2026 Festival: Season 28

 

Season 28

Hello,

Welcome to our 28th season! I remember launching this festival in 1994, when there was nothing quite like it in Milwaukee. Back then, if you were a filmmaker wanting to screen your work, you had to bring your own projector to local coffee houses or bars. We weren't using digital formats yet, it was all celluloid. You would set up a 16mm or 8mm projector on a wooden table in the middle of the room, and you felt lucky if the patrons actually stopped their conversations to pay attention to your hard work.

I began this festival with a different approach. I showed films, the festival, then called the Milwaukee Film/Video Festival was on local cable TV. Not annually, just whenever I thought it was time to do another. 

And, as the years rolled on I turned the festival into an annual event, and into a movie theater. Other festivals popped up. Some have even gone away. I've even helped a few through the years.  

Now, since the pandemic I've been dealing with health issues. Serious health issues. I was diagnosed with Leukemia in the summer of 2020, and in 2024 another cancer was discovered, MDS. It got so bad that I was at the hospital a couple times a week getting blood and platelet transfusions, or because I was very weak and fell a lot. Those approaches were just band aids, just giving me enough red blood cells to keep me going until the next transfusion. I shouldn't even be here because right after the festival in 2024 I was told that I only had 18 months.

Luckily my sister was a full match for a bone marrow transplant and I spent most of last May and June of last year going through the process, and stuck in a hospital bed. 

I kept the festival running, but during the last few years in the back of my head I felt that I would be wrapping it up. I even thought that 2025 would be its final year. But I was feeling better and decided to do another year.

This year will be different from last year. The Milwaukee Illuminate Film Festival (miff) will not be back to join us as they are also in flux, and we are going to be only a one day event. I'm still recovering and last year took a lot out of me. That means only three blocks of programs, with one going to Voices Heard. We'll be screening less films. But to make up for the lower film count I've book a feature film for September 11th, the 50th Anniversary of Giant Spider Invasion by the legendary Wisconsin filmmaker, Bill Rebane. He'll also be honored with the Pace-setter Award for all his contributions to Wisconsin filmmaking.

Putting on a festival is a lot of work, it's more than watching films and selecting them, then showing up to see them. I have to secure the venue, gather sponsors and judges, create multiple pieces of art for each film announcement, record virtual Q/A's and edit them, making sure film files are coming in, and the DCP is on track to being completed on time, plus keep all our social media accounts functioning with new content daily as we get closer to the festival. By having less films means most of that workload is cut in half for me. Less stress, and more time to concentrate on the event itself.

As for next season? I'm not sure yet. I'm 60 and have been doing this a very long time. I'll make a decision by the fall.