Fall approaches, and while we will soon miss the Summer weather we have a lot to look forward to at the UW Cinematheque, WUD Film, and Micro-Wave Cinema series on the UW-Madison campus. But I’d be burying the lead if I didn’t mention up front that if sources are correct, This Filthy World: An Evening with John Waters is scheduled for Thursday, October 15 at Mills Concert Hall, an event I learned about while researching this brief survey. I’m confident that the Waters talk will start showing up on campus resources soon, including the websites for campus sponsors LGBT Campus Center, Division of Student Life, and WUD Distinguished Lecture Series. Currently the only information available is on the website for Our Lives Magazine (unfortunately the banner ad at the top of the page brings you back to the same page).
I saw Waters in a packed Wisconsin Union Theater during my freshman year, and his talk took place not long after the death of Divine. It was a memorable experience, particularly how he handled discussing his late friend. It often surprised me during my grad school days how few undergrads know who John Waters is (doesn’t everyone rent Pink Flamingos at some point in high school anymore?). Clearly it is time for Waters to return and inspire a new generation of misfits and degenerates. Regardless of your interest in his old or new films, he’s an engaging and extremely entertaining speaker. The Waters talk is just one of many dates to mark on your Fall film calendar.
As always, we will do our best update our Alternative Screening Calendar (which occasionally includes significant lectures, like this one) to provide a single resource where you can see all of these events at a glance.
UW Cinematheque
For a fine summary of why you should be excited about the Fall UW-Cinematheque schedule, consult Rob Thomas’s recently posted highlights. Here at the Madison Film Forum, we will keep you informed about several new and old films, starting tomorrow with a review of this week’s Premiere Showcase feature, Studio Ghibli’s When Marnie Was There. We will also collaborate with LakeFrontRow to survey four films in the Cinematheque’s Jean Grémillon series, which we will post and cross-link on September 10.
The Cinematheque has an impressive list of distinguished visitors this semester, including Orson Welles scholar Joseph McBride, and filmmakers David Grabias (Operation Popcorn), Sean Baker (Tangerine), and Vanessa Renwick (Britton, South Dakota). For complete details about everything going on at 4070 Vilas Hall, Chazen Museum, and Union South Marquee Theater, check out the complete schedule at cinema.wisc.edu. And for more insight on Cinematheque programing, check out the interview with head programmer Jim Healy to appear on the Monday, August 31 episode of The Cinephilliacs podcast (and scroll down to find two other recent UW-Madison related episodes).
WUD Starlight Cinema
One recent development that has made me particularly happy has been the revival of Starlight Cinema by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee. Back in the 1990s, programmers like Jeff Roork transformed Starlight from a classics series to a crucial resource for recent and historical experimental films, unconventional documentaries, and outré international cinema. The Starlight reboot reflects the interests of current Committee members who see similar gaps in campus programming. This semester’s Starlight lineup is a mixture of 35mm prints of classics (harder to do for the kids today) as well as, well, experimental films, unconventional documentaries, and outré international cinema (the more things change, the more things stay the same).
The Fall Starlight series kicks off with a 35mm print of Charlie Chaplin’s 1947 black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, on Thursday, September 3 at 7:00 in the Marquee Theater. If there is a Chaplin film with a Starlight sensibility, it is Verdoux, so this should play well to its target audience and make for a fun screening.
The complete Starlight schedule will be available at wudfilm.com very soon. Meanwhile the experimental and documentary offerings in September have been announced. On Thursday, September 10, Erin Espelie’s video essay The Lanthanide Series (2014) examines “modern technology, black mirrors, earth’s elements, and the unseen connections between these things.” And on Saturday, September 19, Peter Bo Rappmund’s Topophilia (2015) “examines how natural and man-made landscapes interact through steadily composed experimental time lapse photography.” Other feature films planned later in the semester include John Waters’s Hairspray (in conjunction with the Waters visit, mentioned above) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s gloomy 1997 thriller, Cure.
Micro-Wave Cinema Series
I’ve previously described the Micro-Wave Cinema Series as “the most important new film series to arrive in Madison” since the 1990s. We’ve done our best to make sure that readers know about this innovative series programmed by filmmaker (Sabbatical) and UW grad student Brandon Colvin, including an extensive interview with Colvin about independent film and his programming philosophy. (You can hear more from Covlin on two recent podcasts: The Cinephiliacs and Filmwax). Colvin returns this Fall with another series of seven films accompanied by filmmaker Q & A’s either in person or via Skype. Personally, I’d like to see the Micro-Wave series folded into the UW Cinematheque publicity, much like graduate student programming was integrated into the early days of the Cinematheque, because they share the same venue (4070 Vilas Hall) and mission (bringing films that otherwise would not reach Madison screens). But until that happens (or if it never does), it can be a challenge to keep up with what Colvin and his filmmaking colleagues from around the country are up to.
The most direct source of Micro-Wave information is its Facebook page, where you can download an image file of this Fall’s schedule pamphlet (you can also click here). We’ve also added all of the titles and dates to our Alternative Screening Calendar, which you can import into your Google, Outlook, or Apple calendars for reminders.
Colvin has provided screeners for five of the seven Micro-Wave films for Fall, and we have scheduled reviews by myself and Edwanike Harbour in the coming weeks. One film we will not be able to preview, review, or tell you much about will be the “Secret Screening” on November 15. I was tempted to ask Colvin for a screener, review the film, and then redact any and all identifying information from the review when I posted it. Short of that, the Secret Screening will present publicity challenges, especially when it is already hard to get the word out and people into seats when they know the titles. But if you try one of the earlier screenings this semester, you’ll discover that the Secret Screening will probably be worth taking a chance on.
Micro-Wave will showcase two films in September. First up on Sunday, September 13 is God Bless The Child by Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, a portrait of five children with an absent mother suffering from depression. In his “Critics’ Picks” review, Nicholas Rapold at The New York Times writes that it “is like few other movies about children you’ve seen, resembling Pierre Gorin’s nonfiction classic Poto and Cabengo in its wild energies and nuanced staging in depth,” and adds that the children’s “blooming personalities…come through with a warm and wonderful immediacy.” A Madison Film Forum review will appear on September 11.
The second feature on Sunday, September 27 will be The Winds that Scatter by Christopher Jason Bell, a portrait of Ahmad (Ahmad Chahrour), a Syrian refugee with dreams of staring his own taxi service who must struggle through the realities of the recent American economy. At Screen Slate, Vanessa McDonnell writes that “the film is quietly self-assured and fine-tuned,” and she concludes that “Bell draws us into his character’s inner life to such an extent that when Ahmad stops and stares in wonder at the scene of a generic New Jersey office park, we’re right there along with him, with awe and appreciation.” A Madison Film Forum review is scheduled for September 23.
Be sure to check back to the Madison Film Forum for reviews, previews, and information about screenings on campus and local theaters.