intrigued me, and the reason I selected the film, it was an opportunity to explore worlds that are seldom seen, like traveling into space or under the sea.

From the WFF Guide, “This experimental documentary plunges us into Madrid’s underground maze of man-made tunnels, corridors, and caverns.” “…this alien landscape is revealed to contain its own uncanny aesthetic when viewed through the appreciative lens of cinematographer/spelunker Victor Moreno.”  The film was both a visual journey and the sound design enhanced its aural encounter with foreign places. It was both overstimulating and repetitive that I experienced some relief when it ended. I appreciated the film more after having some time to reflect on what I saw and heard.

Making Montgomery Clift

As a cinephile, I enjoy movies and documentaries about the movies. Since I’ve been watching films for as long as I can remember, over 65 years, many alongside my mother who shared her love of cinema with me, I jumped on the opportunity to see Making Montgomery Clift. I’ve also been a longtime fan of plays and one of my favorite playwrights since a young age was Tennessee Williams. Clift appeared in a film adaptation of one of his plays, Suddenly, Last Summer. As an actor, I found Clift able to express a range of emotions and not afraid to appear vulnerable. He was accessible in a way that many men seemed distant. Add to that his magnetic good looks.

During his career he starred in films which featured some of my favorite actresses, Katherine Hepburn, Shelley Winters, Lee Remick, and Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, who shared Clift’s complicated and tragic myth-making legends, plus his good friend Elizabeth Taylor, who starred in more than one film with him including my favorite Clift movie, A Place in the Sun, a film I would include on my top ten list of melodramas.

Making Montgomery Clift was produced and directed by his nephew Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon. Two biographies of Montgomery Clift capitalized on the rumors of Clift’s homosexuality, alcoholism, and mental health issues following a disfiguring automobile accident.  Clift’s brother, Brooks (Robert’s father), collected caseloads and archives full of ephemera, audio-taped interviews, photographs, home movies, and personal correspondence with family and biographers. Brooks spent a lifetime of trying to correct the myths and misconceptions about his brother which then became the legacy that Robert Clift inherited and the foundation for this revealing story of Montgomery Clift’s life and craft. One of the facts that surprised me the most is that Clift broke away from the confines of the studio system of the time and made his own creative choices through most of his career.

Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the Q & A that followed with Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon, since I needed to travel to my next film. If you’re a fan of Clift and his career, see this documentary.

Little Woods

Director and screenwriter Nia DaCosta’s riveting small-town chronicle of how two sisters struggle to survive in an economically depressed North Dakota oil town. Their personal stories are challenged by the town’s rampant opioid addiction and drug-dealing, one sister, Ollie (played by Tessa Thompson) makes a meager living while staving off a foreclosure on the house she inherited from her deceased mother, while trying to find a job that will jump-start a new beginning off probation. Her sister, played by Lily James, deals with the absent, unreliable father of her son and an unwanted pregnancy, squatting in her RV in a department store parking lot.

From a review by The Playlist, “Exceptional. A rare and insightful look at the life of the working class.” The film caught the attention of Jordan Peele who tapped director DaCosta to helm his next film, an adaptation of Candyman.

Light from Light

Fresh off its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, producer, director, and screenwriter, Paul Harrill returns to Madison and the WFF. In 2014, Harrill presented the first-ever screening of Something, Anything at the WFF (see my mini-review here).

What drew me to Light from Light was actor and comic Jim Gaffigan who plays a recent widower as he questions and seeks to understand the messages he’s receiving from his late wife while he tries to reconcile his grief and understand the ending of their relationship after her tragic small plane crash.

He seeks the assistance of a paranormal investigator, Sheila, who is also struggling to find meaning and make sense of her life. They join forces to capture any activity and understand the messages that the dead may be communicating. One common location that appears in both of Harrill’s films are the Smoky Mountains, which in each film portrays a connection to spirituality and understanding.

Between the Lines

One of the films that I looked forward to seeing again at the WFF was the restoration of the 1977 film by Joan Micklin Silver, Between the Lines. It’s the story of an alternative weekly newspaper, much like our own Isthmus, struggling to be solvent while providing investigative reporting bylines and assignments to its writers and photographers as it staves off a takeover by a publisher interested more in profits than its people.

I was 27-years-old when this film was first released and it mirrored some of my personal journey and exploration with relationships and finding the meaning and purpose of my life and work. This film is as much a romantic comedy as it is a story about the times and culture. It features performances by an ensemble of familiar faces, actors at the beginning of their careers, John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum, Marilyn Henner, and the list goes on. Seeing the film was like getting together with old friends.

I thought the film might seem dated, however the laughter from the audience, especially members who attended from Isthmus and those who like me, who resonated with the story, filled the theater with the recognition of our lived experience. It was the last film I saw at this year’s festival and was the perfect ending.

What Surprised Me

Meeting Gorbachev

I’ve been a fan of Werner Herzog’s documentaries. I find his curiosity to explore and understand the world compelling, whether he’s traveling to Alaska in Grizzly Man, the Chauvet caves of Southern France in Cave of the Forgotten Dreams, or Herzog’s exploration of the Internet and connected world in Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World which I also saw at the 2016 WFF.

I must admit my knowledge of Mikhail Gorbachev was limited to what I remembered from the news of the day. It was a different time and a different Russia. I chose the film because I was confident that Herzog would take me on a journey to satisfy his own curiosity and understanding of his subject, especially based on Herzog’s German heritage and the legacy left by Russia and Germany from World War II, and in the end satisfy mine.

Herzog didn’t disappoint. His questions and historical research created an informative and stereotype-shattering interview with a world leader. Gorbachev certainly held his own and challenged Herzog’s assumptions and displayed a humanity and wit as they revisited history. The archival films and Gorbachev’s tender reminiscences of his beloved wife Raisa made him more human than mythic.

Five Down

A short film which preceded Inquiring Nuns, Five Down, Erik Gunneson’s portrait of his daughter, Hazel, was shot candidly with a smartphone camera over the course of her five years, edited backwards in time. Gunneson who teaches film production courses in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the precocious Hazel, introduced the film and answered questions afterwards. It was truly a life-affirming portrait of a young spirited girl, reinforcing how we may be molded by our environment, but we’re born with our own unique essence. It was truly a delight to know Hazel through her father’s and family’s eyes.

What Disappointed

(Not ranked)

Chained for Life

This was a film I expected to like. A film that I also thought might challenge my thoughts about beauty, “what is normal?” and conventional story-telling. Though it was a narrative film, a fictional story, in essence a dark fairy tale with a message, I found myself disliking the subject matter and what I experienced as exploitation.

From a review in Indiewire, “A truly mesmerizing mind trip of a movie sure to leave audiences reeling and pondering its mysteries long after the credits roll.”  I didn’t wait for the Q. & A. with the director, I had another film to see afterwards, however, full disclosure I couldn’t get out of the theater quickly enough.

Inquiring Nuns

There was much too like about this documentary from 1968, one of the first projects by the Kartemquin Films production company that was shot in Chicago. It is a cinéma vérité film by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s who filmed two nuns, Sisters Mary Campion and Marie Arné interview strangers and ask the question, “Are you Happy?” Locations that were visited included, The Art Institute of Chicago, a South Side church, and sidewalks in Chicago’s Loop. It was filmed in 16mm and presented in two restored reels. Though 1968 Chicago was an impactful time and place in my own life, and the topics that were discussed included the Viet Nam War, I found the questions and some of the answers repetitive. I was restless. I didn’t stay for the second reel. Maybe it had something to do with my Catholic upbringing. Like Chained for Life I couldn’t leave quickly enough.

What Left a Lasting Impression

(Not ranked)

Hail Satan?

A documentary whose title is provocative right out of the gate and poses a question is worthy of being explored further. Hail Satan? poses a number of questions. The group, professing to be Satanists have founded the Satanic Temple, whose headquarters are a black-painted house in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the 17^th century witch trials. The members, which now have chapters all over the U.S. and around the world, are more performance theater, freethinking pranksters, and constitutional activists, than they are religious zealots. Instead of Christianity’s Ten Commandments they’ve drafted the Seven Tenets which profess human rights, decency, and respect. Many of their followers are groups and individuals often maligned as “the other.” When legislators in Arkansas want to erect tablets of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the State Capitol in Arkansas, Lucien Greaves, the Satanic Temple’s co-founder argues they should have permission to display an eight-foot statue of the goat-headed deity Baphomet. They go to work producing it, present their proposal to the planning commission, hold rallies, and bring legal challenges.

Their core beliefs include the separation of Church and State and religious freedom as protected by the Constitution and have protested states that have attempted to erect statues of the Ten Commandments on government property, open public meetings with Christian prayers, and prohibit equal representation, and censor free speech.

The film is directed by documentarian Penny Lane and though it confronts controversial and serious topics it does so in an entertaining and thought-provoking manner.

The Tomorrow Man

Two of my favorite actors star in this film, John Lithgow, as divorced retiree Ed Hemsler, and Blythe Danner, as the widow Ronnie Meisner. As often happens in a romantic comedy their meeting is serendipitous when they cross paths at the local grocery store where they shop, and where they each are stocking up, one preparing for something to happen in the future, the other accumulating material things to fill an emptiness. Spoiler Alert: They are a prepper and a hoarder respectively and soon, as they fall in love and make space for each other in their lives, they must learn an essential lesson of aging, what to hold onto and what to let go.

This is the debut feature of Noble Jones who directed and wrote the screenplay. The performances and sweetly-crafted story balances humor, addresses our flaws and shadows, the unfinished business of our relationships and ends in an unexpected, metaphorical way. The Tomorrow Man which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival is scheduled to be in theaters on May 22, 2019.  There are a number of films targeted for older audiences that deal with aging in a very shallow way. This is not one of them.

Films Which Fell Off My List

Toni Morrison: Pieces I Am

Ray & Liz

Midnight Traveler

The Girl in the Window

2019 Wisconsin Film Festival Facts & Figures

5 venues
7 screens
153 films
156 screenings
178 volunteers

29,280 total Festival attendance

2020 Wisconsin Film Festival: April 2-9, 2020*

The 2019 Steep & Brew Audience Awards ballots have been tabulated, and the favorites are:

Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
Yomeddine | Abu Bakr Shawky

Audience Favorite Documentary Feature
(tie)
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am | Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Knock Down the House | Rachel Lears

Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
Creature from the Black Lagoon | Jack Arnold

Audience Favorite Shorts Program
Stories We Tell in Wisconsin

Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
Short and Sweet

Thank you for voting! As a reminder, our 2019 Golden Badger Award Winners are:

Life on the Mississippi | Bill Brown
Elephant Path | Todd McGrain
Played Out | James Runde

*Dates are tentative and subject to change.

Additional WFF Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

Filmgoer’s Wrap-Up: The 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival

A Filmgoer’s Dispatch: Wisconsin Film Festival Part II

A Filmgoer’s Dispatch: Midway-Wisconsin Film Festival

A Filmgoer’s Preview: The Wisconsin Film Festival

Filmgoer’s Dispatch: 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival

A Filmgoer’s Takeaway: 2016 WI Film Festival

2015 Wisconsin Film Festival Fandom (and More)

Wisconsin Film Festival Fandom