Milwaukee Socialism: An Exploration of the Milwaukee Public Library's Archive

MKE Film Festival

For nearly half of the 20th Century, a socialist mayor sat in Milwaukee’s City Hall — Emil Seidl (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940) and Frank Zeidler (1948-1960). The Milwaukee Public Library has an extensive archive of socialism in Milwaukee, which became the laboratory for an experiment. Highlights were pulled from the collection and laid out in eras. Then, three invested Milwaukeeans with no formal ties to socialism spent an afternoon exploring the archival items. This short film presents what emerged from the group’s exploration — stories of a changing city, as well as persistent issues that carry on to the present day.


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About Milwaukee Film

Milwaukee Film is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to entertaining, educating, and engaging our community through cinematic experiences. We operate the magnificent Oriental Theatre and iconic Downer Theatres, two cinemas where we demonstrate our year-round commitment to high-quality and accessible film programming. And, of course, the annual Milwaukee Film Festival has brought together film fans and filmmakers to celebrate the power of cinema since 2009.

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