March marks the start of Women’s History Month, and Milwaukee Film is celebrating with a lineup of directorial debuts from women filmmakers showing at the Oriental Theatre.
“We take these opportunities to shine a spotlight on groups and celebrate them,” says Kertsin Larson, Milwaukee Film’s programming director. “[This was] an interesting series that we could do over the course of March. … I think it’s just so incredible that the local scene here in Milwaukee has such a strong presence of women filmmakers. … And so getting to support those local filmmakers, be it through a variety of filmmaker services programs, or teaching younger folks in our education programs that becoming a filmmaker is totally a viable career, I think [it] can inspire some younger women to want to get into filmmaking.”
Here are the movies you can catch this month:
- March 4: Drylongso, a product of 1990s DIY filmmaking that shares a story of a Black female creative and serves as an elegy for a generation of lost African American men. (1998, Directed by Cauleen Smith)
- March 11: Smithereens, the story of a wild teen in search of what’s left of punk cultures. (1982, Directed by Susan Berman)
- March 18: Songs My Brother Taught Me, which follows two kids trying to figure out their lives after their father dies. (2015, Directed by Chloé Zhao)
- March 25: La Pointe Courte, a stylized depiction of a complicated marriage set in a small Mediterranean fishing village. (1955, Directed by Agnès Varda)
- April 1: La Ciénaga, the disturbing tale of a dissolute bourgeois extended family. (2001, Directed by Lucrecia Martel)
Larson says that if her younger self could see this month’s series she’d be so excited. “She’d be going to all the screenings,” Larson said. “It is funny now, coming out the tail of programming for the festival. Do I want to [re]watch a whole bunch of movies again this month after watching them for like, six months straight? And I think I probably do. I’ll do that to make younger Kirsten happy.”
She notes that Women’s History Month is important to Milwaukee Film because it “provides a great opportunity for celebration” and brings people together to consider films outside of the Hollywood scene.
“I think it’s worthwhile to have a month where you’re highlighting [women], and bringing folks together because people get really excited about it and may not necessarily notice that we’re showing movies by women all [year round],” Larson said. “Having this time to really point [women] out to people and get people to come out to the theater, I think is great.”
Read more about each film and purchase tickets for the screenings here.
