Director's Cut Wisconsin Film Festival Edition 2023

- The following program is a PBS Wisconsin Original Production.

[funky music] - Woman: Start again.

[dramatic instrumental] [driving guitar music] - Welcome to Director's Cut.

Tonight, you'll get to know several filmmakers because they all have films appearing in this year's Wisconsin Film Festival, which is right around the corner.

That's right film fans, tonight is the annual PBS Wisconsin Director's Cut Film Festival episode.

Over the next hour, we'll discuss and see clips from some of this year's flicks, which run the gamut.

We've got award-winning filmmakers, experimental filmmakers, directors of short and feature-length films, from the morbid to the comedic to the eclectic to stop motion animators, and then, to make it really fun, we'll throw in some blind bowlers.

But before we meet our directors, let's kick things off like we do every year by talking to one of the brilliant programmers from the Wisconsin Film Festival.

Joining us for the second year in a row is festival programmer Mike King.

Mike, how are you?

- Mike King: Thanks for having me.

- I kind of introduced you like it's a beauty pageant or something.

I didn't mean it to.

- I appreciate it.

- You're a handsome guy.

I just, I didn't wanna make you feel awkward.

Welcome to the show.

It's great to have you again.

- Always glad to be here.

- Yeah, so, the first thing I wanna ask you about, one of my favorite things about this festival are the venues.

I love seeing films at Vilas Hall here or at the Chazen, you know, but you have a venue that you guys are about to retire, but is making an encore appearance this year.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

- Absolutely.

For a number of years now, we've had the festival at the theaters at Hilldale, which were originally Sundance Cinemas, and then they got bought by Carmike, and then, they got bought by AMC.

And we managed to keep the festival there as one of our main venues through all those years.

But AMC closed those theaters back in December.

But this April, we're gonna be resurrecting them for one week only for sort of magical sendoff for the kind of great week of movies that those theaters deserve.

- And that's it, this is it?

Just the one week... - That's all she wrote!

- And then, they're really done.

- Yeah, it's really done.

We're closing the festival on April 20th with Last Picture Show, and that's the last picture show for those theaters.

- So was that hard to do?

Was it still in shape to do that?

Or did you have to really, truly resurrect?

- We are really, truly resurrecting it.

I mean, you know, in some ways, some things are left that we're able to use and we're bringing other things in and we're just getting it all back into shape and making it even better than it was.

- That's excellent.

Well, aside from the venues, what can you tell us?

Can you give us, like, a brief overview of the festival this year?

- Sure.

I mean, you know, this is the 25th Wisconsin Film Festival, so I think people may know what to expect at this point.

As you know, we have films from across the world and across the state, and also films from across film history.

We are one of the only festivals that really is so dedicated to showing movies all the way back to the Silent Era, to movies that are premiering just now at South by Southwest, so it really runs the whole gamut, and it also has a great section for family films.

So, you can bring your kids, your grandkids, whoever.

You know, it's movies for all ages.

- You guys do that every year, too, which I think is great.

What about restored classics this year?

Anything you're bringing out?

- We have a lot of great restored classics.

One that comes to mind is the New York Times film critic, Manohla Dargis will be introducing Shirley Clarke's film, "The Connection," which we'll be screening on a 35-millimeter print.

And then, she'll be having a conversation with our festival director Kelley Conway afterwards about women in cinema.

And we also will be screening a crazy restored 3D movie from the '50s called "Robot Monster," which we'll be presenting in 3D at Vilas Hall.

So, you know, all kinds from the high tone classics to "Robot Monster."

- Those are so fun to watch.

All right, sit tight.

We wanna have-- talk to you a little bit more, but first let's take a look at our first sampling of films that will be at this year's festival.

[no audible dialogue] [indistinct voices] [speaking in Persian] [crunching hay] [suspenseful music] - Narrator: Documentaries are having a moment.

- They're doing great at the box office.

- They're becoming a part of pop culture.

- The hunger for great nonfiction has grown and grown and grown and grown.

- Many choose to be on camera because they wanna set the record straight.

- We know that documentary can have a concrete impact on our world.

[speaking in foreign language] - Man: It's important for people to understand that our subject, that's a real person.

- I have been invisible for a long time.

- I was able to get Mama a new car, a new house.

- I wanted this.

I didn't really give thought to how it might affect my children.

- My siblings and I were so young.

We didn't have a choice.

- I think the question is, is a relationship between the documentarian and the subject truthful?

- Man: A documentary is becoming part of someone's story.

- Woman: How might that changed that person's life?

[shouting] - Think twice of who you be around!

- I'd like to be dripped from the staircase.

[water splashing] [knocking] - Roller skating rink.

[speaks in foreign language] She was 15, I was 18.

- Definite idea that I'm gonna lose my virginity.

- Everybody's always after the young people.

What did the young people want?

- Here it is.

- One thing, you don't have to look for brains.

- She have 13 children, that's a lot of shtupping.

- This is me with my son Kevin in 1974, when he was two.

This is him with his own child in 2014 when he was 42.

- What made my parents that way?

Oh, their parents.

- I'm wondering how much my friends are thinking about the upcoming end of the days we're all walking through.

- I just feel like certainly a sense, an ominous sense of the end.

- Oh, I see where we are going.

I see where we're going.

- The powerful need to know that we come from somewhere, - Child: Ta-dah!

- And that we're going somewhere.

- Child: I wanna stay here forever.

- Welcome back.

Joining us for another segment is Mike King, the Wisconsin Film Festival artistic director.

These look at great films as usual.

The Wisconsin Film Festival is unique in that it's the largest university- sponsored film festival in the world, correct?

What are the advantages of that?

Like, how does that help you guys become a better festival?

- Well, one of the great advantages of it is that we're able to make use of all these amazing spaces that we have on campus.

Our big theater is Shannon Hall, at the Memorial Union and that's a thousand-seat room, and we build it out to have a huge screen and surround sound and everything.

And you know, seeing a movie like this with a thousand people is a really transformative experience.

You know, it enhances the movie, it makes comedies funnier, it makes scary movies scarier.

It's really like a great feeling to watch a movie with the crowd of that size.

So, whether it's Shannon Hall, or the Chazen, or Cinematheque, or the Marquee, it's great to be able to bring the festival to these spaces all over campus.

Another great thing about being on campus is that the festival, in the past couple years, we've made free for all UW students.

So, we're really able to bring the students out and introduce them to this great art form that we care so much about.

- Yeah, that is really cool and nice for students, too.

I remember I saw "Chacha Real Smooth" last year at Shannon Hall.

- Yeah.

- And hadn't been released yet.

- Right.

- So, I think Apple, or somebody had all these security people roaming through the audience making sure nobody was recording.

- That's right, no bootleggers.

- And they almost caught me.

[Mike laughs] So, but that is a great, that's a great place to see a movie, too.

So, what makes-- if you had to brand this, there's so many film festivals worldwide now.

What is Wisconsin?

How would you describe it?

What sets it apart other than the fact that it's university sponsored?

- Well, you know, as I mentioned, we, I think, have a deep sense of film history, and we put these films in conversation with each other.

We're showing a new documentary about the rock band The Zombies, and to go along with it, we're showing a movie that they appeared in, Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake is Missing."

So, we find ways to combine the new movies with the classics and put them in dialogue together.

So, I think that's one of the things that really makes our festival special.

- Is there a desire, when you have a film festival like this, it's like eight days, do you want to grow it?

Do you want more days, more films?

Are you happy kind of where you guys are at right now?

- I feel like we're in a pretty good spot.

You know, it seems like the demand is there.

So, it's been good for us to be...

The eight-day thing is tied to being at Hilldale, so.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

- I'll look forward to seeing my last film over there ever this year, so that's great.

Thanks, Mike, we'll talk to you again at the end of the show.

Do not go far.

Do not leave the building.

- Got it.

- That's what I'm telling you.

Up next is a clip from the narrative feature title, "We Are Not Ghouls."

[pensive music] - In my own mind, psychologically thinking, "This guy's a terrorist.

This guy's the worst of the worst."

He was gonna blow up Americans and do all these nasty things.

I was actually scared to go into the cell with Binyam.

He was in Afghanistan at the wrong time, at the wrong place.

September 2001, 9/11.

In October, the war in Afghanistan.

[gunfire] All Hell broke loose.

[explosions] - News Anchor: There's a missile barrage landing.

- George W. Bush: If anybody harbors a terrorists, they're a terrorist.

If they fund a terrorist, they are terrorists.

- I got involved in Guantanamo because I raised my hand and said, "I'll volunteer."

- Man: A dark prison.

There was no day; there was no night.

Gunshots, people screaming.

- He said, "You're gonna have to fill in the emotion because I'm kind of dead in the head."

- Man: The setup of that place was to make people, drive them crazy.

- It was horrifying.

One of my clients, Binyam Mohamed, they had him tortured for 18 months, including they took a razor blade to his [bleep].

- G.W.

Bush: We do not torture.

We do not render to countries that torture.

- Dana Perino: United States has not, is not torturing.

- We do not tort...

Listen to me.

- Hillary Clinton: Well, I'm not gonna comment on the last question.

- Yvonne Bradley: This is so much bigger than just Binyam.

- How do you investigate the world's biggest intelligence agency?

How could you track what had happened to these prisoners?

Find all the planes that went to Guantanamo.

I'm following the movement of these planes in real time.

This is actually the full CIA's fleet.

- Yvonne Bradley: It was a different type of fire in me, not in my name.

And I'd fought that case from a different viewpoint than I fought any other case.

- Startling allegations this morning from a military attorney who represented an inmate at Guantanamo Bay.

- Yvonne Bradley: It's a tip of the iceberg.

- So I start looking up her name and all these clips are coming up on Yvonne.

She's on the news every night.

I pick up the newspaper, and there's my sister.

- What are you talking about, CIA, FBI?

It's really schizophrenia.

- British Reporter: But this is a terrible situation.

I mean, will you ever be hired as a military lawyer again?

- Yvonne Bradley: Well, I'm doing my job as a lawyer.

I think I learned more about myself than I did about Binyam because I realized that in a sense I had been had.

- That was a clip from "We Are Not Ghouls."

And joining me now is director Chris James Thompson.

Chris, welcome back to Director's Cut.

You've been here before.

- Yes, I love it here.

Thank you for having me back.

- Oh, it's our pleasure.

Great film by the way.

And you had a big win with this film.

You and you beat out some pretty stiff competition.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

- Yeah, this film premiered last year at South by Southwest Film Festival, and it played in the documentary spotlight section, which had films featuring Tony Hawk and Mickey Mouse and Kids in the Hall.

So, these are all other feature documentaries that it was in competition against for the audience award and it ended up winning.

And the film that I was the most excited to have beat was a Nolan Ryan documentary, and in Texas, I don't know if you know how big a deal Nolan Ryan is, but he's like, you know, there's God and the Nolan Ryan is just below him, I think.

So, to have the audiences respond in the way they did to our film in the context of those other films, it was quite an honor.

We were very excited and happy about that.

- What I'm hearing is your film is right between God and Nolan Ryan right now.

- That's your words; It's your words not mine.

- So, tell us a little bit about Yvonne.

How did you find her?

She's such a dynamic personality and so passionate.

Can you give us a little background about her and how did you find her?

And how did you start the process here?

- So, Yvonne is a JAG Attorney in the Air Force and she had represented a man who was held at Guantanamo Bay.

And it took about four years of her life, that assignment.

And it was quite an undertaking for her.

It was a very pressure-filled, complicated mission for her.

And when it was over, she wrote an essay reflecting upon that time.

And it was a few pages long, you know.

It was part of a longer book called "The Guantanamo Lawyers," which featured essays by a hundred lawyers.

And I read the whole book, but her's stuck out to me because the conflict was just so rich, and she had such a complicated sort of mission to try to achieve.

It changed her whole world.

It shifted her paradigm.

I changed the way she thought about the military, about the U.S. government, about her place in the world.

All these things, you know, came up as questions for her while she was working on this case.

So, it was just a very interesting story, and I reached out to her to see if she wanted to develop that essay further into a feature film.

And so over the course of nine years, I live in Philadelphia, I was driving back and forth to Philadelphia, we were doing interviews and I was learning about her life and trying to figure out what parts of this story-- 'cause it's a massive story-- are necessary to tell a documentary in 80 minutes, 90 minutes.

- That is incredible.

So, what did you have to be the most patient with?

Like, you've got nine years, you said compiling interviews, getting, you had these great confinement drawings.

How did you get those?

Can you talk about, like, was the process tedious even though you're passionate about it and what was the part of it you had to be the most patient?

- Yeah, that's a good question.

So, when you talk about Guantanamo Bay as a political issue in the news, when we started shooting this film in 2012, that was still in the news on the front page.

You know, issues about Guantanamo, who was there, how long it was gonna be open.

These were issues that our politicians talked about in debates in front of the whole country.

Over those course of those nine years, it's sort of been forgotten in the mainstream media, and people don't necessarily talk about it.

It's not a politically contentious issue that politicians are butting heads over frequently in the media.

So, the positive part for me as a filmmaker was that over those nine years, as the political contentiousness of the issue may be faded to the background of the public's attention, all the people that were involved with the story were more willing to come forward, do interviews, share their stories, share their media, and news outlets were able to gather more clips on all of these historical things that had happened.

So, from a storytelling perspective, that patience allowed me to really harvest as much of the material as I could find that I needed to tell this story.

- That's a great answer.

There's a great cathartic moment in there for Yvonne when she says she feel like as part of the military, she said she feel like she's been conned.

Like, with the torture issue and all that.

Was it equally as interesting to see her go through her process as your leading lady?

- Yeah, for sure.

I mean, this film is about her and it's a portrait of her, and her life, and her work.

And it focuses on four years of her assignment.

And so, it begins with her walking down the hallway in Guantanamo, at the prison down there, going to meet the person that she was gonna defend for the first time.

And she talks about being filled with fear.

And the reason she was filled with fear-- now she could talk about in hindsight-- was because all the propaganda that was getting pumped into her, into all Americans at that point in time about who was down there, why they were down there.

There's lots of misinformation, there wasn't very much transparency.

And so, she, walking into that room filled with fear, had a realization as soon as she heard the story and made a connection with her client that the truth wasn't being released from that place about who was there.

So, she took it upon herself to try to correct that wrong.

- Such a great moment in the film.

Great job on the film.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for being here today.

I hope the screening goes really well.

- Thanks, Pete, always a treat to be here.

I appreciate it.

- Likewise, buddy.

Up next, the documentary showing us the edgier side of bowling.

Here is a Golden Badger winner, "Friday Night Blind."

[pins resetting mechanically] [cheers] - Woman: What'd I do, nine?

- Judy, you're up.

- Judy: Oh!

Over here.

Where my ball, lemme see.

Joy, you sure this is my ball?

I ain't putting my hand out there.

Okay, I get my ball off the rack.

But when I pick it up, I step up and I walk the rail, and when I get to the end of the rail, I might drop it or whatever they say, cross over [laughs] and just throw it.

- Man: Just throw it?

- Just throw it.

[laughs] I got the gutter.

God damned gutter again!

What frame is this?

Wait a minute.

I'm going in somebody else's lane.

I don't know who the best bowler, but I know who the worst.

You looking there, though.

[chuckling] What I got on the board?

None.

God damned the gutter!

Hey!

- Rhonda: My best game ever was last year.

I bowled a 128.

My worst game and I bowled a zero.

[laughs] - Women in sing-song voice: I got a split!

- Judy: Well, split yourself and sit down!

r. We trash talk all the time.

Where my ball at?

I dunno what ball you had.

- Judy Booty.

- The blue one.

- I don't know, it say Judy Booty.

- Man: Judy Blue?

- It says 'kiss my ass' on it.

- Some of the bowlers used to talks about me bowling.

Didn't want me on the team, and I always told them... "Yes, it say 'kiss my ASS'!"

[chuckles] That's your first time seeing my ball?

[giggles] ♪ Gutter joy ♪ - I did not know Judy had 'kiss my ass' on that ball.

[laughs joyfully] That is definitely Judy.

- Welcome back to the Wisconsin Film Festival episode of Director's Cut.

Joining me now is the director of the film from the clip we just saw, Scott Krahn.

The film is "Friday Night Blind".

Scott, welcome to Director's Cut.

- Scott Krahn: Thank you, great to be here.

- It's nice to see you via Zoom.

- Yes, it is.

[laughs] - Hey, tell us-- Those are some sassy bowlers, first of all, I have to say!

A lot of fun to watch.

Tell us a little bit about how you found this project, if you would, and how you found your main characters.

- Well, it goes back about 13 years.

I signed up to be a big brother with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Milwaukee and I was matched with a eight-year-old boy.

And at the time, Judy was the guardian of Brian.

And over the years, we got to be really good friends.

Judy and I, we have birthdays that are close together and one day I said, "Hey, Judy, it's let's go out for pizza Friday to celebrate our birthdays."

And she says, "I can't, I have to bowl."

I said, "What do you mean you have to bowl?"

And I gotta see this.

So, I went and watched it, and it was hilarious, and it was just, it was funny and inspiring, and all these things all at once.

And I said, "I have to make a movie about this.

This is a great story."

And so, over the course of-- I mean I worked in advertising for over 35 years.

I've done a lot of TV commercials and videos and I would work with directors, and I said, "Hey, I have a great story for you to do a movie."

And all these directors would say, "Well yeah, it's a great idea, you should do it."

And I'm thinking, "Well, I thought you'd say, 'I'd shoot it for you.'"

So, it took a while.

It took me probably six or seven years to finally be able to do this, so... - Well, they did you a favor.

It's a great, it's good that you got to make it and tell the story you wanted to tell.

As a filmmaker, what kind of challenges-- It must have been kind of inconvenient filming women who are blind in bowling and being in a bowling alley, which is probably busy and loud, with sound issues.

Can you talk about the challenges you had as a director?

- Well, we were pretty lean.

It was just Rob Fisher, the DP, and me, just the two of us pretty much did everything.

He was the, you know, the-- I was the grip, and he was the gaffer and the DP.

And we were running around, and trying to just grab as much footage as we could get.

And again, working around the bowlers because some of them weren't too happy we were there, and we were in their way.

And we interviewed actually a lot of people at the bowling alley.

And it ended up being mainly about these three women.

We realized the story was-- the gold was with these three women, their friendship.

And I know a few other people probably wanted it to be in the movie, but it just didn't fit with the edit.

- We have about 30 or 45 seconds left, unfortunately.

I have to ask you-- this fascinated me-- is it weird to show a film to people who are in it who can't really see it?

What is that process like when you screen film for the leading ladies?

- Yeah, that is something... we have... We've screened it with the ladies, and they can hear it.

And it's interesting because they will say, I used to watch that television show all the time, even though they never watch it; they listen to it and they're really good with trivia.

I've been to trivia nights with these ladies, and they're really good with '60s and '70s trivia because they've watched or listened to all these television shows.

- So, okay, so they just listened to it and that's fine.

They get a sense of it and they probably remember just how they contribute.

That's so great.

Can they beat you at bowling?

That's my final question.

[chuckles heartily] - Well, probably, I know that-- I think Rhonda said she had a 138 or something once.

- Wow!

- But I don't bowl so I'm sure they could.

That's the first time I saw Julie Bowl, she had a one.

[Pete Schwaba laughs] - Scott, thanks so much and good luck at the festival.

Thanks for being with us today.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

I don't think I could get a 138 if I had the bumpers up.

We'll talk with more Wisconsin filmmakers in just a moment.

But first, here's a look at more brilliant films featured at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

[speaking Portuguese] [trumpet bellows patriotic song] [speaking Portuguese] [man screams] [gun shots] [thunder roars] [slow piano arpeggios] [tractor engine rumbles] [firing gun] ♪ Spring, summer, winter and fall ♪ [truck engines rumble] ♪ Keep the world in time ♪ ♪ Spinning round like a ball ♪ ♪ Never to unwind ♪ ♪ This last thing is passing now ♪ ♪ Like summer to spring ♪ [din of crowd] [cheers and applause] [speaking French] [speaking French] [eerie music] - Thank you so much for coming.

It's a very small room, so if you really hate it, it's easy to leave.

[laughter] It's just a few steps that way.

[laughter] It'll be okay.

It's so nice to see kids free, eh?

Ice prevents decay.

It can slow your burden.

Now, I haven't talked to you about the relocation much.

- We went by a ship.

It took us a month because it was so much ice.

- The freeze drops life and stops time.

The thaw releases it.

[engine thrums] [rhythmic instrumental and vocalizations] Sound can heal, sound can kill.

[singing chants] Sound can be a spear or a needle.

I sing for you.

I can recognize darkness because he is my brother.

- I want answers!

I want justice!

I want an end to this.

- Are you there, God?

- Samantha Bee: It's me, Margaret.

- Tayari Jones: I felt like someone was being honest.

That's a gift, that's magic.

- There was this moment where, "Wow, like, Judy's talking to me."

- I dread Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing.

- I read Deenie.

- I liked Blubber.

- This is my favorite book.

- I grew up as a good girl with a bad girl lurking inside.

So, by the time I started to write, I really had a lot to get out.

I could be fearless in my writing in a way that maybe I wasn't always in my life.

- That was the first book I had read about wanting to grow boobs and the myths around how to get them and what to do.

- Everything I learned about sex or crushes, I learned from Judy.

- Judy Blume: Let's all say it: Masturbation.

Let's raise our hands if we masturbate, everybody.

Oh, Judy.

- The Wisconsin Film Festival takes place from April 13th to the 20th.

With over 150 films to choose from, it is a movie Heaven.

The festival attracts more than 30,000 movie-goers that watch films on several screens around Madison.

We're talking shorts, features, documentaries, classics, films from around the world, and films from right here in Madison.

Go to the Wisconsin Film Festival website and start picking your movies.

We've got more directors and more movies coming your way.

Up next, a documentary short showing us a slice of neighborhood life in a pandemic.

Here is "Mondale Courting."

[gentle piano music] - Scott Lundberg: I don't think there's the connection between people like there used to be.

And I think that this concert has really evolved into bringing people closer together, bringing back those personal connections of your neighbors and people that you live by.

- Lynn Grimm: Toni lives on Mondale Court here.

She's sort of a recent resident compared to me.

She's been here a couple years.

When she moved in the neighborhood, you know, the first thing I noticed was her license place, which says "JAZZZZZ."

That was sort of a magnet toward her.

- Toni Jakovec: Check 1, 2, 3.

We are ready.

- My name is Toni Jakovec and I am... professionally... it's complicated.

[clapping] - That was a clip from "Mondale Courting."

And joining me is director Mary Moskoff and director of photography, Dan LaCloche.

Welcome to Director's Cut, Mary and Dan.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

So, tell us a little bit about your film.

I mean we saw clip, but what's going on there, and what was the inspiration behind this film?

- Well, everything is story, and my preferred language is film.

And so, I heard Toni say, I didn't know one person could have this much of an impact on others and I wanted to know more about that.

And it really was about the power when someone has a passion and hers is jazz.

She incorporated that during the lockdown to bring her neighbors together with something called a "driveway concert."

So, they were-- The first year, they were isolated, but she said everyone could come out, stay in their driveway, and have music.

Then, it went into the second year.

And then, it was going into the third year.

And it was changing the relationships.

It was changing the identity.

It was really a small act of social change and almost cultural change.

And I think that's where things start.

You know, I mean we can talk about big, big movements, but this, this... - Just that spark.

- Yeah, it was... And so, I just live in story.

This is my first film.

I've written screenplays.

So, I've been part of filming for 25 years.

I've had beautiful mentors and instructors.

Just one note about the film festival, I think it changes lives.

I think, I've missed one 'cause I was out of the country and those-- I was one of those people that you come, on the day they sell tickets, five hours early and you wait in line and you have your buddies every year who do that to get my films.

- The true experience.

- So, I am a film...

It's changed-- One year, we're watching The Singing Revolution and I said to my husband, "Where is Estonia?"

And the next year I was there.

I have my Estonian socks on.

[Pete laughs] And the filmmakers were there doing the next documentary of how Estonia saved themselves from the Russian occupation, German and Russian occupation, again, with their music.

So, that's just one small example of the films at the Film Festival that have changed my life.

- Yeah.

Unfortunately, I'm wearing my socks from Stoughton today, [Mary Moskoff laughs] so, yours are a little more exotic.

So, Dan, you were the DP.

I have a question for you, okay?

So, this is mostly outdoors, what we're seeing.

You, obviously, had a shot list 'cause you're shooting certain things.

When there is a festival like that or stuff going on, are you ever worried when things aren't scripted that you're gonna miss something like a great moment during a concert or kids playing or something like that just to capture something?

- Yes, I'm constantly worried about that.

[Pete and Mary laugh] But, you get what you can get.

And then, I'm also the editor of the film, so the things I'm capturing, I know what I need when I'm cutting it together.

So that sort of informs what I'm capturing.

And if you don't get everything you need, then you get a little creative in the editing room.

- Yeah, I've seen editors and cinematographers be it odds.

So, that must have been interesting for you to challenge yourself on certain shots and whether you need it or not.

We have about 30 seconds left, sadly, but I know this film was kind of cathartic for you, Mary, your husband passed away during COVID.

And talk a little bit about how the film was therapy for you, if you would.

- Yeah, in 2020, before vaccinations, my husband had a fall.

He was in rehab.

He got infected there, and sadly didn't make it.

And when your life shatters and it's in pieces, you make a decision, "How am I going to reassemble those pieces?"

And I think when you're traumatized, I think of art.

I think of theater.

I think of seeing a new story for yourself.

And the original healing temples in Greece were all about healing arts and some science and putting it together.

So, the fact that trauma can be healed, I believe, through creating.

- So, well, you certainly did it here.

Great job in the film and I wish you a lot of luck, and hopefully, you won't have to stand in line so long for your own film this year.

So, thank you very much, you guys, for being here and good luck with the screening.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for having us.

- Mary: Go, Film Festival!

- Our pleasure, absolutely.

Next, a clip from the documentary short, "Expiration Dates."

[slow music] - Man: Some people look at the guarantees along in life.

The minute you're born, you're guaranteed an expiration date, but you don't know when.

The obituaries are on the second shelf down here and there is a total of 12 binders there from the 1950s to 2022.

Back in the 1950s, people were dying then like they are now.

And the funeral homes came up with little cards that people were able to take along with them on just basic information.

The more people you knew, the more visitations you made.

So, you ended up with all these cards and you'd get home from a funeral home visit and throw it in the drawer, and after a year or five years or ten years, you got a drawer full of cards.

And I just got to the point where either throw 'em out or keep 'em.

So, then I was able to get ahold of some small photo albums that the cards just fit into and started filing them away.

And then, after I got a bunch of them, I thought, "Well, maybe we should have kept the obituary that goes along with that particular person."

And then, computer came along, and you could get on the website and print off the whole page of an obituary, which I did.

- Joining me now is director Wesley Morgan.

"Expiration Dates"... great title, love the title, especially coupled with the subject matter.

Tell us a little bit about what may you... Every filmmaker puts their blood, sweat, and tears in every project.

What made you wanna do that with this project?

- Yeah, so this idea came around due to a few different things.

The first was my grandpa, who's the subject in the film.

He collects obituaries.

And I was the tech support person for him when he was working his computer and that's when I first found out that he would go to funeral home websites and actually print out the full obituaries.

And I didn't think much of it until six years later.

I realized, when he was printing these out, he actually had amassed collection about this many obituaries.

There's also a couple other, I guess, interesting things around death that him and my grandma were involved in.

For example, my grandma, she's a hairdresser.

That was her profession.

And she would actually go to the funeral home and cut the hair of the deceased.

And it was a couple combining these different ideas about how people are remembered that I realized there was a film that could be made out of it and something that would be interesting to more than just our family, but to a wider audience.

- That's such a great moment when she's talking about doing the hair of the deceased.

And she talks about, I think, it was her own mother that she thought, "Oh, I shouldn't do the hair of my mom."

And then, she said, at one point, she almost regretted not doing it because to her that was just a rite of passage and it didn't matter that she'd be working.

It has so many sweet moments like that, and moments where you think like, "Oh, God, who would ever want to do that?

And your grandma was like, "Oh, I wish I would've done it."

You know, you have so many great moments like that.

So, can you talk about like, when you are editing it or shooting it, marrying the comedic and the morbid together like that?

- Yeah, that was definitely going into the film.

That was definitely the tone I had in mind.

And another inspiration for the film was the title of the film, "Expiration Dates," comes from the fact that my grandpa, who I call Bumpa, when he refers to someone who's passed away, he'll say, "Oh, so-and-so expired back then."

And so, he uses the word "expired" and that in itself was kind of like this dark humor around death almost making a dark joke about it.

So, the entire film, I definitely wanted to lean into those moments, but also because of the subject matter when a moment was serious to treat it seriously.

And it was a balance of being respectful for the deceased, while also showing how my grandparents react to it.

- It almost seemed like the title almost seemed like a had a double meaning.

'Cause it's like your grandparents are sitting there in their grandparents' chairs talking about the deceased.

It was almost like a date for them.

Like, they both had this similar interest, and it was so, I don't know.

It was very sweet.

And they're both in their late '80s, so talking about death, or laughing at it, must do something for your zest for life?

I don't know.

That's-- it's interesting.

- Yeah, I think it's a perspective you probably get as you grow older where, for me, I've been to less than 10 funerals in my life, but for them, they've been to thousands.

It becomes just a fact of life, you know, another occurrence.

And I think, in a way, it's normalized for them, so they accept the fact that it's sad, but also accept the fact that it's part of life.

- Part of the process.

So, we have just have a few seconds left.

I want you to hold up the poster.

- Yep.

- Talk a little morbid, but also kind of funny-- very quickly, if you could just-- - This was another inspiration was they actually have their headstone pre-made.

And this was a photo they took a few years back in front of it.

And this was another inspiration was the fact that they're smiling in front of their own headstone.

- Oh, my gosh.

- That is so great.

I've never ended an interview before with anything like that so thank you...

Thanks very much for bringing that and good luck with the film.

It's great.

Good to have you back here, too.

I know it's your second time, so thanks, Wesley.

- Yeah, thanks.

I appreciate you.

- Our next film is an animated experimental short film titled "Of Wood" and another Golden Badger winner.

[relaxing music] [animated music] That was a clip from "Of Wood."

And joining me now is the film's director, Owen Klatte.

Owen, welcome to Director's Cut.

- Thank you, glad to be here.

- How on earth did you do that?

[Owen Klatte laughs] I, honest to God, I mean, like I said, I've been on movie sets, I've made some film.

I don't know how you did that.

How did you do that?

- Well...

It was a long, slow process.

[Pete laughs] Start to finish about six years, four years of actually shooting in my basement.

And it was just a matter of carving these images in which I would...

It is hard to explain.

There's a lot there.

- Yeah, I'm sure.

- Yeah, just depended on a lot of years of animation experience and I'd never done any wood carving before.

So, when I... - So, this wasn't even a passion of yours when you decided to make the film?

- No, the animation part was a passion.

I wanted to do something with wood, and, I didn't know, I just love wood, I love trees, wood sculpture.

I've never done any, but I thought I wanted to do something with wood, and then I was thinking about doing, do anime wooden puppets or something.

But I wanted to do something really different that had never been done.

And I don't believe this has ever been done before, by anybody.

- Yeah.

- So, I just took a little class just to learn the basics of what tools to use and how to do basic carving techniques.

And then, I jumped in, and used a software called Dragon Frame that allows you to...

It's the industry standard animation software for stop motion where you get, and I could put in images and I could basically use-- Sort of like tracing images into the wood and then, I would carve those out progressively.

- Wow.

- But yeah, it was... - So, stop motion animation is a tedious process.

- Yeah.

- You somehow found a way to make this 10 times more tedious.

You must be like the most patient guy in the world.

- Kind of.

I mean, I always, I say, you have to be kind of crazy to be an animator and you have to be bat crap crazy to do this because, yeah, this was a...

I like to keep track of how long it takes to do my animation sometimes.

And in my career, professional career, the longest I ever spent on something was about an hour a frame.

You know, for 24 frames a second of film, this was as much as three- and-a-half hours per frame.

Like, I'd work for eight or 10 hours and walk away with three frames of animation and eighth of a second done, so.

- That is just incredible.

So, you've worked on some really big films as an animator, A "Nightmare Before Christmas", "Harry Potter," you know, your work has been seen.

You're making a short film about wood.

What made you-- this must be a serious passion, or you just wanted to do trail blaze somehow, or tell us what inspired you to make this?

- What got me inspired to do animation in the first place was going to see these annual collections of independent short films that would come to the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee every year from film festivals around the world.

And I just was blown away by the amazing range of things you could do with animation that were not Disney or Warner Brothers or the traditional commercial things.

I just loved the range of amazing things.

So, that's what got me inspired.

And then ended up getting into the industry, went to school in Milwaukee, and then, got into the industry eventually, and spent 25-plus years working in the industry, but never had the time and energy to do my own thing.

So, finally got to the point where I sort of... - You had a lot of time.

- More retired, I basically retired from the industry.

I'm teaching part-time at UWM, but no, I had the time to go back and finally make my film 40 years later.

- One of these days, you'll be fast enough to be considered slower than molasses in January.

This is incredible.

Thank you so much for bringing this.

It's a really neat piece and I wish we had more time, but I wanted to ask you about Walden, too.

But you're just gonna-- you'll probably do a Q&A at the film festival, maybe you can answer even more questions, that'd be fine.

I wish you luck with the screening.

It's great.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for being here.

- Okay.

- And thanks to all the filmmakers who have joined us for this preview.

Here is our final grouping of film clips.

[men converse in foreign language] [relaxing music] [slow music] [speakers speak in Hebrew] [speakers converse in Hebrew] - Back for our final segment here on the Wisconsin Film Festival episode, my favorite episode that we do.

So, Mike, it's always great to see you.

What if you had to pick three movies at this year's festival, what would you pick?

- Well, it's a tall order, but, you know, I think for starters, you can't go wrong with our opening night film, which is "Luxembourg, Luxembourg."

It's an incredible new dramedy from Ukraine.

And that's gonna be screening opening night at Shannon Hall on Thursday, April 13th.

So, that'll be a big, huge fun screening that I can't wait for.

We're screening a new documentary called "Chop and Steal," which is about the two guys from Wisconsin who founded the Found Footage Festival.

So, basically, they've gone around scouring thrift stores for the weirdest video tapes you could find.

- Oh, I love it.

- Yeah.

So then, this is the documentary about them and their recent quest to create videos of their own by going on like morning shows and pranking them, and doing these elaborate things where they pretend to be strong men.

- I love it.

- Yeah.

And they're gonna be here, and doing mini found footage screening after each of the screenings at "Chop and Steal".

So, that's something to look forward to.

And then we have more filmmakers coming, the directors of this new documentary called "Time Bomb Y2K," which is actually a found footage documentary about the Y2K crisis using only footage from 1999.

And it's just, like, all this amazing-- - Losing their minds.

- Yeah.

People losing their minds, celebrities pontificating, you know, people survivalist type stuff, how to videos, how to survive, what's gonna happen.

Watching it, I was like, "Oh, my God, I think this thing actually might happen!"

You know, it kind of got sucked in.

And those directors will be here, as well.

- Okay, cool.

Yeah, that's great.

Well, as always, I'm sure you have phenomenal.

We have a couple seconds left.

Since we talked about venue, and Hilldale and Sundance.

Your favorite venue?

- Well, you know, our home base is the Cinematheque.

We screen movies there year-round.

So, that's a really important space to me.

And that's where we can screen movies on 35, 16-millimeter, 3D.

We'll have silent films with live piano accompaniment.

So, it's our most versatile room and it's also like our home base.

So, you can see movies at the Cinematheque year-round.

- Yeah, but it's hard to sneak coffee in there.

I gotta be honest.

All right, Mike, thanks a lot.

- Thanks for having me.

- Every year, I wish you luck.

It's gonna be a great festival.

I can feel it... as usual, right?

- That's right.

- Yeah.

So, thanks for being here today, all of you.

And thanks to our filmmakers that joined me today.

And thank you for watching Director's Cut.

For more information about the Wisconsin Film Festival, please go to wifilmfest.org.

I'd like to thank all my guests for being with us and wish them the best of luck at their screenings.

I hope to literally see all of you at the movies in a couple weeks, starting April 13th, enjoying this year's Wisconsin Film Festival.

I'm Pete Schwaba, and we'll see you next time on Director's Cut.

[dramatic guitar music]