Filmmaker Panel: WI Film Tax Incentives

The WI Film Tax Incentives always comes up when filmmakers get together. We once had them, but then we lost them. What happened? 

Moderator, Michael Viers (The Shame List Picture Show) talks with Melissa Musante, Jeff Olm and Jon Kline about the history of the WI Film Tax Incentives, and what can be done to bring them back, or can they be brought back? This will be up for free before and during festival weekend below the bios, and on our youtube channel. 

Pace-setter Honorees: Melody Herr and Kristin Holodak

The Milwaukee Independent Film Society (MIFS) established the Pace-setter Award thirteen years ago to bestow upon persons that are dedicated to advancing filmmaking in Wisconsin.

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Melody Herr – BIO

Currently, an adjunct professor at Marquette University, Melody Herr holds an MFA in Writing for Film and TV from Emerson College. She’s known to say, “If you’ve seen the movie 8 Mile, then you know my life – minus the rapping.” Growing up three blocks north of Detroit’s famous dividing line meant she had to be as industrious as the factory next door. Both hardworking and adventurous, she fled Detroit and spent years living and traveling around the world with her growing family. Now she escapes through her passion for telling universal, female-driven stories that connect on an emotional level. Infusing heart and levity into her work balances out the heavy themes that she often explores.

Having projects place in several contests in recent years, Xed Out, her latest produced short, won Best Drama at the London Indie Short Film Festival in 2021, along with awards from Toronto, Vancouver, and other festivals around the world. She recently produced DIFFRACTION, a feature film written and directed by Kris Holodak, which is currently in post-production.

2022 Voices Heard Judge: Andrea Ivy

 

Andrea Ivy is an actress and model based in the Midwest working in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. She has been in various commercials, stage productions and films, most recently she co-wrote and produced the short film, Epiphany which was seen in last year's festival. 

Up next, she is co-producing with Anieya Walker and starring in a feature film shooting in late summer. 

2022 Judge: Eseoghene Obrimah

FIRST AND FOREMOST, I AM A STORYTELLER.

But, more specifically, I’m a writer and producer committed to telling stories that imagine what freedom looks like. My experiences as an international student in the United States and as an advocate for Black students and survivors of sexual assault inform my choices as a filmmaker. I focus on stories that analyze social issues primarily within the genres of fantasy, magical realism and africanfuturism.

My short film, 35, a social thriller about the short life expectancy of Black trans women, won the Best of Festival Student Award at the Dayton Independent Film Festival and the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival. In 2019, I received the Movie Magic Producer Award and, in 2020, I was awarded the Alfred P. Weisman Award and the RedBull Arts Microgrant. In 2021, I was selected to participate in that year’s Full Spectrum Features’ Chicago Independent Producers Lab.

I have experience working with production teams on projects ranging from international brand commercials to small scale short films in Nigeria and in the United States. I also have experience developing marketing strategy, copywriting and creating content for companies, non-profits and brands.

I have had my writing published in the Campus Speaks Magazine and in Anti-Black Racism and Epistemic Violence by Dr. Kyra Shahid.

I am currently based in Lagos, Nigeria.