Urban Milwaukee

Movies

On Stage with TCD

July 7 to 13

July stage work in Milwaukee comes back roaring like a tiger with a gaucho on its tail, a ballerina pirouetting to fireworks, three men in a foreign prison, and a @#%$^ Mamet couple. Confused? All becomes clear within our weekly highlight roundup.

Jul 6th, 2009 by Brian Jacobson

Moving Pictures

Red River

For years I thought John Wayne was a bad actor, indicative of that kind of Hollywood movie star who could play only a paper thin character, changing his hat maybe and not much more. I felt the same way about Marilyn Monroe until I saw Bus Stop, The Misfits, Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch in a two day span on a little black and white television, hole up in my Lower East Side apartment in New York with no money and nothing to do. When you see them all at once you begin to think about what artists call a "body of work." You can see the subtlety of the changes. You can actually see the artist work, whereas before you were being fooled, as intended, and seeing just character.

Jun 17th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf

Milwaukee Film rolls out first round of announcements for 2009 Festival

Here they are: the first five film announcements for the first-ever, breathlessly-anticipated 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival. Who knows what we can tell from five films out of what's likely to be more than 100, but this diverse and cosmopolitan selection of screenings: a supermarket comedy from Uruguay, a clandestine documentary about the 2007 uprising in Burma and an exciting frame-by-frame restoration of Akiro Kurosawa's Rashomon.

Jun 10th, 2009 by Amy Elliott

June 5-7

The 48 Hour Film Festival Milwaukee – Go!

Don’t blink, cos you’ll miss it! The most exciting weekend for any and all independent Milwaukee filmmakers has arrived! The 48 Hour Film Project. Be the ball.

Jun 5th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang

Backstage with Mark Metcalf

Dave Fantle discusses film incentives

Following news of the zero-sum game of giant Michael Mann/Johnny Depp production Public Enemies, the budget proposed by Governor Jim Doyle in February would eliminate the Film Wisconsin tax incentives for good, replacing them with a biennial $1 million grant program. Mark Metcalf sits down with Dave Fantle of Visit Milwaukee to get the story.

May 22nd, 2009 by Amy Elliott

Moving Pictures

The Motor City Comic Con

In the third and final installment of his Conventions series, Mark Metcalf reunites and reminisces with Carrie Fisher and Julie Newmar and considers the Michigan film incentives -- and how they compare to Wisconsin's.

May 20th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf

Milwaukee Film Needs Volunteers!

Milwaukee Film is getting ready to launch its grassroots volunteer program to help spread the word about the upcoming Milwaukee Film Festival!

May 20th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang

Moving Pictures

The Hollywood Collector’s Show

Mark Metcalf meet Lois Lane, Bobby Brady, Big Bird and a mailman with a machine gun at the Hollywood Collector's Show in part two of his three-part series on conventions.

May 14th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf

Five questions for Milwaukee Film’s Jonathan Jackson

Milwaukee Film Artistic Director Jonathan Jackson answers five of YOUR questions about film in Milwaukee.

May 12th, 2009 by Jon Anne Willow

Moving Pictures

Conventions

When you’ve worked your whole adult life as an actor, you’re a member of all the unions, have a complicated personal life that doesn’t allow you to leave home for long stretches of time, live in Wisconsin — where there isn’t a lot of union work as an actor, making it hard to make a living — and if you have been fortunate enough to be associated with a few jobs that linger in the public consciousness, one of the things you do, or find yourself doing, is saying yes when invited to a convention, where people come and pay money for autographs and pictures of people deemed to be celebrities. I was a Hirogen Medic in two episodes of Star Trek Voyager. I wore about 50 pounds of foam from head to foot, lost 15 pounds of water weight from sweating inside that foam for ten days, smelled like that sweat and the sweat from all the seven-foot-tall actors that had worn the foam before me but had perished in one conflict or another. The Star Trek people did not want to spend the money to make new costumes, so when they ran out of seven-foot-tall actors to play Hirogens, they just folded the foam over and pinned it up and slammed it on you. There are many people who are so well-versed in Star Trek-ia that they will pay a couple of sawbucks for the autograph and picture of even a lowly Hirogen Medic. I also did a movie about college fraternities that was and still is quite popular. I played an occasionally recurring role on Seinfeld. I dated Elaine, took her to my villa in Tuscany and played pool with Kramer and George’s Dad in their basement at a very small pool table. I wore boxer shorts in that one and conducted the Brooklyn Policeman’s Benevolent Society Orchestra with a bent baton. And then there is the vampire. Primarily because of these adventures, and a few less popular but still known performances, I am asked, occasionally, to go to these conventions, where I am treated like a celebrity. It’s nice. The attention is nice. The fantasy of being well known and liked by strangers is nice. The money is nice, especially lately. And the chance to get out of town, sometimes to very nice locations like London or Florida, is also nice. But you earn it sitting at a table for an average of six hours a day for three days, smiling and being nice, telling stories, answering questions, shaking hands, hugging for pictures, being nice and smiling. It is fun most of the time, but it is also confusing. And it’s work. I once talked to a man for almost half an hour. Answered questions, told stories, asked questions, listened to stories. After about 25 minutes it became apparent that he wasn’t going to buy an autograph, so I asked him straight out. I think I embarrassed him so he plunked down 20 dollars and […]

May 8th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf