While I'm not exactly a film festival connoisseur, I've attended my fair share, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival, the Maui Film Festival and, of course, the Wisconsin Film Festival. They all have pros and cons, and each does some things better than the others. After my third year attending the Wisconsin Film Festival, I'd like to offer up my wish list of improvements.
First off: location, location, location. Most of the festival's venues are less than ideal. That usually comes with the territory of film festivals, however, some of the Wisconsin Film Festival's venues tend to be particularly awkward and uncomfortable—none more so than the Frederic March Play Circle at Memorial Union. I'm not the only person to loathe the venue, which seems intentionally designed to prevent even moderately tall people from retaining feeling in their knees for the duration of a film.
During my time at this year's festival, there was no topic of discussion I overheard more frequently than complaints about the Play Circle. Despite any nostalgia I may harbor for the Play Circle as a member of the WUD Film Committee, I will be more than happy to see it retired as the go-to film venue on campus after the brand new Marquee opens at new Union South this month.
Without a doubt, the Play Circle should be retired as a venue for the festival and replaced by the Marquee. But why not take it a step further and replace another venue or simply add one? If they were upgraded I doubt anyone would miss the UW Cinematheque or the theater in the Chazen Museum of Art too much if they were upgraded. The Sundance Cinema in Madison is a perfect venue for the festival, with its modern stadium seating and professional projection system, and is clearly quite open to the possibility, as they state on their website, ""We hope the [Wisconsin Film] Festival will consider us to be a venue in the future.""
One of the things I've come to appreciate about Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, is its transportation system. Multiple festival-only bus routes are run, and clear stop markers and line maps are abundant. A complete out-of-towner can have the transportation system down pat in a day or two and hop a bus everywhere he or she needs to go with ease.
While the Wisconsin Film Festival doesn't need the infrastructure of larger festivals, it's sorely lacking any transportation advice for festivalgoers. The festival could use a consolidated cache of transportation information including exactly how to get from one venue to another. Include this information both on the festival website and on maps made available at the venues. If I weren't a UW student I would have no idea what buses I could take to get from one place to another. Even as a local resident, I would still find a consolidated festival transit map helpful.
Some of the most satisfying parts of my film festival experiences have been Q&As with the director, writer, cast, or even crew that follow screenings. These opportunities for direct discourse between creators and observers are something all too rarely afforded to moviegoers. Festivals are likely the sole chance the average moviegoer ever has to interact with the auteurs of the medium. I was disappointed this year that only about a third of the screenings I attended had anyone present to take questions. The festival should do anything it can to entice more filmmakers to accompany their films.
Also, the festival's representation of local filmmaking is commendable. It is truly Wisconsin's film festival. But, I would like to see more from the national film scene. Only two films offered at this year's festival had truly built up a buzz on the national film festival circuit beforehand—""Project Nim"" and ""Bellflower""—but the reality is that ""Bellflower"" only made a last-minute appearance likely because writer/director Evan Glodell is a Wisconsin native.
It may not be the main reason the festival was unable to entice a larger presence from filmmakers, but I'm sure this distinctively local atmosphere lowered the festival on many of their priority lists. If the Wisconsin Film Festival were to supplement its lineup by perusing more promising films with national names behind them, it would likely draw more attention from filmmakers, and inevitably more Q&A's, which to me are truly the essence of the film festival experience.
If you are fond of the Memorial Union Play Circle's neck-breaking chairs and gum-ridden floors, feel free to debate David at dcottrell@wisc.edu
