Many of you all know that I'm into cinema, in fact, I watch almost anything I can get my hands on. A few weeks ago, Tarik Moody, who in addition to his radio duties, lamplights as a movie screener for the Milwaukee Film Festival. Well, he was kind enough to hook a brother up with an advance to see Beasts of The Southern Wild ( which is fresher than fresh btw) and since he likes it when we blog, I thought I'd cross our purposes with some big news coming from the Festival's organizers about some structural changes and an important thematic addition.
In what they're calling Hooligante, the organizers of the Milwaukee Film Festival are introducing a new format for presenting cult and genre films of all things raunchy, gory, scary, bizarre and perhaps even offensive as a late-night showcase. To me, it sounds like a perfect way to market films to the people most likely to dig them.
Additionally, Cinema Hooligante will feature the popular midnight shorts program as a component of its presentation as well as a brand new collaboration between Milwaukee filmmaker/cinemaphile Mark Borchardt in what will be called Mark Borchardt Presents... and will feature a film and a post-film discussion with its director.
For more details on Cinema Hooligante and the Milwaukee Film Festival visit their site. and peep the lineup for Cinema Hooligante, you may need to update your bedtime for the festival!
CINEMA HOOLIGANTE LINE-UP:
Beyond The Black Rainbow
In this fantasy Slant dubbed “the cinematic equivalent of LSD,” a mute, psychic teen tries to escape the clutches of a demented doctor who’s made her the guinea pig for his drug experiments. Set in a retro-futuristic version of 1983, this homage to Kubrick and Cronenberg teems with trippy sensory details and a synth-fueled soundtrack by Black Mountain’s Jeremy Schmidt.
Citadel
Deranged humans can be scarier than zombies and werewolves combined, especially when hoodies obscure their faces. In this Irish horror film, real-life phobias merge with fictional underworlds when demon children abduct Tommy's newborn daughter. To rescue her, he teams up with a renegade priest who seems to know everything about these feral, hooded youths. Meanwhile, Tommy’s agoraphobia spills into the audience, fueling a weird, wild ride that won a SXSW audience award.
Dead Weight
Nothing hampers romance like an apocalypse. As a mysterious viral outbreak ravages the Midwest, Charlie (Milwaukee-based Joe Belknap) schleps through the Wisconsin wilderness to meet his girlfriend in Wausau. Though he’s protected by a band of fellow survivalists, he struggles to escape his biggest threat: obsessions with the past. Milwaukee-based cinematographer Travis Auclair extracts beauty from Fox Valley snowdrifts as Charlie’s demons surface in horrific ways.
Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal
In this gruesomely dark comedy, a washed-up Danish painter takes a job at a Canadian art school. Chasing his muse—blood and guts—is too risky, so he funnels his energy into teaching. But trouble looms when he takes in the school’s mute benefactor, whose grisly nighttime hobby makes his creative juices flow and strikes up a bond between the two outsiders. Who could imagine cannibalism would be so heartwarming?
Klown
In what critics are hailing as “the funniest movie of the year” (IFC), Klown follows two wildly inappropriate friends as they run amok through the Danish countryside. Rampaging through exclusive brothels, hospitalizations, armed robberies and even prison, they paddle downstream from one chaotic misadventure to the next, all culminating in a surprisingly sentimental portrait of friendship and a final shocking reveal that you'll never be able to unsee.
Mark Borchardt Presents: The Giant Spider Invasion
Milwaukee filmmaker and cinephile Mark Borchardt (American Movie) kicks off a new series with us, presenting one of his favorite cult films. First up on his list is the Wisconsin-made drive-in hit, The Giant Spider Invasion. With zany characters, quotable lines such as "You wouldn't know Rice Krispies from rabbit turds" and director Bill Rebane in attendance, this event all but guarantees a hilariously entertaining evening.
The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Sh*t.
Don't let the title diminish your expectations. Sex, horror, gore, comedy. This program delivers. Every time. We're not going to tell you how tall you have to be to buy a ticket to this feast of awesomeness, but maybe wear your big-boy shoes. Because there's no crying at the midnight shorts program. And don't say we didn't warn you.
V/H/S
In this found-footage horror anthology, a band of criminals receives what seems like the world’s easiest assignment: retrieve an old VHS tape from a house in the middle of nowhere. Little do they know what horror awaits them, as they examine an avalanche of tapes, each more grisly and twisted than the next. Featuring some of the genre’s most innovative new directors, V/H/S reintroduces insanely fun scares to contemporary horror.
