Bennett Litton is a current film student at UW-Milwaukee. He describes “Luminous” as a piece about light and movement and the way in which it interacts with our everyday lives. The piece was shot digitally with the Canon t2i camera and represents a new wave of filmmakers utilizing DSLRs for video.
-Steven
(2m26s, Digital, Audio, 2011)
Ericka Frederick’s beautifully shot “Walking Peace” took the ThirdCoastUWM group off guard when we first sat down to watch it. The film doesn’t hesitate in its opening with a young boy walking throughout the fall season of a neighborhood. The plot is very simple integrating the diagetic sounds found in the characters environment. The film’s direction then shifts, and begins to imitate that of a zoetrope that the young character seems to be endlessly caught on the ride. This transition stands out as the metamorphosis of the film.
An email was send out to Ericka so we could get her input on her film, and as soon as that is received we will add it to the post. So check back here shortly!
Nathan Rosenbalm
(3m:40s, Digital, Audio, 2011)
Kate Balsley is a professor at UW-Milwaukee, and is an extremely talented filmmaker as well. A full post as well as an interview with her will be posted in the next day or two to give a broader understanding of her work, her process, and the basis behind the film for Anima Mundi
Nathan Rosenbalm
“Chris James Thompson / Director, Producer, Editor
Chris James Thompson is an award-winning director; his past films include KYOKO NATURALLY (winner-IFP-Chicago Film Fest’07) and THE MAKING OF THE POOL (Milwaukee Film Fest’09). He also works as an editor and producer at Bluemark Productions, with credits on THE POOL (winner-Sundance’07), COLLAPSE (TIFF’09), and SUFFERING & SMILING (winner-Human Rights Watch FF’06). JEFF is his feature directorial debut.
In 1991 Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee and sentenced to 957 years in prison for killing 17 people and dismembering their bodies. ‘Jeff’ explores the city of Milwaukee by meeting those surrounding Dahmer during and after his hidden spree. Recollections from Milwaukee Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, Police Detective Patrick Kennedy, and neighbor Pamela Bass are interwoven with archival footage and everyday scenes from Dahmer’s life, working collectively to disassemble the facade of an ordinary man leading an ordinary existence.
source: Thompson.”Jeff the Movie”. http://jeffthemovie.com/the-film/
Award winning video shot by Chris Thompson as a student at UW-Milwaukee.
-Betty and Ligea
(2010, HDV, Thompson)
UW-Milwaukee student Erica Thompson makes a very personal documentary about her family’s battle with cancer. This film explores the mental, physical, and social strain that fighting cancer can put on both the victim and the family.
A word from Erica:
I was seventeen when my dad got sick. I was busy applying to schools and being way too obsessed with a boy, so I didn’t handle it the way I felt I should have. I sort of hid from the entire thing instead of facing it, and the older I got, the more bad I felt about how I acted at the time. In 2010, I decided to revisit that time and make a sentimental piece to surprise my family and show them that I felt it was a subject worth dedicating something to. I wanted to make something that showed how much I respected my parents’s strength throughout that hard time, and sometimes making art about something is easier than talking about it. I brought my dad to the festival without his knowing it had made it in. Needless to say, it was the best Christmas present of all time.
“All About a Girl” is a short video by Cecelia Condit that is, well, all about a girl. The piece questions whether a young girl can ever really be herself and, in a more global context, whether any of us can really ever be ourselves.
“Possibly In Michigan” is perhaps one of Cecelia’s most well known pieces, and is often accredited as her breakthrough work. The movie weaves an experimental narrative with the use of video and song working together.
Since the early 1980s Cecelia Condit’s narrative tapes have explored the not-so-average experiences of the “average woman” in a social climate of sublimated violence, fear, and misogynist aggression. Her dark-humored works conflate fairy tale morals with the grisly sensationalism of tabloid headlines, incorporating live action, appropriated television images, and original music into frequently operatic narratives. Condit is a Professor of Film and Video at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. – Video Data Bank (www.vdb.org)
Cecelia’s work can be found here on her personal blog or on Youtube.
-Posted by Matt Dernlan and-
With no clear message to convey in Up The Block One Sunday (1982), Blau seems to let us explore his setting and the performances of his cast on our own.
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/24233189]Tintinnabula (1986) creates many visually striking images through its various editing techniques which makes it is as eerily beautiful as it is haunting.
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/23644877]With Jidyll (1990), Blau tells us a strange tale of a performing Jewish man. The music in this piece first comes off as a bit unsettling but soon makes itself the driving force in this interesting short.
Dick Blau, co-founder of the film department here at UWM, is perhaps best known for his experimental films. Some of Blau’s films (including all of which have been posted here today) are distributed by Canyon Media. Though Blau is most notably known for his film and impact its had on UWM’s film department, he also has been taking photographs of his family for the past 40 years and currently has a book entitled “Thicker Than Water” in progress.
Dick Blau’s work can be found on his vimeo site here. For a more detailed description of him and his other works you can find his website here.
written by Sean and Chris
(2010, dv, doc|UWM)
An educational program of Milwaukee Film, Collaborative Cinema’s goal is to teach high school students the skills of screenwriting and filmmaking and help to support and grow the local film industry. We bring professional filmmakers and local college film students to Milwaukee area high school classrooms to engage students with a series of Storytelling and Filmmaking Workshops. Students from these two series are then invited to participate in a largescale Screenwriting Workshop, where professional writers and filmmakers show the students how to turn their movie idea into a screenplay. Selected students then move to the next round and work one-on-one with a professional director and producer to submit a final draft. Finally, one screenplay is chosen to be made into a movie.
(3m36s, Video, Color, 2010)
“Girls! Girls! Girls!” is a sexually charged, contemplative and saturated film. Not much is know about this serious little film (other that it was featured at UW-Milwaukee’s Student Film & Video Festival in the Fall of 2010) but we like it! It’s not that common to see a female director tackle such a sexually charged topic, but Kira did it in such an empowering way that left us wanting to watch more. The film is saturated with style and confidence that it challenges the viewer to think about what voyeurism means. Also worth mentioning is the strobe effect that is featured in the film. For some it might induce an epileptic fit, yet it also closely resembles the earlier work of famed French auteur Gaspar Noe (“Enter the Void” and “Irreversible”). Kira’s film should be watched by all!
Not much is know about Kira (we haven’t been able to reach her as of yet) but as soon as we get in touch with her, we will update this post.
Nathan Rosenbalm
(3m27s, Video, Audio, 2010)
“cat WACO” is a standout stop-motion animation student film by UW-Milwaukee’s Brooke Duckart. Shot on video using a Canon Powershot SD1300 IS, her video was used for the band Screamin’ Cyn Cyn and the Pons song “cat WACO”. That being said, this video was chosen while ignoring the soundtrack.
“cat WACO” is soaked with nostalgia. The animation is executed flawlessly, the pacing is captivating, but best of all; it has a playful quality that most animated films now are lacking. One can’t help but notice the similarities that “cat WACO” shares with certain animations produced during the seventies and eighties. The video is fun, entertaining, and unlike any animations that currently being created today.
Nathan Rosenbalm
THIRD COAST 