The Milwaukee Film Festival will close with a homecoming of sorts – both on screen and off – with "Back at the Staircase," screening at 7:30 p.m. at the Oriental Theatre. 

In the movie, five relatives return to a family cabin for a celebration that goes sour when the clan’s matriarch tumbles down the stairs, leaving her in a coma and the rest of the family tensely trying (and failing) to cope. 

Things, however, should be much more festive in the theater, where Milwaukee-based writer-director Drew Britton will bring his drama back to the city where he honed his cinematic craft at UWM – as well as currently helps future filmmakers hone theirs as a lecturer at Marquette University – and to the state where he filmed "Back at the Staircase," which received its debut at the respected Slamdance Film Festival earlier this year. 

Before the film hits the screen, we caught up with Britton and learned about the origins of the terse family drama, shooting in Door County and what’s next for a promising Milwaukee voice at the movies.  

OnMilwaukee: Where did the idea come from for the story of "Back at the Staircase"?

Drew Britton: I’ve just always been so fascinated in interpersonal relationships and interpersonal dynamics and how we’re able to function in familial ties, as well as relationships, with the lack of communication and our inability to communicate with one another. I’m fascinated in telling those stories.

In terms of the platform, a number of years ago, I was involved in an incident where the night before a big event, a family member had fallen down the stairs, cracked her head open and did go into a coma – much like the synopsis of the film. The next day, all the family members were sitting around, not knowing what to do. There was that sense of anxiousness of not knowing how long it was going to be and not knowing what the prognosis would be. I felt it would be an interesting ground to tell one of these stories that I wanted to tell, which ultimately becomes about the people who are involved in the situation. 

Each character has their own issues that they’re dealing with, whether it be the relationship with their significant other that they’ve brought to the event or sibling issues or taking care of your parents when you get to that age and the stress that puts on one individual as they take over that patriarchy or matriarchy role. It examines how these people deal with such things and their inability to deal with one another and confront their own issues as well as ones they have with one another.

You shot in Door County?

Correct, we shot over a two-week period in October of 2016. We shot over 20 hours of footage, so we shot a lot of material and it took quite a while to edit and put together. 

What was it like filming in Wisconsin? What was that environment like and what did that bring to the story?

I did avoid all the reasons people would go to Door County. I didn’t shoot in town; there are no scenes at Sister Bay. When you’re watching the film, you’d never pick up that it was shot in Door County. But this is a very insular story; it’s only shot in three or four different locations, and it’s very rural and isolated. It’s just this cable set in the middle of the woods. 

But the reason I wanted to shoot in Door County is because I knew there were a lot of locations like that – that were rural, that were isolated, where we could capture the serenity and quiet of the area. And also it really does compliment the story, the isolation of these characters who are out in the middle of nowhere, dealing with this, as opposed to a cityscape. 

Plus, it’s just a beautiful location to do the film and enjoy things outside of making the film. People in that community are so supportive of the arts, so you’re able to acquire locations, things that are much easier than if you were in the city. And it’s nice to give the cast a wonderful place to hangout and enjoy themselves. 

I was told about a technique you used on set where you’d have the actors and performers emote their lines without actually speaking their lines. 

We had a full-fledged script, but I’m a very collaborative filmmaker and I always trust the actors to do whatever feels right. I’m not extremely demanding in terms of what I think will work best. It’s a really collaborative effort, and the most important thing is bringing on people you trust and bringing on people that you know are going to work well together. 

We would do lines and do a lot of improvisation, but I was really interested in exploring the idea of being able to say lines with your face, where they could emote whatever was going on in the text in the script or whatever they were going through in that moment and not have to convey it through exposition. That’s so common in films, with people constantly telling the audience what’s happening, and that’s kind of condescending to the audience. 

But there’s a lot of moments in the film where you just sit with one of the characters or with a couple of the characters, and you just have to sit in that silence. And hopefully you read the pain that’s in their face and read what they’re going through rather than them telling you.

Yeah, instead of a five-minute monologue explaining it.

Exactly. But I feel if you have great actors, you can take all of that on the page or all that’s internal with the character, and just be able to say, "Look at the face." That’s the way we phrased it. We would do a couple of takes – they might improv a little bit or pull a line from the page – and then we’d say, "OK, can you do that all with just your face?" That was the line. And they would do it, and more often than not, that was the one I would gravitate toward in editing – or even on set. 

What is the next step for the film after the screening at the film festival?

We have a couple more festivals lined up, and then we actually, just last week, signed our distribution deal. That’s going through right now, and then that will be out and available on online platforms next year at some point – hopefully earlier in the year.

It’s really great to bring it full circle. We premiered it almost a year ago in January, did the circuit and talked to distributors. So to be able to finalize that right as we’re going into our homecoming screening is a really nice feeling and a weight off our shoulders. And that allows us, pretty much the same team, to get ready to fire up the next one, which we’re intending to shoot this upcoming year as well. So to be able to put this one to rest and move right on to the next one is really exciting.

Can I ask what this next project will be?

It’s basically taking the aura and ambiance of "Back at the Staircase," which is much of more a psychological drama that walks the horror tightrope, and taking that tension and panic infused into it and push it to the next level. So the next one will be in the realm of psychological horror, but still all character based. It’s not a slasher or anything like that. But it’s dealing with all the characters and what they’re going through in their particular lives and how that tends to encompass them, for the worse. 

So kind of in that "Hereditary," "It Comes At Night" psychological horror space?

It’s definitely in that wheelhouse. Those are quite a few films we looked to – and "The Babadook" and older films like "Possession" and "Repulsion."

What does it feel like to bring this film back to Milwaukee – and not only that, but as the closing night selection of the Milwaukee Film Festival?

We’re extremely excited. We feel like it’s a big honor, and we’re just really thrilled that they decided to choose it as the closing night. Jonathan Jackson had seen the film out in Park City when we premiered it, so he was already familiar with it. He had asked me at the time if we were going to submit, and I said, "Yeah, absolutely." I was just excited to get to play the festival, so I had gotten the acceptance and then, about a week later, he and Cara emailed me, asking if we wanted to be the closing night film. So that wasn’t anything I thought would happen, so to get that opportunity is pretty incredible.