UPDATED 11/3/2014: Dates and times are now available at WUDFilm.com
WUD Film’s Mini_Indie Film Festival typically plays in the spring, but the micro-festival hits the Union South Marquee earlier this year from Thursday Nov. 20 through Sunday Nov. 23.
The prime decision for the move seems to be motivated by a need to distinguish the program from the Wisconsin Film Festival, which has preceded Mini_Indie during the first week in April in recent years. “We moved it to the fall this year because we wanted to distinguish our great film festival from the Wisconsin Film Festival [which is] also great,” WUD’s Publicity Associate Director Chelsea Shister said in an email.
Shister added that WUD “would to like to avoid playing the same films as the WFF altogether.” Wisconsin Film Festival 2014 alum Dusty Stacks of Mom will play as part of Mini_Indie, but piecing together WUD Film’s two-a-day Twitter announcements revealsm inimal programming overlap.
Although Mini_Indie shares some overlap with other film festivals. Like Sundance’s Screening Room Calendar and Cinematheque’s special engagements (ahem), Mini_Indie undeniably fills gaps in Madison’s mid-sized market limitations. This year’s fest features Ernest and Celestine, a widely-acclaimed animated feature about a bear and mouse’s unconventional friendship that played at the Milwaukee Film Festival in September, and God Help The Girl, a “perfect pick-me-up” musical loosely inspired by Bell & Sebastian frontman-turned-director Stuart Murdoch’s own life experiences.
Other festival fare includes Sundance documentary Dinosaur 13, which details the legal battle between paleontologists and the federal government over the discovery of the largest T-rex fossil on record. Tom Hardy vehicle (sorry) Locke, which premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, is a one-man show with 90 minutes of Hardy driving to meet a mistress in labor with his child — and that’s about it. New Zealand mockumentary and Sundance premiere What We Do in the Shadows takes This is Spinal Tap and chucks it at a family of vampires living in the 21st century.
Vamp enthusiasts can also catch Jim Jarmusch’s drowsy hangout movie Only Lovers Left Alive, which kicked off this fall’s Spotlight Cinema program with a 35mm print. Other Mini_Indie selections include Alex Ross Perry’s deliciously acidic Listen Up, Philip, the last non-Hunger Games performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman in espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, Donald Rumsfeld documentary The Unknown Known, German ode to bodily functions Wetlands, and revenge thriller takedown Blue Ruin.
Per tradition, Mini_Indie also promises a selection of student short films. There’s a decent chance I’ll write about that.
- The Mini_Indie Film Festival is FREE runs from Thursday, Nov. 20 through Sunday, Nov. 23 in the Union South Marquee. Expect complete dates and times at some point this weekend over at WUDFilm.com