The 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival will feature a total of 48 films in its two showcases of homegrown talent and work. These are the Wisconsin's Own films and Wisconsin Student Shorts, the two primary juried competitions at the fest.
These four-dozen films represent just over a quarter of the nearly 200 films submitted for consideration in each showcase. There were 137 works submitted for screening among Wisconsin's Own, of which 32 were selected. For the Wisconsin Student Shorts, only 16 were chosen out of a total of 59 entered into the fest.
"These things can't quite be measured in sheer numbers," says festival director Meg Hamel, "but it certainly seems like a good sign that filmmaking in Wisconsin is thriving."
The titles and directors of the Wisconsin's Own films follow:
- Akatombo "Unconfirmed Reports" by Paul Thomsen Kirk and Chad McClure
- Art of Effort by Kvja Kristjansson-Nelson
- Ball Saved: Preserving an American Pastime by Ben Olson
- Bone Mixers by Doug Gritzmacher and Mike Dechant
- The Captain and Me by Mason Hill
- Clone Appetit by Eric J. Nelson
- Covenant Adam by Ariana Hamidi
- Cut: Teens and Self Injury by Wendy Schneider
- Do Not Go Gently by Melissa Godoy
- Free Geek Olympia by Andrew Rosas
- Haggadah (The Story) by Brian DeLevie
- Holding the Pilots/Holding the Facts by Shelby Floyd
- House on Jungmannova by Dan Senn
- It's Happiness: A Polka Documentary by Craig DiBiase
- It's in the Blood: Leo Abshire and the Cajun Tradition by Erin Scholl and Cyndi Moran
- IV.6 by Mike Winkleman
- Keeping the Spirit by Andrew Thomas Napier
- Little Spirits by Cecilia Condit
- Long Shadows: Veterans' Paths to Peace by Linda Babler
- Meaningful Touches by Sarah Steel
- Midway by Brian L. Dehler
- Muybridge in Motion by Alexander Andre
- Pages by Charles McGuire
- Professor's Daughter by Luke R. Pebler
- Script Cops by Scott Rice
- Something Against You by Alexander Andre
- Tops by Brian D. Nelson
- Turtle by Matt Osterman
- Untyings by Romi Chiorean and Katherine Leggett
- Walk Into Hell/Purgatorio by Dal Lazlo and Charles Johannsen
- Who Me Was by Annie Killelea
The titles and directors of the Wisconsin Student Shorts follow:
- Bird of Night by Alan Schoenburg
- Black Box by Joe Sacco
- Bloom by Dave Kiehl
- Carrotlegs by Rachel Mulder
- Coconut by Chris Hoag
- Corners by Daron Nealis
- JFK: Dumpman/Twineman by Dave Resha
- Kyoko Naturally by Chris Thompson
- Long Shadow by Chele Isaac
- Made with Love: A Story of Emergency Communities by Madison Tift and Raad Fadaak
- Me and Jean Pierre by Anna Krutzik
- Meniere's Disease by Jason Williams
- Pinmonkey by Tim Ziegler
- Skeletonizer by Caroline Kastelic
- Untitled by Kipp Zavada
Hamel also emphasizes that she and other festival organizers try to program films with local ties that aren't necessarily a part of either showcase. "I would like to underscore that the devotion the festival has to local filmmaking," she says.
She points to three films in this year's line-up: Punk's Not Dead directed by Susan Dynner, The Life of Reilly co-directed by Barry Poltermann, and Here is Always Somewhere Else, co-produced and edited by Aaron Ohlmann. All three are University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates.
"Whenever possible we try to bring back films by Wisconsin folks," Hamel says.
