MSFF

MSFF

Saturday, September 9, 2023

2023 25th Annual MKE INT Short Film Fest Winners

This year we are handing out more awards than we have in the past, our judges who do the hard work didn't have a consensus on their suggestions for Best Director, Best Actor and other categories, so we have a lot of ties in our main festival, and our Voices Heard program.

Again, thank you filmmakers, and thank you judges. Lynda Reiss, Jon Adler, Carey Borth, Krystal Hardy, Paulina Lule, Ben Soto and Immanuel Baldwin, plus I have to thank Bill Quirmbach, Glen Popple, Rachel Gomez, Jon Kline, Char Burtt, Anieya Walker, LaRheatra Cole, Ricardo Tenorio, Shun Powell, Clarence "Sammy" Aumend, Heidi Dalton and
Julia Teeguarden for making this festival happen.

And a big shout out to our photographers, Troy Freund and Brandon Cole.

And finally to the Avalon theater who could not be more supportive of this event. Many filmmakers flying in to our festival loved your theater.




Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Advanced Tickets Now On Sale

 


Purchase Tickets:

To buy advance tickets you have to go to the website of the Avalon theater. And scroll down to near the bottom of the page. The Avalon will be handling all ticketing for the festival. 

avalonmke.com/


There are five blocks of programs. Voices Heard, Juried Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. Please be sure that your friends and family know the program block that your film is in. 

Below are each of the blocks, and they link to the blocks on the Avalon's site.

Also, please be sure to tell them that the Avalon has a strict policy on refunds and exchanges.   

TICKET REFUNDS AND EXCHANGES - The Avalon Theater/Neighborhood Theater Group Refund Policy.

Tickets are valid only for the film, theater, showtime and date specified. Refunds and exchanges are available in person at the theater for which the ticket was purchased before the showtime and date on that ticket.
 

Purchases made online can additionally be refunded and exchanged in person before the showtime and date on the ticket. Refunds will not be provided after the showtime and date specified on the ticket.

We are suggesting everyone to arrive up to 30 minutes earlier. Our shows have sold out in the past and you want to be sure that you can sit with your group. 

Prices:

The Avalon has priced the tickets at a reasonable $11.00, a price lower than the average ticket price in the city. But if you purchase a ticket online there is a surcharge of $1.00. 

Parking:

The Avalon does not have their own parking space. It is all street parking. Please come early.  Again, we are suggesting everyone to arrive up to 30 minutes earlier since our shows have sold out in the past. 

More info on the filmmakers are on our Facebook page, our Instagram account and our Youtube Channel, including filmmaker interviews and trailers to select films.  

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September 8th
Block 1: Juried Part 1 6:30PM

SHORT FILMS | R | 95M

A strong showing of local and International fare with drama, noir, comedy, music, animation and a bit of the Avant-garde.

Order of films:
Brief Q&A to follow after the films with attending filmmakers.

Click here for more information on the films, or on the title of each film.

TICKETS

Presented by Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, FM102/1, WUWM, Pizza Shuttle, and Fractured Imagination.


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September 8th
Block 2: Voices Heard 9:15PM

SHORT FILMS | R | 100M with Q/A

The Milwaukee Short Film Festival celebrates diversity in filmmaking with the eight year of "Voices Heard", the only film event in Milwaukee spotlighting the work of local filmmakers of color. This wildly successful program returns this year to screen ten films from talented local, multicultural filmmakers.

Order of films:






Gin by Jose Alberto Castillo


(subtitled) by Sergio Espino

Shatter by Allie Robinson

Seen//Unseen by T.J. Blanco

Vanquished by Ramesh Kumar

Atomic Hearts by John Carlo Rosillo

See Sides by Darren Cole

Genesis by Rosella Joseph

Crown Me by Yaya Edmonds

Blunt by Hisonni Mustafa Johnson



Brief Q&A to follow after the films with attending filmmakers.

Click here for more information on the films, or on the title of each film.

TICKETS

Presented by Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, FM102/1, WUWM, Pizza Shuttle, and Fractured Imagination.

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September 9th
Block 3: Juried Part 2 3:30PM

SHORT FILMS | R | 95M

For the first time we are having a block of new young filmmakers. Enjoy these shorts of new and emerging talent with a mixture of documentary, drama, animation, sci-fi, and music.


Brief Q&A to follow after the films with attending filmmakers.

Click here for more information on the films, or on the title of each film.

TICKETS


Presented by Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, FM102/1, WUWM, Pizza Shuttle, and Fractured Imagination.

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September 9th
Block 4: Juried Part 3 6:30PM


SHORT FILMS | R | 100M

More thought-provoking films that'll entertain you. A great mix of comedy, drama, social commentary, and a animated horror film. 



Brief Q&A to follow with attending filmmakers.

Click here for more information on the films, or on the title of each film.

TICKETS

Presented by Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, FM102/1, WUWM, Pizza Shuttle, and Fractured Imagination.
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September 9th
Block 5: Juried Part 4 9:15PM

SHORT FILMS | R | 110M


The last block of the night has more films to excite you, with local horror, drama, comedy and romance. 





Brief Q&A to follow with the Awards ceremony after the films with attending filmmakers.

Click here for more information on the films, or on the title of each film.


TICKETS 

Presented by Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, FM102/1, WUWM, Pizza Shuttle, and Fractured Imagination.


The Awards ceremony will take place after the films have screened in our Juried part 4 9:15PM block. This includes the Voices Heard Films. 








Tuesday, July 11, 2023

2023 Festival Judge: Jon Adler





I've been hosting the morning show at FM 102.1 for the last 16 years. My interviews tend to lean towards comedians, authors, musicians and actors. In addition to radio, I've also worked in TV news and worked for Avid Technology as a software trainer (instructing newsroom software and video editing). 

As far as indie films, I've appeared (voice only) in 2009's New Day and 2022's Cactus Jack as a radio host (voice only). I'm very excited and honored to be a judge this year.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

2023 Festival Judge: Krystal Hardy

Krystal Hardy is a Milwaukee native, freelance writer and film enthusiast. After graduating from Marquette University, she continued to write and work in marketing. As a native Milwaukeean, Krystal focused on telling the powerful, inspiring stories of our BIPOC communities in hopes of bridging gaps. In 2018 she created KDH_Creative LLC, a digital marketing solutions company to help small businesses and non-profits with writing, marketing and public relations needs. Her hobbies include playing in makeup, gardening, blogging, endlessly scrolling on Pinterest and Tik Tok or taking romantic strolls through our public libraries. Krystal most recently began a position with the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club as Manager of Multicultural Marketing.


For more visit www.kdhcreative.net
or follow Krystal on social media.

Twitter and Instagram: KDH_Creative

Saturday, July 8, 2023

2023 Film: Burger Snap

Burger Snap by Shun Powell
Milwaukee, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 11 minutes
Block 5, September 9th. 9:15PM
Comedy

For tickets click HERE.



In a world where art degrees can't guarantee a job, a college art student takes a gig at "Burger Snap," a fast-food joint, hoping to pay off their tuition. But on their first day, when a swarm of aliens descends on the planet, the student must muster all their creativity to save humanity from being served up as the next meal. Will they use their brush strokes to fend off the extraterrestrial threat, or will they be reduced to a mere greasy patty in the cosmic order of things? "Burger Snap" is a quirky sci-fi comedy that proves art school can teach you more than just how to paint pretty pictures.

2023 Festival Judge: Carey Borth

This Wisconsin-born Entertainment Attorney and Los Angeles writer, ghostwriter, and hands-on producer, makes for a varied career in the entertainment field. As an indie producer, Carey has a hands-on approach participating in hiring crews, casting, location scouting, publicity and obtaining budgets and sales estimates. She has packaged a multitude of projects, ghostwritten or been a script-doctor on over 60 films and thirty film business plans and executive summaries, some of which have been optioned and she herself has optioned a number of scripts over the years. 

Having been both in front of the camera as a stand-in for Cameron Diaz on a commercial and model since the age of five, she also works behind the camera. In addition to completing some camera work for the feature film "Scare Me" which she produces with writer and director hometown favorite Mark Borchardt, she also cherishes her time working alongside Hollywood stars such as Jason Alexander. Carey worked on the "The Whitey Show" with him at the Radford studio where the TV show synonymous for "sitcom" aka "Seinfeld" was shot in front of a live audience for a number of years. 

Carey acquired a variety of educational qualifications with three business degrees from UW-Madison (Real Estate, Finance and Marketing), and obtained her Juris Doctor from Pepperdine Law School (Malibu, CA) where she studied for one semester at the Imperial College in Knightsbridge and one summer at UW-Madison Law School. She also attended Art Center College of Design Night Program for three years in Pasadena, California, studying Art History, Photography and Life Drawing. Perhaps her greatest scholastic achievement is her MFA in Film & TV from UCLA, earned from 1994 to 2002. 

During her tenure at UCLA she worked as a crew member, doing sound and/or acting in a plethora of shorts and student films. She was the Student Government Representative for the Film School at UCLA and hosted weekly gatherings in the sound stage so the Master of Film students could mingle and form alliances for future work upon graduation. In addition to working on other student's projects, she wrote, shot and edited her own 16mm live-action films, a number of animations and won a Five Thousand Dollar award from Lew Wasserman for a film she made called, "Saving the Rainforest". She shot the images used in the animation in Brazil and did sound in Santa Monica. She went on to direct and produce five-camera shoots at the House of Blues in Hollywood and managed a stable of screenwriters for a number of years before moving back to Milwaukee. Since that time, Carey worked for six years with Mark Borchardt of Northwest Productions, of "American Movie" and "Coven" fame and they produced and worked together on a number of music video's and indie projects in the midwest, In addition to helping Frankie Latina with a few locations for his film, "Modus Operandi" she also worked with Mr. Borchardt on the cable show "Made" and the feature film, by Jon Springer, "The Hagstone Demon". A highlight of her film career was filming "The Mark and Mike Show," whereby Jeff Stilson, executive producer of "The Osbournes," followed Carey and Mark Borchardt's crew around as the subjects of a reality Comedy Central show during the filming of "Scare Me". She learned being on a reality show was a lot more difficult and intrusive than one would first imagine. She also obtained cast and performed as a zombie one below freezing night for G4's "Mark and Mike's Halloween Special". 

As an artist and photographer, Carey has gathered acclaim and sold her works in galleries, via private commissions and at numerous festivals and plein-air events. She has judged both the IFP in Los Angeles and Scriptapalooza screenwriting contests and is truly honored to be a judge at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival for the third time.








Thursday, July 6, 2023

2023 Festival Judge: Lynda Reiss

Lynda Reiss is an award-winning director whose character driven films explore the darker parts of the human condition, with a levity from the humor in her voice. Born in New York and raised in the UK, she has travelled the world, been a nanny for the super-rich, a Prop House owner, as well as having had a successful career as a Property Master on projects such as American Beauty, True Detective and Stranger Things. When this work could no longer satisfy her creative soul, she decided to follow her dream and directed her first film. This short, Ready to Go won 27 awards on the festival circuit, and was Oscar qualified for 2020. Lynda is a fellow of the Sony Diverse Directors Program. She is in development on two feature films, and a limited series, which she has written. 


Irrepressible and hilarious, Lynda is who you want to be working alongside when you are shooting in some alley at three in the morning, completing the day and having fun doing it.



2023 Voices Heard Judge: Benjamin Emil Soto

Ben Soto is a writer, filmmaker, fight choreographer, stunt actor, and content creator who loves the art of storytelling. For Ben, stories are a mirror that helps us learn about ourselves and each other and allow us to escape to fantastic worlds while doing so. 

Multitalented nominated storyteller for film and books. 2020 Readers Choice Awards by TCK Publishing for Casino City: A Cooler's Conspiracy, special selection for Paris Short Film Festival 2022 for Halcyon Days, and videographer for the Chicago Blackhawks Land Acknowledgement video. 

Ben resides in Milwaukee, WI, with his better half, two energetic wheaten terriers, and maintains his credentials as a certified personal trainer and martial artist.

2023 Voices Heard Judge: Paulina Lule

Paulina Lule is an American actor and filmmaker. They were born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their acting training began at the Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studio in Santa Monica where they completed a 2-year Meisner Technique Conservatory program. They then auditioned for and were accepted into the inaugural class of the Los Angeles branch of the award-winning Identity School of Acting. Since then, they have appeared in several television shows including recurring roles on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and ABC's General Hospital. They also studied film directing and screenwriting at the Academy for Creative Media at University of Hawaii-Manoa and received a Master of Fine arts from Chapman University in Orange County. Their films have played at several festivals and won awards including at the BronzeLens Festival in Atlanta and the Pan African Film festival in Los Angeles.

2023 Voices Heard Judge: Immanuel Baldwin

Immanuel Baldwin is an award-winning storyteller, coffee lover and tech enthusiast whose always had a proclivity to create things for people to experience. He’s held many roles on various production teams and has a deep-rooted love for the art of filmmaking. Currently Immanuel resides in Milwaukee and is a digital content creator for an advertising agency. He is very excited to be a part of this year's film festival.

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

2023 Legacy Film: Moviebonics

Moviebonics by Lance Miller & Donald P. Unverrich
Milwaukee
Running Time: 8 minutes
Block 4, September 9th. 6:30PM
Comedy

For tickets click HERE.




Moviebonics concerns a couple so enamored with cinema that they only speak in famous film quotations. Into their "world" enter two evangelists forbidden by religion to see movies, leading to a humorous language barrier, impossible to overcome. What we've got here is...failure to communicate.

Moviebonics won Best Film in 2007





Friday, June 30, 2023

2023 Legacy Film: The Egg

The Egg by Craig A Knitt
Appleton, WI
Running Time: 4 minutes
Block 3, September 9th. 3:30PM
Horror

For tickets click HERE.




A strange man accidentally digs up a huge egg while he is in the process of burying a body. The egg hatches and the creature that came from inside has plans of it's own.



Director's Bio:



Thursday, June 15, 2023

2023 Film: Blue Hour

Blue Hour by J.D. Shields
Los Angeles, CA (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 15 minutes
Block 4, September 9th. 6:30PM
Drama

For tickets click HERE.



Two personal journeys intersect when a struggling young photographer is hired for a cheap last minute portrait gig. The unfolding photo session, while transient, leaves an indelible mark on both women.

Blue Hour is the first partnership between the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and the Women in Film Production Program.

Website



Tuesday, June 13, 2023

2023 Film: Amount Due

Amount Due by Hernán Ballard, Matthew Jarosinski, Jordan DiBenedetto
Madison, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 6 minutes
Block 4: September 9th, 6:30PM
Drama




"Amount Due" is a semi-autobiographical film about a mother, her terminally-declining health, the injustices of the U.S. healthcare system, and the suffering it brings upon the loved ones of the deceased. Shot in the style of magic realism, "Amount Due" involves puppetry, a metamorphosing main character, and a camera that reveals the biographical aspects of the story.

Directed by and starring Hernán Ballard, Matthew Jarosinski, and Jordan DiBenedetto, for Professor Will Quade's Communication Arts 355: Intro to Media Production, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2023 Film: Modo Island

Modo Island by Haeryun Kang
Seoul, South Korea (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 9 minutes
Block 5: September 9th, 9:15PM
Documentary




At the height of COVID-19, the erotic sculpture park on Modo Island is nearly empty, like the nearby Incheon Airport, which is South Korea’s largest. The film juxtaposes images of the human body with the stone, both limited by their physical realities as literal and figurative islands, trapped within a perpetual longing for flight.


Twitter

2023 Film: Wisconsin State Parks: The Volunteers

Wisconsin State Parks: The Volunteers by Katelyn Erath
Sherwood, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 10 minutes
Block 3: September 9th, 3:30PM
Documentary



A documentary that features hard working volunteers and their work with-in, and for, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The film explores the reasons, three groups decide to spend their time making the state parks and forests a better place for all.


2023 Film: A Passing Cloud

A Passing Cloud by Peiyan Tang
Shanghai, China (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 14 minutes
Block 3: September 9th, 3:30PM
Drama




While working as a rideshare driver to support her family, Zhao Mei gives a lift to a teenage girl, Yiyi, during schooltime one day. On the way to their destination, Zhao Mei slowly begins to question her role as a mother as she learns more about her young passenger.


2023 Film: A Letter with My Sword, Word by Word

A Letter with My Sword, Word by Word by Emma Barany
Milwaukee, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 3 minutes
Block 1: September 8th, 6:30PM
Animation




Through swordplay and commands, our main figure, Emma, explores the structures and challenges of her past relationships. Ultimately, this leads her to the ones most important to her.



2023 Film: Little Bird

Little Bird by Madison Uphoff
Milwaukee, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 15 minutes
Block 3: September 9th, 3:30PM
Drama




Family traumas are hard to heal. Breaking free from a codependent parent is never easy, but to follow her dreams Birdie must do just that.


Website

2023 Film: Town of Sunshine

Town of Sunshine by Ricardo Tenorio
Milwaukee, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 6 minutes
Block 4: September 9th, 6:30PM
Animation




You've stumbled upon a strange and wonderful world. You meet a very nice man. Everything is nice and safe - right?

2023 Film: Wedlocked

Wedlocked by Debra Zarne
Mequon, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 5 minutes
Block 4: September 9th, 6:30PM
Dramedy




A middle-aged husband and wife doing domestic chores together silently reflect upon each other and their marriage and decide whether to stay or leave. Created around and punctuated by an original piece of experimental music composed by avant-garde composer Yehuda Yannay.

Monday, June 12, 2023

2023 Film: 50 mL

50 mL by Vanessa M. H. Powers
Hopkins, MN (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 8 minutes
Block 4: September 9th, 6:30PM
Drama



A young man struggles with his sobriety while he and his wife host a holiday dinner with her dysfunctional family.

Instagram


2023 Film: Nosedive

Nosedive by Natalia Rzepinska
Shorewood, WI (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 4 minutes
Block 4: September 9th, 6:30PM
Music Video



During golden hour on the hottest day of summer, a friend group decides to host a backyard party. Infatuation sparks when someone catches the eye of another.