How Do You Choose Your Films? ith 209 films laid out on the following pages, it can be a W daunting task to whittle down your list to a manageable weekend full of movies. When we’re selecting the films for this year’s Festival, the goal is to pull togeth- er a very wide mix of motion pictures, to give you access to dozens of films that you’d never otherwise have the chance to see. It’s the perfect opportunity to explore and be adventurous. Rather than focus solely on the kinds of films that already fit your tastes, consider the titles that you quickly skip over when reading the descriptions. The Festival might be exactly the right time to see — if these aren’t the kind The Wisconsin premier of Bill Cunningham New York screens you’d normally choose — a war documentary Thursday, March 31 at the Wisconsin Union Theater, and Friday, April 1 at the Bartell. like Armadillo, an art-house specialty like Le Quattro Volte, or an action picture like Hong THE ALPHABETICAL FILM LIST BEGINS ON PAGE 6 Kong’s The Stool Pigeon. TICKET INFORMATION IS ON PAGE 38 DAILY SCHEDULES IN GRID FORMAT ARE ON PAGES 20 & 21 This year is also perfect for getting a ticket to a program of experimental films. The director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, David Dinnell, FILM SERIES FOR 2011 and two UW–Madison graduate students, PRESENTED WITH PRESENTED WITH Restorations and Revivals Ellen John Powers and Aaron Granat, have guest- THE UW DEPARTMENT THE UW CENTER FOR OF REHABILITATION EAST ASIAN STUDIES; 11 thru 12 Everyday Sunshine: The Story curated several clusters of the most accom- • 877.963.FILM 2011 • WIFILMFEST.ORG 3, 30-APRIL • MADISON MARCH WISCONSIN FILM FESTIVAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AND THE CENTER FOR FILM Le Amiche of Fishbone SPECIAL EDUCATION AND VISUAL CULTURE Blood Hook Figure In Isolation plished recent experimental and avant-garde Anita STUDIES, NATIONAL CENTRAL Campus Smiles Francesca films from around the world. They’ll be intro- UNIVERSITY OF TAIWAN Eskimo Kiss Cluny Brown From the Archive of Vagaries God Man Dog ducing these programs and providing insight Loving Lampposts The Evil Dead The Great Work of Dr. D. Volos Parking Marwencol Galaxies Tinkerpaw into how this branch of filmmaking continues Monica & David PRESENTED WITH A Letter from Colombia Haulin’ Ass to create fascinating works. The Red Chapel THE UW OFFICE OF Madison News Reel I’ll Be Here MULTICULTURAL ARTS March on Washington In the Courtyard of the Beloved Here in Wisconsin, many of us make a spe- PRESENTED WITH INITIATIVES Night Train to Terror instrumental video nine THE UW NELSON Louder Than a Bomb cial effort to support local farmers — let’s INSTITUTE FOR NYC Street Scenes and Noises Kathryn support local filmmakers, too. Get a ticket to ENVIRONMENTAL PRESENTED WITH On the Bowery Legend Lake: A Talking Circle STUDIES THE ANN ARBOR FILM Scratch and Crow Lottery Ticket at least one feature or shorts program of Fire, Burn, Babylon FESTIVAL A Study in Reds Love Me Tender films made here in Wisconsin. See the list on How I Ended This Summer Artifact #1 Sunday Mary and Bill My Dog Tulip Atlantiques A Trip Down Market Street Before The Mushroom Sessions the left or, if you browse the online Film Nénette Broad Channel the Fire Oil Wrestling Guide (http://wifilmfest.org/films/), you can Summer Pasture Devil’s Gate Open Season sort the list for “Wisconsin’s Own” titles. Sun Come Up Distance Wisconsin’s Own The Optimo Hat Company Get Out of the Car MADE BY FILMMAKERS LIVING Pesticide However you put your own Wisconsin Film PRESENTED WITH In Comparison IN OR NATIVE TO WISCONSIN, OR Power Trio THE UW CENTER FOR STUDENTS/ALUMNI OF WISCONSIN Festival together, whether it’s two films over RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, In the Absence of Light, UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES Rigor Mortis AND CENTRAL ASIA; Darkness Prevails Anima Mundi SHC the weekend or twenty, the Festival will be a AND THE UW RUSSIAN Kalendar Slaves of the Saints FLAGSHIP CENTER Annihilation success if you try at least one new kind of Kempinski Spare Change Forever’s Gonna Start Ash movie. It’s not about having all your 2011 night side A Study in Reds Tonight At the Table: Mothers Sharing Ray’s Birds Style & Grace picks become your most favorite films of all How I Ended My Summer Stories Through Art Victoria, George, Edward, Subdued Glow My Joy The Bells of Bascom Hill time, it’s about sampling the many different and Thatcher They Say Even Water Has a My Perestroika Blink! Again kinds of motion pictures that talented crews Vineland Block Memory… around the world have made. Welcome to SUPPORT FOR EUROPEAN The Bully Time Will Tell FILM PROGRAMMING FROM Dark Ways Under the Sun your Wisconsin Film Festival. THE UW CENTER FOR The Death of Triforce Westbound: The Journey of a EUROPEAN STUDIES Deux Petits Bateaux Lifetime — MEG HAMEL, DIRECTOR 3 13 Assassins Acquainted with the Night Amy George editing, the bloodletting takes on a works. High-definition photography is the most spectacular fur coats in cine- biographer: Spalding Gray. Director ( ) mythic grandeur, as if all previous samu- splendidly used here, with advances matic history. Restored by Cineteca di Steven Soderbergh, who collaborated SEE: Remember the Time rai movies have culminated into this one in video technology allowing for breath- Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata with with Gray on Gray’s Anatomy (1996), has majestic blowout. Although famous for taking color in, naturally, low-light con- funding provided by Gucci and The Film sifted through rare and revealing footage 11 thru 12 audacious subversions like Audition and ditions. Foundation. to construct a riveting final monologue. SEE: Orphan Films: Time Travel & Ichi the Killer, cult director Takashi There are glimpses of Gray’s father, and Dreams of a Better Life Miike treats the samurai genre with Ah, Liberty! Amy George of his son Forrest (who provides soar- great reverence. Unabashedly classical, SEE: Remember the Time SUN, APR 3 • 11:00 AM ing music for the end credits), but mostly 13 Assassins 13 Assassins eschews the high-flying Chazen Museum of Art this is an inspired one-man show, a bit- (Jûsan-nin No Shikaku) wirework and winking asides that Le Amiche (The Girlfriends) WORLD PREMIERE · narrative · Canada, 2010, tersweet display of Spalding’s playful WED, MAR 30 • 6:00 PM plague most contemporary martial arts color, video · 98 MIN + POST-FILM Q&A and embattled intelligence, his gift for FRI, APR 1 • 1:45 PM DIRECTOR: YONAH LEWIS, CALVIN Orpheum Main extravaganzas. Instead, Miike unleashes tracking universal truths by looking him- an old-school slice-and-dice spectac- SUN, APR 3 • 1:45 PM THOMAS self squarely in the eye. WISCONSIN PREMIERE · narrative · Japan, Writer, cinematographer, editor, producer: Calvin 2010, color, 35mm · 126 MIN ular, and finds immense satisfaction in UW Cinematheque “Gray proved a fearless and relent- WISCONSIN PREMIERE · Thomas, Yonah Lewis; production manager: DIRECTOR: TAKASHI MIIKE narrative · Italy, 1955, tried-and-true swordsmanship. 2010 b/w, 35mm · 104 MIN Anna Cook; original music: Lev Lewis; cast: less invader of his own privacy; he held Writer: Kaneo Ikegami, Daisuke Tengan; direc- Gabriel del Castillo Mullally, Claudia Dey, Don Venice, Toronto, Pusan, and Sitges film DIRECTOR: MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI nothing back, especially the parts that tor of photography: Nobuyasu Kita; editor: Kenji Kerr, Natasha Allan, Emily Henry, Candice Yamashita; original music: Kôji Endô; produc- festivals. Writer: Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Michelangelo Barkin, Yaari Magenheim, Brian Scott, Andrea might prove embarrassing to himself tion designer: Yuji Hayashida; executive pro- Antonioni, Alba de Cespedes; cinematographer: Verginella Ester Reyes and his loved ones. For Gray, knowing ducer: Takashi Hirajô, Toshiaki Nakazawa, Gianni di Venanzo; editor: Eraldo Da Roma; orig- FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO ATTEND. himself on such a profound and inti- Acquainted with the inal music: Giovanni Fusco; production designer: Jeremy Thomas; producer: Minami Ichikawa, Jesse (Gabriel del Castillo Mullally) mate level proved both a gift and a curse. Tôichirô Shiraishi, Michihiko Yanagisawa; cast: Night Gianni Polidori; set decorator: Gianni Polidori; costumes: Enzo Bulgarelli; producer: Giovanni is floating in the confusion that comes It afforded him enormous insight into Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya, SAT, APR 2 • 1:45 PM Gorô Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura, Mikijiro Addessi; cast: Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele with being a shrimpy 14-year-old boy in his inner workings yet robbed him of Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Hira, Hiroki Matsukata, Ikki Sawamura, Arata Chazen Museum of Art Toronto. The urge to change and trans- the comfort of self-delusion... Soder- Furuta, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Masataka Kubota, Sosuke Yvonne Furneaux, Madeleine Fischer, Anna Takaoka, Seiji Rokkaku, Yûma Ishigaki, Kôen SUN, APR 3 • 1:15 PM Maria Pancani form and mature is there, but none of it bergh’s loving, shattering valentine to Kondô, Ikki Namioka Bartell Theatre IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES makes sense to him yet. One idea is to his late friend and collaborator has an IN JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES MIDWEST PREMIERE · documentary · Canada, In 1955, Italy was still a place of strict become a “true artist,” one who suffers inherently tragic arc, but it’s ultimately Finland, France, 2010, color, video · 80 MIN + a celebration of Gray’s irrepressible lust Special Opening Night Presentation POST-FILM Q&A social mores and repressed femininity, for his work and discovers great pas- for the Festival’s 13th year: DIRECTOR: MICHAEL MCNAMARA with the pressures of modern living just sions along the way. Clumsily, he con- for life and bottomless curiosity about It’s 1844 in feudal Japan, and samu- Editor: Roland Schlimme, Roderick Deogrades; starting to crack the surface.