Both the Wisconsin Film Festival and Four Star Video Cooperative took to social media in the last 24 hours to trumpet the the video cooperative’s newly redesigned site.
.@VideoHeaven has a new site – search w/the flag "Wisconsin Film Fest" to find nearly 700 (!) films from WFFs past! http://t.co/Qz6HgtcTXz
— Wisconsin Film Fest (@wifilmfest) May 11, 2015
We are pleased to announce the new http://t.co/qpSw6bPtxA !This new site has been in development for many… http://t.co/VrmveOhcAE
— 4 Star Video Heaven (@VideoHeaven) May 10, 2015
Madison’s last bastion of physical media included in their long-in-the-waiting face lift a revised search feature. The feature allows end users browsing the catalog to select from up to four separate “FLAG” criteria, the “Wisconsin Film Festival” flag of which searches for available titles that have screened at festivals past.
“Technically the WFF flag isn’t new, it’s just displayed a lot better on our new site,” Lewis Peterson, part of Four Star’s ownership group, told me via email. “What is new is that you can search within stuff flagged WFF, or Gay/Lesbian interest, or what have you.”
A cursory search yields 694 results including Takishi Miike’s 13 Assassins (WFF 2011), The Deep Blue Sea (WFF 2012) and A Hijacking (2013), although some titles are still missing posters. “As for Four Star’s relationship to the Wisconsin Film Festival, we’ve always tried to cross-pollinate when possible,” Peterson added. “We’ve hosted WORT’s annual film fest broadcast, where filmmakers appearing at the festival are interviewed in a live broadcast, for about eight years, we always have special promos in the film fest guide, and we go through the festival program each year to note films that we already have or will be getting soon.”
Shortly before their transition from long-time local video store to full-fledged co-op last August, Four Star issued a call for films with local ties to Wisconsin . It certainly looks like the new stewards are continuing that commitment to local cinema.