Milwaukee Film’s annual Cultures & Communities Festival kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 14 with an opening night celebration. The film festival, showcasing diverse perspectives in cinema, will run through Sunday, Sept. 18. Check out the full lineup of in-person movies showing at the Oriental Theatre at this link. Tickets are available online at mkefilm.org/ccf or in person at the Oriental Theatre box office.
Here are six of the movies we’re looking forward to checking out.
1. Sign o‘ the Times
THURSDAY, SEPT. 15 AT 8:45 PM
The 1980s belonged to a lot of music stars, perhaps none more than Prince. I was just a kid discovering and determining what I liked musically, and his 1982 release 1999 spoke eloquently to me. I saw Purple Rain more than once and cranked my boombox when one of the songs from the soundtrack album came on the radio. What I don’t remember seeing is the 1987 concert movie Sign o’ the Times, which Prince wrote and directed. It follows Prince and his band on their tour to support the album of the same name. I’m pretty psyched to see this movie on the big screen, celebrating the 35th anniversary of its release. – Ann Christenson, Senior Editor, Dining Critic
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
2. Oyate
FRIDAY, SEPT. 16 AT 1:30 PM
This film spotlights the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, a group that fought to protect their land and water from the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. The film connects the history of injustice against Indigenous people, cultures and territories with the present work of activists working to create a more sustainable future. The close look at the intersection of environmentalism, culture and justice piqued my interest, and I’m looking forward to checking this one out. – Brianna Schubert, Associate Digital Editor
3. I Didn’t See You There
FRIDAY, SEPT. 16 AT 3:30 PM
Reid Davenport, a disabled filmmaker, shot this documentary entirely from his perspective, with either a handheld camera or one mounted to his wheelchair. The movie is a “meditative journey exploring the history of freakdom, vision and (in)visibility.” This is one of the most experimental films at the Cultures & Communities festival this year, with one reviewer calling it “first-person poetry in captivating motion.” That point-of-view take strikes me as interesting, unique and important, and I’m excited to see how Davenport expresses himself with this film. – Archer Parquette, Managing Editor
4. Liquor Store Dreams
FRIDAY, SEPT. 16 AT 9:00 PM
This documentary follows two Korean American children of liquor store owners in Los Angeles. The film expands beyond the family’s story to the racial tensions in LA and the country at large over the past decades. Peter Sobczynski, for rogerebert.com, reviewed the movie, writing that it’s “one of those quietly powerful films that may appear on the surface to be little more than an extended home movie, but should prove to have a devastating and emotional impact on all who are lucky to see it.” – Archer Parquette, Managing Editor
5. Wandering: A Rohingya Tale
SUNDAY, SEPT. 18 AT 1:00 PM
When hundreds of thousands of people of the Rohingya Muslim minority left Myanmar (what used to be Burma) in 2017, many travelled to the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. This film provides a look inside the camp, the largest in the world, and documents the daily lives of those who had to flee everything they knew. The goal of the film is to “offer insights for those hoping to offer refuge,” and hopefully it will offer inspiration for those who want to make Milwaukee a better place for people to seek refuge. – Brianna Schubert, Associate Digital Editor
6. Fly So Far
SUNDAY, SEPT. 18 AT 2:00 PM
This one is a sobering look at the price a Salvadoran woman had to pay for having a stillborn baby. Teodora Vásquez was imprisoned for almost 11 years (of a 30-year sentence) for having an “obstetric emergency.” In the documentary by Swiss/Salvadoran filmmaker Celina Escher, Vásquez becomes a force working to free other woman imprisoned for the same offense. It isn’t just a story about a society where women are punished but a testament to resilience and empowerment. – Ann Christenson, Senior Editor, Dining Critic
