During the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival, our Reel Impact Silent Auction included four opportunities to be a programmer for a day. Our fourth and final winner is Jay Beckman, who chose the films Ticket of No Return and Der Fan. Read the interview below to get to know Jay and why he selected these two films!

What’s your name?
Jay Beckman

What’s your relationship with Milwaukee Film?
Member of course, winner of a silent auction to be programmer for a day, and as the Creative Director of the digital studio Northern Ground, I was also lucky enough to create the new Milwaukee Film branding.

What’s your favorite thing about being a Milwaukee Film Member?
There literally may be only seven or eight places in the world where you can see films like these on a big screen. It is hard to overstate how fortunate we are to have an organization like this in our town.

What movies did you pick? 
Two German films: Ticket of No Return (1979), and Der Fan (1982).

In ten words or less, tell us why we HAVE to see these movies!
Coolest place ever: Berlin, early 1980s. Can’t argue with Bowie.

Okay, expand on that: Why did you make these your Programmer for a Day picks?
I love when musical genres bleed into film. Like punk birthing Jubilee and Smithereens or hiphop with Wild Style and Krush Groove. The vibe, the means of production, even sometimes the original artists themselves transfer from one to the other in ways that at least create interesting artifacts, sometimes even inventing entirely new film vernacular.

Both Ulrike Ottinger’s Ticket of No Return and Eckhart Schmidt’s Der Fan emerge from the Neue Deutsche Welle, West Germany’s post-punk scene of low-fi electronics and cold, ironic pop. On film, the angular, pretentious sound folds into compositions of nervous energy, high camp, deadpan boredom. Nina Hagen makes an appearance in Ticket of No Return while the lead singer of the band Rheingold both performs and stars in Der Fan. The films otherwise are very different, but both carry NDW’s stark aesthetic through the bright yellow of 80s fashion or the bright red of blood.

Any words of wisdom you’d like to impart? 
Der Fan is a cool horror film and an easy watch: Obsession for the Kraftwerk era. Ticket of No Return is admittedly a harder pitch. A queer, avant-garde art film about a woman drinking herself to oblivion made with many of Fassbinder’s regular collaborators, it is arguably even cooler, but as an earlier, lesser-known film by a challenging director it will need help to sell tickets. Tell your friends who love dive bars and haute couture. You will think of Sprockets and Mike Myers dancing in a black turtleneck before the night is through.

Join Programmer for a Jay and friends at the Oriental Theatre on Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 PM to see Ticket of No Return. Then, stick around to see Der Fan at 9:30 PM. Tickets to both films are on sale now!