We're very excited to announce the next wave of programming at our new home-away-from-home, the Oriental Theatre! This includes the highly anticipated 2018 Sundance grand jury prize winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post, along with expanded Craft Cinema programming. This includes a regular weekend series of family friendly films, such as The Secret of Kells, and a Festival Favorites Series to celebrate the organization’s 10th anniversary, featuring such films as The Beaches of Agnes (MFF 2009) on 35mm and Louder Than a Bomb (MFF 2011) with guests in attendance. Limited runs of Crystal Moselle’s (The Wolfpack) sophomore feature Skate Kitchen and Kimberly Reed’s political thriller documentary Dark Money are scheduled to open at the end of the month.
FILMS
COMING SOON
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
(USA | 2018 | DCP | Director: Desiree Akhavan)
In 1993, after teenage Cameron is caught in the backseat of a car with the prom queen, she is sent away to a treatment center in a remote area called God's Promise. While she is being subjected to questionable gay conversion therapies, she bonds with some fellow residents as they pretend to go along with the process while waiting to be released.
CRAFT CINEMA
Betty White: The First Lady of Television
(USA | 2018 | DCP | Director: Steven Boettcher)
Date: 08/18
World Premiere! Guest in attendance! After entertaining audiences for 80 years, beloved and iconic actress Betty White is officially the longest working person in television history. A reflection and celebration of the comedian's remarkable life and career, Betty White: First Lady of Television traces back to her early days in radio, through her most memorable roles on The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Unprecedented access to White’s life, along with insights from her famous friends, like Ryan Reynolds, Tom Sullivan, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, highlight the bold and humorous spirit of this television pioneer in a heartfelt, funny, and poignant film.
The Secret of Kells
(Ireland, Belgium, France | 2009 | DCP | Directors: Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey)
Date: 08/18
MFF 2014 alum! Young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with the barbarians closing in, will Brendan’s determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil? (Gkids)
Dark Money
(USA | 2018 | DCP | Director: Kimberly Reed)
Date: opening 8/24
Dark Money, a political thriller, examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana - a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide- to follow an intrepid local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Through this gripping story, Dark Money uncovers the shocking and vital truth of how American elections are bought and sold.
The King
(USA | 2018 | DCP | Director: Eugene Jarecki)
Date: opening 8/24
Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis's transition from country boy to "The King" to America's transformation into an empire.
Skate Kitchen
(USA | 2018 | DCP | Director: Crystal Moselle)
Date: opening 8/24
In the first narrative feature from The Wolfpack director Crystal Moselle, Camille, an introverted teenage skateboarder (newcomer Rachelle Vinberg) from Long Island, meets and befriends an all-girl, New York City-based skateboarding crew called Skate Kitchen. She falls in with the in-crowd, has a falling-out with her mother, and falls for a mysterious skateboarder guy (Jaden Smith), but a relationship with him proves to be trickier to navigate than a kickflip. Writer/director Crystal Moselle immersed herself in the lives of the skater girls and worked closely with them, resulting in the film's authenticity, which combines poetic, atmospheric filmmaking and hypnotic skating sequences. Skate Kitchen precisely captures the experience of women in male-dominated spaces and tells a story of a girl who learns the importance of camaraderie and self-discovery.
Kirikou and the Sorceress
(France, Belgium, Luxembourg | 1998 | 35mm | Directors: Michel Ocelot, Raymond Burlet)
Date: 8/25
Based on a West African folktale, this exquisite animated fable follows the adventures of the precocious newborn Kirikou who—never mind being straight out of the womb—sets out to save his village from an evil witch. Striking, jewel-box visuals are set to a vibrant soundtrack by Senegalese great Youssou N’Dour to yield a feast of sensory delights. (bam.org)
Louder Than A Bomb
(USA | 2010 | DCP | Directors: Greg Jacobs, Jon Siskel)
Date: 08/25
Guest in attendance! MFF 2014 alum! Every year, more than six hundred teenagers from over sixty Chicago area schools gather for the world’s largest youth poetry slam, a competition known as Louder Than a Bomb. Founded in 2001, Louder Than a Bomb is the only event of its kind in the country—a youth poetry slam built from the beginning around teams. Rather than emphasize individual poets and performances, the structure of Louder Than a Bomb demands that kids work collaboratively with their peers, presenting, critiquing, and rewriting their pieces. To succeed, teams have to create an environment of mutual trust and support. For many kids, being a part of such an environment—in an academic context—is life-changing.
The Beaches of Agnes
(France | 2009 | 35mm | Director: Agnès Varda)
Date: 8/26
MFF 2009 alum! Presented as part of a festival flashback series in celebration of Milwaukee Film’s 10th anniversary. In this autobiographical documentary, celebrated French filmmaker Agnes Varda provides a window into her eventful life as she revisits various locales that have been important to her. Interspersed between these trips are interviews with Varda's collaborators and family members, as well as archive footage and still photographs. This eclectic mix provides both a history of the subject and an illuminating tour of an artist's mind and creative process.
Full Metal Jacket
(USA | 1987 | 35mm | Director: Stanley Kubrick)
Date: 8/28
This film is a part of retrospective series on Stanley Kubrick’s filmography happening throughout the fall at the Oriental Theatre. Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War follows smart-aleck Private Davis (Matthew Modine), quickly christened "Joker" by his foul-mouthed drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey), and pudgy Private Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle," as they endure the rigors of basic training. Though Pyle takes a frightening detour, Joker graduates to the Marine Corps and is sent to Vietnam as a journalist, covering -- and eventually participating in -- the bloody Battle of Hué.
The Painting (Le Tableau)
(France, Belgium, Canada | 2011 | DCP | Director: Jean-François Laguionie)
Date 09/01
In this wryly inventive parable, a kingdom within a painting is divided into three castes: the impeccably colored Alldunns, the incomplete Halfies, and the barely outlined Sketchies who are treated as outcasts. Chastised for her forbidden love of the dashing Ramo, Claire runs away into the cursed forest. Ramo and his friends journey after her, crossing over the boundaries of the forest only to arrive at the very edge of the painting – where they tumble through the canvas and into the Painter’s studio. The abandoned workspace is strewn with paintings, each containing its own vividly animated world and characters – and in a feast for both the eyes and the imagination, Ramo, Lola, Quill and Magenta explore picture after picture, in a quest to discover just what the Painter has in mind for his creations. (Gkids)
Ernest and Celestine
(France, Belgium, Luxembourg | 2012 | Directors: Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier)
Date: 09/08
MFF 2014 alum! Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer – and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities.
Posted by: Milwaukee Film