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Friday, March 29, 2024
Previewing the Wisconsin Film Festival

Wisconsin Film Festival

Previewing the Wisconsin Film Festival

The Wisconsin Film Festival, running March 30-April 3, offers 209 films this year, which can make ticket selection a daunting task. But in the hopes that you won't take this opportunity for granted, I've picked a few intriguing films I'd recommend to best enjoy our local film fest.

""Project Nim""

In 2008, British documentary filmmaker James Marsh stunned audiences and critics alike with his film ""Man on Wire"" about Philippe Petit, the man who walked a high wire strung between the Twin Towers in 1974. That film won an Oscar for best documentary, and now Marsh is back with his new film, ""Project Nim,"" at the Wisconsin Film Festival. The documentary tells the story of Nim Chimsky, a chimpanzee born in the 1970s and raised as a human child in a scientific attempt to teach him to communicate using sign language. The film premiered at Sundance this year to rave reviews. While I didn't get a chance to see it then, I'm very excited to have a second chance—and it's a chance I'm not going to pass up.

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""How to Start Your Own Country""

Maybe it's the political science major in me, or maybe it's just my odd interest in the Principality of Sealand, but for some reason I cannot wait to see ""How to Start Your Own Country."" This documentary by Jody Shapiro promises to investigate a series of micro-nations—tiny countries seldom recognized by the outside world. Considering that the rulers and founders of such micro-nations tend to be, shall we say, eccentric, I have a feeling this is going to be a cavalcade of interesting characters.

""Carlos""

If you're looking for a challenge at this year's festival, this is it. This biographic portrait of notorious international terrorist Carlos the Jackal by French director Olivier Assayas weighs in at a hefty five and a half hours long. However, that weight is not without its merit. The film currently holds an impressive 93 percent approval rating on review-aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes and, even more impressive, a 100 percent among ‘top critics.' It won the Golden Globe for best miniseries or TV movie and has shown up on quite a few ‘best of 2010' lists as well. If the 330 minute cut showing at the Wisconsin Film Festival is too intimidating, IFC will be releasing a 140 minute release later this year.

""Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure""

In the 1980s, two friends, Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitchell Deprey, moved from Wisconsin into a tiny rundown apartment in San Francisco they called the Pepto-Bismol Palace after its pale pink exterior. They were kept up all night by their neighbors Peter and Ray, who had obnoxiously loud and hilarious drunken rows with each other on a nightly basis. Soon Eddie and Mitchell begin recording their neighbors with a microphone hanging out their apartment window. This documentary chronicles the path of those recordings that began as a joke between two roommates who couldn't sleep and became an underground mix tape phenomenon across the country in a few short years. ""Shut Up Little Man!"" can get a bit scatterbrained at times, but in the end it is a fascinating story of the birth of a cult sensation, and the audio clips can get downright hilarious as well. I was lucky enough to catch it at Sundance this year, and if you can cope with the coarse language it's a film not to be missed.

""Win Win""

Another film that premiered at Sundance this year, ""Win Win"" follows Paul Giamatti as a struggling attorney and high school wrestling coach who takes in the teenage grandson of a client and finds out that the kid is a born wrestler. While it may have the crowd-pleasing heart of ""The Blind Side,"" the film is noted for eccentricities and oddities all its own. While I missed it at Sundance this year, the great reviews that have come out since have made me glad I've gotten another opportunity.

Wondering why David didn't decide to preview ""Marwencol"" or ""Poetry?"" Send him your most anticipated WFF screenings at dcottrell@wisc.edu.

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