The Milwaukee Film Festival has announced the line-up for this year's Cream City Cinema.
This particular showcase features work from Milwaukee-based filmmakers, awarding one the yearlong Filmmaker-in-Residence prize, which includes $5000 in cash and a production services package valued at more than $20,000 to help the winner produce their next film.
This year, the Cream City Cinema line-up also includes The Milwaukee Youth Show, the festival’s second annual showcase for under-18 filmmakers in and around Milwaukee.
The 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival runs Sept. 26-Oct. 10 at the Landmark Oriental Theatre, Landmark Downer Theatre and Fox-Bay Cinema Grill.
Cream City Cinema line-up
"Billy Club"
(USA / 2013 / Directors: Drew Rosas, Nick Sommer)
Trailer
A throwback to the slasher films of the 1980s, "Billy Club" is the latest splatter pic from Nick Sommer and Drew Rosas (having previously worked together on Blood Junkie, a film gnarly enough to be distributed by Troma!). Fifteen years after a triple homicide tore their Little League team and community apart, four friends reconvene to pay tribute to their fallen coach and teammates, only to be menaced by a mysterious figure hidden behind an antique umpire's mask and brandishing a nail-covered baseball bat. This bloody, brutal romp creates a memorable new slasher villain to place alongside Jason Voorhees, Ghostface and Michael Myers.
"Date America"
(USA / 2012 / Directors: Bob Murray, Amy Neuenschwander)
Wisconsinite Bob Murray finds himself in the awkward position of being a bachelor at 34 while all of his peers are settling down and starting families. Wondering if it's the Milwaukee dating scene or his own neuroses that have kept him single over the years, he embarks on an ambitious journey from Milwaukee to Los Angeles, with eight dates scheduled in eight different cities, to put his theory to the test. What begins as an attempt to utilize the ever-popular medium of online dating as a means of finding true love turns into a journey of self-discovery as Bob traverses the country.
The Milwaukee Show
These filmmakers may hail from the Milwaukee area, but their celebrations of the cinematically succinct have a truly worldwide scope, displaying a diversity of locales and styles (from sci-fi to stop-motion to experimental) in a program that showcases our thriving and vital local filmmaking scene.
"Before You" (USA / 2013 / Director: Michael T. Vollmann)
"Begong Ava, Begong Hele" (USA / 2013 / Director: Heather Hass)
"Cinders" (USA / 2013 / Director: Andrew Gralton)
"The Glitch" (USA / 2013 / Director: Zijian Yan)
"I Am" (USA / 2013 / Director: Karim Raoul)
"Love You Still" (USA / 2013 / Director: Michael Viers)
"Margaret Hue Would Like To Go To Mars." (USA / 2013 / Director: Anna Sampers)
"Pluto and the Vessel" (USA / 2013 / Director: Harrison Browning)
"The Quiet City" (USA / 2013 / Director: Brian McGuire)
"Spectacle!" (USA / 2013 / Directors: Andrew Swant, WC Tank, Erik Ljung, Kurt Raether, Carol Brandt)
"USPS" (USA / 2013 / Director: Jessica Farrell)
"Within A Stone’s Throw" (USA / 2013 / Director: Cecelia Condit)
The Milwaukee Youth Show
"Alexander Copenhagen and the Key of Destiny" (USA / 2012 / Director: Thomas Fleischmann)
"Birth of a Dream" (USA / 2013 / Director: Megan Sai Dogra)
"Copycat" (USA / 2013 / Director: Hudson Miller)
"#DiseasesSpreadLikeRumors" (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)
"#DontBeAnOffenderToThoseWhoLoveTheSameGender" (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)
"Flowers in Bloom" (USA / 2013 / Director: Alejandra Salinas)
"#ForgetTheHumpIfYouDontWantTheBump" (USA / 2012 / Directors: Participants in Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee Programs)
"Generation Empowered: The Dream is Now" (USA / 2013 / Director: LaTonya Matlock)
"How Geoffrey Broke His Glasses" (USA / 2012 / Director: Jamie Mercado)
"In The Mind" (USA / 2013 / Director: Brian Mercado)
"The Journey Home" (USA / 2013 / Directors: Elizabeth Zingsheim, Mara Matovich)
"Night of the Beanie Babies" (USA / 2013 / Directors: Josh Frank, Ryan Coenen)
"Pancakes" (USA / 2013 / Director: Lauren Markey, Brian Ore)
Phone Wars (USA / 2012 / Director: Holly Kraemer, Kevin Salgado)
"Poppin’"(USA / 2013 / Directors: Lauren Markey, Brian Ore)
"Spider Dog" (USA / 2013 / Directors: Gabriella Avila, Alexia Justo)
Sun Up,Sun Down (USA / 2013 / Director: Felicia McGowan)
"Toytonic" (USA / 2013 / Directors: Students from Audubon Technology and Communication Center)
"Penelope"
(USA / 2013 / Director: Brad Lichtenstein)
Trailer
An experiment is underway at the Luther Manor retirement community in Milwaukee: Playwright Anne Basting and Sojourn Theatre are working alongside staff and students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to engage those living in this nursing home to stage a performance of "Finding Penelope," an original interpretation of Penelope's story from Homer's "Odyssey." Director Brad Lichtenstein (As Goes Janesville, MFF 2012) helms this portrait of a community looking to raise the bar on bingo. It asks the important question: Can we age more meaningfully?
"Sign Painters"
(USA / 2013 / Directors: Faythe Levine, Sam Macon)
Trailer
An expressive call to return to the handcrafted and tactile before entire city landscapes are swallowed by uninspired homogeneity, Sign Painters is an affectionate look behind the curtains of the custom calligraphy and ornate beauty that comprise the trade. With dozens of sign painters as their subjects, co-directors Faythe Levine (Handmade Nation) and Sam Macon provide an unprecedented glance at the process behind sign painting as well as its history: from the apocalyptic 1980s, when computers and die-cut vinyl lettering with its quick and cheap allure nearly brought the movement to its knees, to its thriving past and hopeful future.
"When The King Tilts"
(USA / 2013 / Director: Drew Britton)
This psychological chamber piece follows best friends Carol and J.L. as they arrive unannounced at a quaint Door County bed-and-breakfast in search of a family reunion location. They're able to convince Sam, its owner, to stay open a couple of days past the end of season. As they get to know Sam, Carol and J.L. have divergent opinions of his guarded personality and secretive actions. The women find themselves caught in a web of psychological manipulation and hostility in this finely shot and acted examination of the ways people react when faced with the unknown.
