The Wisconsin Film Festival took place in Madison April 4 through April 9. The festival began in the year 1999 in an effort to revive film culture at University of Wisconsin, when interest fell in the 1990s according to UW professor of film Jeff Smith.
The 1970s represented the peak of Wisconsin film where dozens of films were played and watched every weekend, according to Smith. The films were promoted by various film societies operating on campus.
“Back in the 1970s — the glory days of campus film societies – you could find a couple of dozen films playing at UW on any given weekend,” Smith said in an email statement to The Badger Herald. “By the 1990s, campus film societies had mostly disappeared.”
The film festival was then stated as an alternative to continue the efforts of those societies. The festival’s main aim, according to Smith, is to bring American independent films and foreign language films, which otherwise are overlooked by major theaters in Madison, to light.
This year, the festival held its 34th film festival, celebrating culture and creativity in Wisconsin through film. The festival is said to hold over 140 films across six different locations on campus according to Smith. The festival includes various genres including documentaries, experimental films, narratives and repertory titles amongst others.
Major films included the “Wisconsin’s Own” and “Big Screens, Little Folks” programs run by the festival itself. The programs were created to promote locally produced films and include titles for children according to the official website.
The “Wisconsin’s Own” film, led by programmer Ben Reiser, was started as a way to promote films which are either made primarily in Wisconsin or created by members who have been residents of Wisconsin or attended schools in Wisconsin for more than one year.
Apart from locally produced films, the festival may also host more nationally grossing films previously presented in festivals such as Sundance, Toronto, Chicago and Palm Springs chosen by the festival’s Artistic Director, Mike King and Consulting Programmer, Jim Healy.
Other significantly influential figures in the selection process include members and students involved in the festival.
The importance of films in today’s world is their capacity to prompt empathy. Literature allows us to see character, but visual depiction is our closest efforts to walk in other peoples’ shoes, according to Smith.
“At its best, [film] can serve as a vehicle for mutual understanding that strengthens our social bonds and sense of human connection,” he said.
The film festival wishes to promote this idea and show Wisconsin through film — to represent culture and creativity in the state and show it through the lenses of its creative inhabitants.
