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Susan Kerns’ history with Milwaukee Film stretches back to the organization’s early years, when she served as its first education director. She left for another opportunity – a professorship at Columbia College Chicago – that led her to commute across the state line for 12 years, but she remained connected with Milwaukee Film, including attending its annual film festival. “I started looking into what was going on with the organization and how I could help,” she recalls.
An Iowa native, Kerns says her time spent working in Chicago shifted her perspective on Milwaukee – and for the better. “I learned to appreciate Milwaukee again, from the outside,” she says. “And so it was about bringing that with me: How do we elevate Milwaukee Film to be the organization that the outside knows it is?”
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When Kerns took over as executive director in February of 2025, the organization was just one year removed from founder Jonathan Jackson’s departure – in a precarious spot marked by financial woes and program cuts. She was ready for the challenge. “I think that the core pieces of Milwaukee Film are so strong, so robust, and had been developed in such a really thoughtful and high-achieving way,” she says, “that I knew I could get back in there and help it thrive again.”
And so she got to work. In less than two years’ time, Kerns has led Milwaukee Film through two annual film festivals, reporting a 15.4% jump in attendance between 2025 and 2026, spearheaded the organization’s purchase of the Downer Theatre, and established the Michael Schultz Award to honor luminary Black filmmakers.
Kerns is also committed to making Milwaukee Film’s theaters hubs for community engagement, and to ensuring local creators and filmmakers have ample opportunities to connect with audiences and one another. Moreover, a recent partnership with the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee led to the creation of Cinematic Sisterhood, a new and ongoing program that showcases the work of female and nonbinary filmmakers and seeks to spark meaningful conversations around the films’ themes and the filmmaking process. “The theater,” Kerns says, “can become this really great space that brings all of these threads together in a way that feels seamless.”
