[soft music]
[upbeat music]
- It's amazing how lucky we are
to be in our profession and have movies.
[dramatic music]
? ?
[gunshot popping]
- Hi, welcome to a special edition of Director's Cut.
I'm Pete Schwaba and it's time once again
for Wisconsin Public Television's annual
Wisconsin Film Festival episode of Director's Cut.
Tonight we'll get a sneak preview of some of the films
that will be showcased at this year's festival
and meet the filmmakers behind them.
This year's selections include a compelling documentary
about a Milwaukee police shooting, a midnight radio fantasy,
a Milwaukee Buck entering his 50th season and a neckbeard.
[shudders]
It's like Christmas morning for film fans.
This year, the Wisconsin Film Festival
runs here in Madison, opening April 5th through April 12th.
As always, our first guest today is none other
than Festival Director of Programming, Jim Healy.
Jim, welcome back. - Hi Pete, thanks.
- Do you ever get sick of coming here and talking about the Wisconsin Film Festival?
- Never, no I love this every year.
- Okay, you're not faking it. - No. - You're happy to be here.
- I'll always talk about movies anytime you ask.
- Yeah I know that about you. You're a true film fan.
So...
This is the show I honestly look forward to most every year.
Tell us a little bit about this year's film festival if you can.
Just an overview to start us off here.
- Well, around 150 films, short length
and feature length in duration,
a significant number of them are feature length,
put together in roughly 100 or so programs
that play out over eight days.
This is a time to really indulge
and be a true cinephile.
I always think, I think I would advocate for movie going
as a way of life and this is I think
an opportunity to see if you wanna go that way.
You wanna play hooky a little bit or leave work early
or maybe just leave work altogether for the day
and see three or four movies back to back.
See if you wanna go for it as a round-the-year lifestyle.
This is a good time to try it out.
- That's the best way to do it, is watch them back to back.
This festival has really kinda grown
in the last 10 or 12 years, hasn't it?
- Grown in duration, grown in size.
I think grown in the quality of films we show
every year, the movies, we always find a strong
crop of films to show, movies from all over the world
and it's a fun festival to come and see movies at.
We have filmmakers in person who will be talking
about their work after the screening
and a little bit before.
I know some of them are gonna be on the show today
to talk about their work, but that's part of the fun too
is having the discussion, not just with the filmmakers
but also with your fellow film-goers.
When you're waiting in line for the movie
or after the screening.
- You don't get that just going to a regular film.
To have the Q & A with the director after the film
is really what makes festivals, and especially this one, fantastic, right?
- Yeah, we do quite a bit of that.
- Well let's take a look at our first sampling of films
that will be featured at this year's
Wisconsin Film Festival.
[switch clicks]
[projector motor running]
? ?
? Miles from nowhere ?
- I think it's amazing how lucky we are
to be in our profession and have movies
? To reach there ?
to remember people with
? Look up at the mountain ?
because when you see these pieces of Hal's pictures,
you see his modesty, his honesty, his humor,
his irreverence, his impatience with hypocrisy,
his love of people.
These are qualities that are all reflected
both in the subjects that he chose to deal with
and in the way that he dealt with them.
? Miles from nowhere ?
? I guess I'll take my time ?
- It was almost like a spiritual something about him.
- Hal created such an inclusive environment.
It almost felt like you were all impulses
in the same brain.
That's kind of how he made you feel.
- He wasn't at all the kind of person that I expected.
Not quite Hollywood. - He has his long gray hair
and this wonderful, long gray beard
and this eternal smile on his face.
- If you think about any of Hal Ashby's films,
you're gonna find discussion of class,
you're gonna find discussion of race.
- He wanted people clearly to love one another
when societies tried to keep them apart.
- Hal Ashby is a warning story.
I mean that scared me.
- He had problems with authority.
- He went off the deep end.
He became so committed to freedom of expression.
- I think the films of Hal Ashby have had
an enormous effect on most of the great filmmakers
that we admire.
- To me, he's totally in the pantheon.
- 10 or 11 features, seven in the 70's
that are just astonishing string of masterpieces.
- We all looked to those movies as the best movies ever made.
? I love everything ?
? So don't it make you feel sad ?
? 'Cause I'll drink to you my baby ?
? I'll think to that ?
? Miles from nowhere ?
? I guess I'll take my time ?
? Oh yeah ?
? To reach there ?
[electronic music]
[suspenseful music]
- Well then.
- We're back with Jim Healy,
Wisconsin Film Festival.
What's your title, Jim? I totally blanked out.
- I'm the Director of Programming.
- You're the all-knowing Director of Programming, there you go.
You have some great themes this year with the film festival,
and one is movies about movies
which led us from that clip to this question,
so talk about that a little bit.
- This is our 20th edition actually.
This is the 20th festival. It's not the 20th anniversary.
That'll be next year I guess, but this is our 20th festival
and as we were putting the program together,
we found we had a significant number
of movies about movies which we thought
was appropriate to kind of celebrate this year,
one of which is The Green Fog,
which we just saw a clip of.
This is a movie co-directed by Guy Maddin.
It's an experimental feature that
retells Hitchcock's Vertigo
using clips from different movies and television shows
filmed in San Francisco.
I think there's a little bit of Vertigo,
actual Vertigo in there, but a very little bit.
- You mean from the film?
- Somehow finds a way to use Chuck Norris
to stand in for Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo.
It's really a remarkable film
that's co-directed by Guy Maddin,
one of our great filmmakers.
We also have a number of documentaries
about the filmmaking process
including Hal, which we just saw a clip of,
about the great director, Hal Ashby,
who had these string of great films in the 1970's.
The director, Amy Scott, is gonna be with us
and, in addition to Hal, our movies about movies section
is dovetailing with our restorations
and rediscoveries section, so you can see Hal,
and then you can also see his first feature,
The Landlord , and also his great film with Jack Nicholson, The Last Detail.
- And the director will be here for Q & A.
- The director of Hal, Amy Scott, will be here, yeah.
- Wow, that's what's so great about this festival is I saw,
I think last year, The Fabulous Stains,
that movie that was, I mean it's in bad shape, obviously,
but you're not gonna see that anywhere else
but a film festival.
We just have a few seconds here before we have to
go to our next clip, and we'll have you back later,
but any great Wisconsin entries this year, Jim?
- There's a number of great Wisconsin entries,
and you're going to be meeting
a lot of the filmmakers coming up.
I should mention that our movies about movies section
also has a film by Emir,
who's gonna be up talking about his movie,
about a really unique video store
or film access store in Milwaukee.
- When we have you back later at the end of the show,
we'll talk more about that, too. - Great.
- Thanks, Jim, and we'll talk to you at the end of the show,
but up next a deeply impactful documentary
on the story of Dontre Hamilton,
a Milwaukee man who was killed by police.
[soft music]
- See what we gotta go through?
- Working with Dontre,
he got me into this crap.
- [Female] Dontre and Nate, they actually grew up like twins.
- [Male] He was the baby and we couldn't
let nothing happen to the baby.
- I just hope people can understand
that Dontre was a person who didn't deserve to die,
who didn't deserve to be shot 14 times.
[gunshots popping]
- [Male] 1246, 1246, shots fired, shots fired,
officer involved, hit me in the head with my own baton,
shots fired, Starbucks, Starbucks, help right now.
- [Male] You don't know this but when
somebody gets killed by a police officer,
whoever gets the information out first
is the winner.
- The decedent is Dontre Hamilton,
a violent, combative, mentally ill individual.
- He's homeless, he's angry, he's violent,
I'm like you're lying.
- It's an illness. It's nothing to be afraid of.
- Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give in this hearing...
It's nothing that anybody should die for.
- [Female] Dear Lord, thank you for the truth
and thank you for blessing my family. Amen. - Amen.
- I saw pictures of the officer with no wounds, no bruises.
- [Male] It was a fear.
There could be a weapon, such as a knife.
- There's something that's systemically wrong here in the city of Milwaukee.
- 99 % of the people in this room have not been in that situation.
- Once Ferguson broke, it wasn't a mental health story anymore,
it was a race story.
- After a man was shot 14 times.
- [Male] We will not be happy until the officer is behind bars.
- I need to have a community where police and citizens
can trust each other.
- When will we stand up.
- This community is at risk all right.
It's not because men and women in blue
risk their lives protecting you.
- Are you more likely to support them or no?
- We demand justice or else.
- ...respect! Fight back!
[suspenseful music]
[crowd yelling]
- [Male] You don't know what's actually
gonna hit you in life.
This fight kind of keeps us breathing.
We're living Dontre.
- How many shots. [All]: 14
- The blood is at the doorstep.
- Welcome back to Director's Cut,
the Wisconsin Film Festival episode.
I'm joined now by the director of
The Blood is at the Doorstep , Eric Young.
Eric, welcome to Director's Cut. - Thanks for having me.
- Congrats on getting into the film festival, that's pretty exciting.
- I'm excited to bring it to Madison for the first time.
- Rarely do I watch many movies
where I'm white-knuckled.
That clip makes you just on the edge of your seat.
Tell us a little bit about your film.
- So, it documents the story of the Dontre Hamilton
family in Milwaukee.
It follows the family for about three years
after Dontre Hamilton was killed.
It's really a film about a family, their growth,
and kind of leaders of a movement in Milwaukee
as they kind of found their voice as activists.
Wow, let me ask you something.
- As a documentarian, how do you know
when you see a person, a topic, a subject,
where you say, and I know your resumé,
you've worked for a lot of big outlets
as kind of a hired gun,
but how do you know when you say,
you just said you spent three years making this,
what makes you make that commitment?
How do you know when you see a story
that you're willing to put in that time?
- Well, I think early on, I think probably every day,
there's a story line, or I come across something
that's like, someone should make a documentary about that,
that's really interesting, but it's one of the stories, when this happened,
I was aware of it the day it happened, I was watching the news,
but it's something I thought about every single day,
and I was like someone needs to tell that story,
and I didn't see any other documentarians
or anybody kind of telling that story
and when it's nagging at you every single day,
it's like maybe you should be the one to step up and do that.
There's a lot of reasons maybe I shouldn't have
told this story and in a lot of ways I'm an outsider,
but in a lot of ways, I am an insider as well.
I felt very passionately about telling this story
and the Hamilton family put a lot of faith in me
to tell their story, and so I'm grateful to them.
- How long did it take in the process
where you felt like okay they're with me?
The Hamilton family.
- Well, I think I was scared to approach them for a while,
and I think they were hesitant to let someone into their lives,
and I think we were both kind of feeling each other out
for months, and it's a daunting task,
it's very important.
Tough story.
And it's like,
I wasn't sure if I was the right person to tell it.
Did I have the skillset to tell this story?
I went through a lot of self-doubt in making the film.
It probably took months before we both
were really in sync with each other.
I think a lot of times they felt like
I wanted to be filming rallies,
but I wanted to be filming more than that,
kind of get a real sense of who this family was.
- Do you have to convince them from the outset, like hey,
I'm not gonna sensationalize this,
I'm not just trying to further advance my own career.
I really want to tell your story?
Do you have to kind of present that when you approach them?
- I'd like to say that we sat down.
I had an Excel or PowerPoint presentation
and be like this is what I'm trying to do, but it really wasn't that clear.
I didn't really know this was gonna be
a feature length documentary, it just kind of happened.
So there wasn't a sit-down where I detailed
what I was intending to do because I didn't really know.
It just kind of naturally happened.
One day you look up and you have 300 hours of footage
on a hard drive and like whoa I should probably edit this
and do something with it.
- At that point, you're thinking this is feature length.
- I think in the back of mind I always knew
I was doing this, but I didn't want to admit it to myself
because making a feature length film,
I would not wish that upon anybody.
- We just have about 20 seconds before the next clip
but what was the family's reaction to the film?
- That was the most nervous I've ever been for a screening.
We premiered at South by Southwest in 2017
and a couple days before we went down there,
we were editing the film up until the deadline
and to be honest, we were editing this film
even up until October, but having the family see it
for the first time, I was white knuckling
and just like if the family doesn't approve of this,
I don't know if we can release the film.
- I wish you luck at the screening.
Thanks for being here today. - Thank you. - All right.
Up next a girl finds a girl what price she will pay
for her obsession with a midnight radio show.
[door closes]
- Hello and thank you for staying up to listen
to Starman Radio on at midnight every night.
Tonight, I'm going to play the music of Francoise Hardy
who found herself at the very forefront
of the French music scene in the 1960's
a very magical time for art in France,
in music with the rise of Ye-Ye,
even for film with the rise of New Wave,
here's Hardy's Le temps de l'amour.
[upbeat French music & singing]
- We're back with director of Starman Radio,
Arielle Bordow. Welcome to the show.
- Hi, nice to be here. - [Pete] It's our pleasure.
Tell us about Starman Radio.
- All right, so at the beginning of this year,
I was in a class called Comm Arts.
- You're a college student, right?
- I am. I'm a college student here at UW.
[lavalier mic falls off]
So the first question that my TA ever asked the class
was what movie did you watch this summer?
And I interned at a radio station this summer
and I was like I did not watch any movies.
I spent the summer listening to music,
listening to podcasts, so I was really inspired
by the idea of sound within a movie
and someone not being able to see what's going on.
So that was a really big inspiration for me
and then I was also really inspired by the idea of,
"Can you be in love with someone who you don't know?"
And I think it's interesting thinking about social media
and the way that we communicate with each other
but you don't, you've never met the person necessarily,
but can you be in love them, that's for you to tell.
- I love your title by the way. It's a great title.
- It's referential.
- We spoke yesterday briefly and you said
you're a communications, film and what was the other,
you have a three-pronged major.
- It's called Communication Arts
and it's film, radio, TV, which is great.
- I bet it is but it was interesting
after we hung up I'm like how do you even decide.
Do they let you dip your toe into each one
and then figure out where you're gonna go?
Or do you just become a jack of all trades?
How do you decide what avenue to take
or is that why you're majoring in this
so you can figure that out?
- For me, I don't know if I'll ever figure it out.
I'm super involved at WSUM. I love making films.
I'm the director of WUD music next year.
I love music and TV and films.
I don't want to ever have to choose.
- Ok, so... - [chuckles]
- Were you surprised when you--
You're not a full-time filmmaker.
You make this cool little film
that you just kind of did on the side
'cause you're a student, and next thing you know,
it's the Wisconsin Film Festival.
Talk about how you felt when you got the news
and were you surprised?
- That was super cool. Yeah, I was surprised.
It's awesome but it's something I've always wanted to do,
so it was really exciting for me.
- If you had to choose right now, what would you do?
Film?
Radio?
- çchuckling] - Full-time student?
- No. I don't know.
I think I would...
Film is super cool because you can keep
integrating music into it, so maybe I would choose that.
- Has this brought you-- This process of making a film,
whether it's a short or feature length,
makes you a filmmaker.
What did you learn through this process?
- Oh, I learned a lot.
Filmmaking is really hard.
I learned that.
There's a lot of organizational skills that go into it.
I learned, what I really liked that I learned is that
I have a personal vision and a personal taste
and I think watching a lot of movies growing up
has helped shape that.
So, it was really fun to finally do it
and kind of start to see what mine is.
- Are you going to make another one?
- Oh yeah. - While you're in school or are you going to wait till your--
- I gotta do it soon. - So you got the bug?
- Yeah. - That's good.
And who are your influences in film?
Do you have directors or films that have influenced you?
- I really like indie movies so I think seeing Greta Gerwig,
seeing her stuff, seeing Lena Dunham's TV,
those are definitely influences for me.
It's great to see women in film and TV.
- Well keep up the good work, maybe you'll be someone's influence someday.
Thanks for being here. Good luck with the screening. - Thank you.
- We'll talk more with Wisconsin filmmakers in just a moment
but first here's a look at four more brilliant films
featured at the Wisconsin Film Festival.
[piano being tuned]
[orchestra tuning]
[soft music]
[dramatic music]
[howling winds]
? ?
? [vocalizing] ?
[explosive blast]
[piano music]
? [techno sounds] ?
[speaking a foreign language]
- [Narrator] A group of hikers came across a remarkable discovery.
- [Male] He's a thousand years older than any Egyptian mummy.
[dramatic music]
[speaking foreign language]
[dramatic music]
[speaking foreign language]
[baby crying]
[screaming]
[dramatic music]
[gentle piano music]
- [Woman] You know I haven't heard a peep from you
about school and I heard that someone
might have gotten their gun safety permit.
- This is a 30-30.
- I shot my first deer with this gun
and so did your Auntie Mia. - Yep.
- [Man] Can you stay standing? [laughing]
- [Girl] What happens if the animal doesn't die right away?
- [Woman] Shoot it again and hope you get it killed, right away.
Worst thing would be for it to suffer.
- All right so what's the first thing that you check?
That the gun is unloaded.
- [Woman] And how do you tied it up?
- So that the barrel points to the ground.
I got my period last night.
- Holy cow. Why didn't you tell me sooner?
- Well, let's talk about this later. I need to focus.
- I hit it broadside, look right here.
Right there.
You ready?
Watch your fingers.
Very slowly.
And then, out of nowhere,
this eight-point buck comes out.
I was feeling so much adrenaline,
I didn't think I'd get a shot at him.
- What if I see one when you're not here?
- [Woman chuckles]
You shoot it.
[Girl repeating] Oh, my God!
? ?
[gunshot popping]
- The Wisconsin Film Festival takes place
in Madison from April 5th to April 12th
with over 150 films to choose from,
it is a movie heaven.
The festival attracts more than 30 thousand movie goers
that watch films on several screens around Madison.
Go to the 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival website
and start picking your movies.
We've got more directors and more movies coming your way.
Here's a clip from The Amazing Neckbeard.
[dramatic music] Hmm.
[crunches food]
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
[paper rustles]
[humming]
[grunts]
[hangers jingle]
[metal clinking]
[music intensifies]
[sword fighting breaths]
Welcome back to the Wisconsin Film Festival
episode of Director's Cut.
I am joined now, that was a clip from
The Amazing Neckbeard, and I'm joined by the director, Aaron Legg.
Aaron, how are ya? - Pretty good. - Thank you for being here.
- Thanks for having me. - Congratulations on getting into the festival.
Ok, so right out of the gate, the term neckbeard.
Pretty polarizing. Tell us about your film.
- I almost showed up here with a neckbeard.
- You're rocking a little bit of the neck, but you're okay.
- So what was your question? - Tell us about your film.
What's going on? What did we just see there?
- First of all, some might be familiar with the medium
it's a stop-motion animated film
which is essentially working with physical sets
and physical puppets and characters.
Nevin is his name, it's an undialogued film,
so you wouldn't know, but his name is Nevin.
Nevin, the neckbeard.
It's essentially a posable doll, so
if I was to animate this cup moving across the table,
I would take a picture, move it a little bit, take a picture,
move it a little bit, that's what stop-motion animation is.
It's frame by frame, 24 frames make up one second of footage
so that's the medium that we chose to tell the story,
and yeah it's about this geeky comic book nerd
who wants to be a hero and he dresses up,
makes his own cosplay, and he thinks that this is how he'll be able to be a hero,
but he discovers that there's more to it.
Being the hero means making a sacrifice,
you can't just play the part,
you have to do that one thing to
be a hero in someone else's eyes.
- Does he find out somewhere in the film there's another guy
with a neckbeard who's also trying to be a hero?
Is that the conflict? - That might be the sequel.
- There you go, there's the sequel.
What got you into-- That sounds very tedious.
Stop-motion, how tedious is it to film?
Is it literally--
- You have to definitely have the patience for it
and, fortunately, I'm naturally introverted.
I like being in control of my art and everything
and with stop-motion animation,
I'm able to essentially lock myself in a room
for five hours straight.
I'll have music playing and I just go to town.
You kind of think of, okay how is this movement gonna work?
How am I gonna achieve this? Do I have enough time to do it?
I've kind of estimated, it depends how much
you're animating at a time, sometimes it's just one character,
sometimes I'm animating five different things so it depends,
but it's usually one second of footage takes about
two hours of time to animate,
and that doesn't include building the set
and editing and setting up the lights
and everything like that.
- Is it just you doing this
or do you have a crew of some sort?
- This film was my last semester at Columbia College Chicago
and I had four awesome team members working with me.
Most of the animation was me and they did a great job
giving their input and they are responsible
for building everything you see in the sets
and we really wanted to make it detail-oriented
so they made original anime posters
and superhero posters to hang around Nevin's room
and making little props out of,
one of my teammates made a cup holder with colored pencils
out of a thimble and painted toothpicks.
And there's little details that you only see for a second
but I think that's what we really wanted to bring
is a lot of realism to the sets and everything.
- We only have about 30 seconds left to go to the next clip
but you're working on a live-action film right now.
What do you prefer? Do you have an opinion yet?
- Actually, I feel like they balance themselves out.
I can't really pick at this point,
but at the time, I was directing a live-action short,
so I'd go from directing a crew of 25 people on set
and answering a ton of questions and constantly having to talk
to going to a room by myself and being able
to animate totally alone.
That was like the therapy for me
to kind of calm myself down from being on set
and being such in a hectic environment
so they work well together for me so far.
- Good luck with the film, I hope the showing goes well.
- Thank you very much.
- Next a documentary on a trippy hang out
that is home to cinephiles, soulful singers,
sad sacks and lost souls.
[indistinct conversations]
- The building is shifting on me.
We got a ghost.
Okay, I'm gonna fix 'em.
[indistinct conversations]
- Holy water. I'm gonna burst into...
[indistinct conversations]
- It's holy water.
- Are you sure? It smells like pee.
- Put it in.
- God pee. I'm not touching it. What is that?
- It's holy water. Leave me alone.
- Well there's worms or something in that.
I want to wash my hands.
What is this? Where did you find this?
[indistinct conversations] ...Rabbi?
Don't dumpster dive the holy water.
[laughing]
I don't know about that.
- Don't touch.
[indistinct conversations]
Get out of my face.
- [Male] What are those white things in there?
- It's sitting. - What?
- It's been sitting for six months.
- What is it? What was it before it started sitting?
It started crawling when I poured water on it.
- That's good.
'Cause you're breaking the seal.
Shut up. - That's good.
- See this is what's flowing.
- Liquid golem.
- See, there's holy water in here.
It's when you carry it and you gotta break one.
For backup. - To put out the fires of demons.
- You got to believe it.
- To put out the fires of perverse,
demons of perverse appetite.
- I saw what fell, I fixed that, hopefully that ghost went away.
- Ghost? - Yeah.
- [Male] Yikes.
Let me heal ya, Rabbi.
- [laughing]
- Welcome back to Director's Cut,
the Wisconsin Film Festival episode 2018.
We just saw a clip from Riverwest Film and Video,
and I'm joined now by the filmmaker, Emir Cakaroz.
Emir, welcome back, you're a veteran of Director's Cut
and this episode, so welcome back.
- Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- Our pleasure. So what did we just see in that clip?
Tell us a little bit about the film and the scene we just saw.
- Well, the scene is--
One of the main characters is Rabbi.
His nickname is Rabbi Bradley.
And he hears a sound and he thinks it's caused by a ghost
and he's using his homemade holy water
and trying to send the ghost away in this scene.
The film is about a local video store
called Riverwest Film and Video.
It also houses a radio station, internet-based radio station.
Actually it was an internet-based radio station
but right now, they got an FM license,
so right now they have an FM radio in the radio station.
Anyway, the film is about the programmers
and regulars of this radio station.
Also...
this radio station, this video store, I'm sorry,
and this video store is not just a video store.
It's a kind of community, community place,
people come together here and it's also a place
that people who have a life
outside the mainstream lifestyle and culture
come and hang out here and people
who don't have nine-to-five jobs,
people who question their life
and people who dedicate themselves to something.
Basically, the film is about this video store
but about these people.
The characters are so quirky and interesting,
you thought you have to make a documentary about this?
Can you actually rent videos there still?
- Yeah. It's a video store. You can still rent video.
This is my neighborhood, I live in this neighborhood,
and so...
the owner is a long-time friend,
Xavier Leplae.
I just wanted to, I really appreciate what they do there.
It is people are making lots of stuff there,
like dedicating their time, their life,
and I just wanted to share this
with other people because it is not usual.
- I'm glad you did.
- People don't make money from what they do.
- You also teach documentary filmmaking
and you're a pretty prolific filmmaker
and you've won awards.
What do you prefer? Teaching or doing?
- Well... doing of course but...
Maybe you ask complicated question.
- I didn't think that was gonna be that hard.
- Do you like your father or mother?
It's that kind of question. - That was my next question. [laughing]
- So I mean teaching-- I would go with the filmmaking
but teaching is also a good way of living
because I like to share what I know with other people.
I don't like to call it teaching.
I just share what I know with other people.
- Sure, that is a good answer.
- It is a good feeling I would say.
- We have about 30 seconds left.
I got one more question. You've screened everywhere,
from Cannes to all over the world.
Talk about the differences watching your films
with festival goers overseas as opposed
to Madison, Wisconsin.
- Well, it depends on the film, what you're showing.
I would say that--
This film is about Milwaukee
and about Wisconsin.
I'm assuming that people
are going to feel much more engaged and related.
-Right.
- Will be able to relate themselves
with the subject easily here.
- And people overseas might be like what's a video store?
Or even here because they just aren't around anymore
but we have to get to the next clip but I appreciate you coming.
I think I had to jump in last year with you, too, so I'm sorry.
One of these days, we'll have more time to talk,
but thank you for being here very much.
Next a portrait doc on the official scorer
for the Milwaukee Bucks for the past 50 years.
- There's nothing around Milwaukee in the sports business
that is as old a relic as Bob Wanek.
When I was there, I used to call Bob the commissioner
because Bob never missed a thing.
He had all the names, he knew all the people.
He knew where everything was
and almost every speck of dust was in the building.
Bob ran that joint.
- Well, I still call him the commissioner.
To this day, when I go down to the arena,
I walk in usually two to two and a half hours prior to the game.
Bob is there as well and we always greet
and I'm always greeting him as, "Commissioner, how you doing tonight?"
- Well when Embry gave me the title of commissioner,
and that stuck with John and he says,
"How are ya, commissioner?" every time we see one another.
They did that because they said I knew everything
about basketball and they didn't.
Like one of the things they wanted to know
a couple years ago was who scared the first basket
for Milwaukee and no one seemed to have it.
Even the Bucks didn't have it, so I went through my memorabilia
and we found out Jon McGlocklin was the one that scored the first basket ever.
- I didn't remember it and until eight or 10 years ago
when Bob is the one who told-- because he went back
to the score sheet, and in those days,
they were mimeograph, they were hand-written and printed.
He's got all that. - I do have a score card from every basketball game
that's ever been played since 1968.
- I remember going to Bob's house for the first time
and it's like being in a time capsule.
Anything that you might need in Bucks history,
they could go to Bob and I would be willing to bet
that he would have it.
- As we come through one of the bedrooms,
we come to the box room, my wife Cathy is here.
- Hi, I'm Cathy. Welcome to the box bedroom.
[laughing]
- It's all the stat sheets from 1968 until present.
Or, we've got something downstairs too,
but basically most of it's here.
- Welcome back to Director's Cut
Wisconsin Film Festival episode.
I'm joined now by the director of the movie
from which that clip is from, Brendan Jones.
Brendan, welcome. - Hey, thanks for having me.
- Bob is the scorekeeper for the Milwaukee Bucks
for the last 50 years, talk about your connection to your subject.
- I work in sports TV and a few years ago
I saw Bob at a game and I've always wondered what he's done
because as a kid, I remember seeing him.
In college, I remember seeing him.
But I'm like who is this old man
that's always around the court, walking all over the arena,
and we talked and he told me,
"Well, I've been doing this since 1968. I'm a scorekeeper,"
and I'm like, "Has anyone ever done a story on you?"
And he's like, "You mean the papers?"
I'm like, "No video, like a movie."
And he said, "No. I don't think I'm interested in anything like that."
And I told him, "Well I think you have a really great story to share
"and I would love to share it with others."
So over the course of about a year,
other people hopped on like Eddie Doucette,
Jon McGlocklin, Terry Stotts,
was this close to getting Oscar Robertson,
but it ended up being a really nice piece
whether you like basketball
or you just like a portrait of someone,
you can kind of appreciate it I think.
- Talk about Jon McGlocklin because he and one other person
you mentioned have been there since the outset with Bob.
- Bob was one of the first hires by Eddie Doucette.
Eddie Doucette, it was like five people.
The organization started in a small room, five people,
Jim Fitzgerald was the owner,
Eddie Doucette was in charge of PR.
Later, he was the commentator, the voice of the Bucks.
Jon McGlocklin was the first draft pick
but Bob has been there since day one
so he's the original Buck but Jon McGlocklin
has the title of the original Buck,
he scored the first points.
- He has a better vertical than Bob does
I would assume at this age.
- At any age. - [laughter]
Bob's only got like a three-inch vert.
He's been doing this for 50 years.
You said when we spoke the other day
there's another guy who he just surpassed
as the longest scorekeeper in NBA history, right?
- Yeah, Harvey Pollack was out of Philadelphia
and he started in the inaugural season
with the Philadelphia Warriors.
He started in 1946, he worked in basketball in the NBA
until 2015 when he died at 93.
But he wasn't just the scorekeeper,
he did some marketing things and then
when the Warriors left to Golden State,
he stayed in Philadelphia working for the NBA
and eventually they had the 76'ers.
So he was around for a very long time,
but Bob is the only scorekeeper in the NBA
that's done that one position for one team ever.
And Bob wants to do it until he's 90. He's 85 right now.
- He wants to do 55, 56 years, and I think he can.
He's more accurate than the computers.
The refs come to him during the game
and he's a fascinating person
because he's very good at that one thing
and he loves doing it.
- You said also that you had a screening
for the Bucks organization.
What did Bob think of the film
and what did the Milwaukee Bucks think of the film?
- Bob's hard to read.
Off camera, he'll tell you stories all day
but as soon as the camera's rolling, he's kind of quiet and reserved
but he really appreciated that screening.
Peter Feigin, the president of the Bucks,
saw the film, I think in the Milwaukee Film Festival,
and he approached me and said that he loved it
and wanted to show the whole organization.
So it was a real treat to have Bob there with people like
John Steinmiller, who was there in the first year,
Jon McGlocklin, and these younger employees now.
They got to learn a bit about the history of the Bucks,
meet Bob on a different level, and Bob really,
you could tell he enjoyed it, he had a sparkle in his eye.
He got to share some stories that maybe no one has ever heard before.
A lot has changed throughout the years.
He's seen some of the best NBA players of all time.
96 of the top 100 scorers, he's scored, he's seen.
He's seen young men like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson,
Kareem, become men and successful at other things
other than basketball, so he's really got
a remarkable story, and I hope people come out and watch it.
- They will now, thanks to you and now he knows Brendan Jones
so thanks for making the film and congrats at getting into the festival.
- Thanks for having me again. - Yeah, sure.
Thanks to all the filmmakers who joined us for this preview.
Here's our final grouping of film clips.
A subtle explorer of toxic masculinity in rural Bulgaria,
a fun and original hybrid film combining comedy,
horror and a family saga
and an intriguing biopic on a brilliant,
one of a kind radio monologist.
[speaking foreign language]
- Clara, can you see me?
- Family means everything to me.
It's really the whipped cream on the banana split
of life.
- Clara, Clara, I can see you.
- Oh, I'm sorry.
- Can I have that picture with the three of you?
- Lady, can you see me?
[horn honking]
- Sad, we were entertaining America since before we had--
- Dad's a very, very bad man.
- I do see things.
Signs.
- Do you know anything about the woman who lived in this house?
- Oh, the captain's daughter. She was the crazy one, right?
- Crazy, how?
[screaming]
[unintelligible]
- I'm no one. You can't even see me.
- That's hurtful.
- Where the is mom?
- Dad, he's like drowning.
- He's fine. Relax.
- [creepy laugh]
- Mom, this isn't okay!
- That didn't go very well, did it?
- You can see me. Please let me in, please.
- Why did you lock him in the basement?
Is that some kind of family inside joke?
Hello?
? ?
- [Male] I've drunk gallons of Chablis,
danced the Samba.
I've sat outside the casino
in Monte Carlo, in the hours between
closing time and dawn to listen to the shots of suicides.
- Joe Frank is what radio in its wildest dreams
wishes it could be...
ballsy, intelligent, thoughtful, dangerous.
- When I recommend Joe Frank to others,
I can't describe him to others,
all I can say is just listen.
- Sometimes I feel I don't really exist,
that I'm a character in someone else's novel.
And that he, sitting at his desk,
and grappling with the material of my story,
is only a character in yet another person's novel.
- My first paid job in radio
was as Joe's production assistant
and Joe was sitting behind the microphone
in the studio and I was in the control room.
It was like somebody doing some sort of weird magic trick.
- I work hard at my job
and I hope that by my efforts rendered faithfully
over a period of years,
I'll move up through the corporate hierarchy
to a position of security, power and prestige.
- He became kind of a celebrity in Los Angeles
pretty fast because a lot of very hip people
started buying the shows.
- It was funny because men wanted to be him
and women wanted to be with him.
People were thrilled to meet Joe.
- For years, I'd run into somebody and they'd say what are you doing
and I'd say well I've been doing some stuff for Joe Frank
and they would be so jealous.
- You can beat on the door of--,
howl at the top of your voice,
you can pray, sing cantatas, compose motets,
burn incense, perform passion plays.
- He is so singular and amazing and good at what he does
and the body of work he's created is phenomenal.
- I had to be like a babysitter for him
because he would go hours and hours of editing.
- The phone is a very intimate medium.
It's like literature in the sense
that words themselves spur the imagination.
- [Female] I just feel mad at myself
'cause I get so obsessed.
- I kind of started getting the hint
that he might be recording me.
He called me and said that he had been, in fact,
recording me for months.
- You mean how it came to be that he coerced me
into revealing my life to my great destruction?
I don't remember but I know
that I jumped on it like a tuna on a hook.
- We're back with Jim Healy for our final segment.
Jim, until next year.
So, okay, we only have about a minute.
Talk about some hidden gems.
You're always gonna have your films that are sold out.
What should people see that maybe isn't get as much press?
- There's films from all over the world.
There's an Estonian, Latvian film we have this year
called First Born , which is a really riveting thriller.
Imagine Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs as kind of
re-imagined as a Tarkovskian fever dream.
A beautiful, beautiful movie that is completely riveting.
Another great thriller is called Revenge,
a movie by Caroline Fargeat, a new director,
and she's made this revenge film
that is just as much action as any
George Miller Mad Max movie,
really wonderfully over the top,
great action film from a new director
we should all be looking out for.
- So there are tickets available for these films still?
- They are, but we always say, there's always an empty seat.
It doesn't always happen I guess.
We have a rush line, if a film has advance tickets
that are sold out, please come to the screening
and get there early and we'll get you in.
- Jim. He can talk about movies all day.
Thank you so much again for being here and good luck as always.
Thank you so much to all the filmmakers
that joined me today and thank you
for watching Director's Cut.
For more information on Wisconsin Film Festival,
go to wpt.org and click on Director's Cut
and look for the new season of Director's Cut,
our 11th, which premieres May 18th.
In the meantime, I challenge you
to see as many independent films as you can
at this year's Wisconsin Film Festival.
We'll see you next time on Director's Cut.
[gentle music]
- There was nothing like really what he did.
He just forged a new genre, his own.