Last night, I attended the sold-out world premiere screening of local filmmaker Sean Kafer’s Valley Maker at the Oriental. The documentary, which chronicles the filmmakers’ experience traveling down the great Mississippi River (from Prescott, Wis. to New Orleans, La.) on a manmade wooden raft, highlights both the beauty that can be found in tackling such an awesome undertaking as well as the many difficulties (navigational problems, bug infestations and bites, heat and humidity, to name a few).
Valley Maker is a part of this year’s Cream City Cinema program, the festival’s annual showcase of the best new work from local filmmakers. This well-executed effort is Kafer’s feature debut; he also shot and edited the film. Watching the film, I was most impressed with the ‘fly by’ moments when Kafer took his camera into the community he had docked at and interviewed some of the locals. That said, he definitely captured the majesty of sailing along the Mississippi River, some of the dawns and dusks shown are truly breathtaking. Another of the film’s highlights involves one of the executive producers (the rather engaging David Bischke) joining the rafting trip while its underway and having to bail early thanks to some of the difficulties listed earlier.
Part documentary, part travelogue, part modern-day adventure inspired by days of yore, Valley Maker is an engaging first effort. The screening was the second early sold-out engagement this year; the other being this past Monday’s screening of We Need To Talk About Kevin starring Oscar winner Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly. The festival has added a second screening of Valley Maker for this weekend (Saturday, October 1st) at the Downer. The screening is set for 12:30 p.m.
Now here are my recommendations for what to see today and tomorrow at the festival.
Wednesday, September 28th
If you didn’t catch Valley Maker last night, try another Cream City Cinema offering tonight. Passing the Baton is filmmaker Ryan Sarnowski’s feature debut and pays tribute to the tireless work of the late Joe Sims, who founded the Milwaukee Striders Track Club, a group dedicated to offering Milwaukee urban youth an opportunity to be a part of something safe and fun during their summer vacations. He taught and nurtured hundreds of young adults, many went onto college and professional pursuits that might not have otherwise. The film’s one-time screening during the festival happens tonight at 7:15 p.m. at the Oriental Theater.
Tonight at 9:45 p.m. at the Ridge, Bhopali, the debut documentary feature from Van Maximilian Carlson will unspool for the first of three times during the 2011 MFF. Over a quarter of a century ago, Bhopali, India was the site of one of the worst industrial disasters in history: the Union Carbide gas leak that maimed and killed thousands. If that weren’t bad enough, the good citizens of Bhopali still are at risk as the leak has had long-term ramifications for those exposed both at the time of the disaster and in the years since thanks to contaminated water in the area. The film also screens this Saturday, October 1st at the Downer (2:30 p.m.) and this Sunday, October 2nd at North Shore Cinema in Mequon (4:45 p.m).
And the winner of the Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) film festival, Green screens for the first of three times during the festival tonight (9:30 p.m. at North Shore). Writer-director Sophia Takal’s haunting feature filmmaking debut concerns a New York intellectual who relocates to the country with her journalist boyfriend as he works on a project. She bonds with a local working class woman out of boredom and their relationship takes an unexpected, disturbing turn when the working class woman also bonds with the woman’s boyfriend. Takal’s film has been compared to the work of celebrated filmmaking recluse Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life). The film also screens Friday, September 30th at the Ridge (at 9:45 p.m.), and Sunday, October 2nd at the Downer (at 4:45 p.m.).
Thursday, September 29
A collection of nine shorts from local filmmakers – both emerging and established – comprise The Milwaukee Show, which has a one-time festival screening at 7 p.m. at the Oriental. Shorts featured in the Cream City Cinema program include this year’s Collaborative Cinema winner Memento Mori, written by Celia Carroll and directed by Karen Erbach, and the latest effort from Milwaukee Film’s filmmaker-in-residence John Roberts entitled The Wheel. Also part of the screening is Kate Balsley’s Anima Mundi, Daniel Boville’s Secrets of Animal Navigation, Lisa Danker’s Please Remember Me, Michael Hawkins-Burgos’ Don’t Go, Susan Kern & Kara Mulrooney’s Missed Connections, Blyth Renate Meier’s Everyday, and Kurt Raether’s Documenting Westphal.
Other festival selections to consider viewing Thursday include two promising documentaries: Page One: Inside the New York Times (5:15 p.m. at the Ridge) and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, which will make its festival debut at 5:15 p.m. at the North Shore Cinema. Page One has already played twice at the festival and in addition to Thursday’s screening will screen one more time on Sunday, October 2nd at the Downer. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth dissects the troubling story behind an infamous public housing development in St. Louis, Mo. that started out promising enough but eventually became a political and architectural failure. The film will receive two additional festival screenings on Friday, September 30th (4:30 p.m.) and Sunday, October 2nd (12:30 p.m.) at the Oriental Theatre.
Check back tomorrow for my final picks for the remainder of the festival’s run.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students (with valid ID), $8 for festival members and $6 for children (12 and under). Tickets can be purchased either at the theater box office, online or by phone.
For additional information about the schedule, venue locations, pricing, and scheduled events, visit milwaukee-film.org.
