Madison Film Forum’s Jim Kreul walked a mile (or twelve) in patrons’ shoes this year at the Wisconsin Film Festival. His *excellent* series on improving the fest continues with thoughts on the between-screening experience:
Jake Smith pointed out to me during the Festival that programmers did something similar with the programming of Jodie Mack: Let Your Light Shine. Strictly speaking, it was not scheduled between blocks, but it was the latest film in the fifth block on Saturday; while most of the films started between 5:30 to 6:30, Let Your Light Shine started at 7:00 pm. The consequence of this was very similar to the Tricked block busting, because 6 of the 8 films after Let Your Light Shine were impossibilities unless you made some kind of sacrifice. If one didn’t think that the Festival had buried its experimental programming into the backwaters of the Festival, it was hard not to think so after looking at the Saturday grid. I might understand the rationale for block busting with Tricked, because with the Verhoven name you will likely still get a healthy audience (and it did).
OnMilwaukee’s Molly Snyder profiles Milwaukee native Christopher Carson Emmons and his new short “Prone”:
“Working with Mark was a joy, everyone knows how high he set the bar for antagonists on film after ‘Animal House’ was released, and he continues to craft memorable performances to this day,” says Emmons. “We had one rehearsal with Mark before filming, and he brought all the lines I’d written tailored to his own voice. He really cares about his work, and brought a lot to the table. The crew lit up when he was on set.”