Milwaukee Film Festival 2013

The 5th Annual Milwaukee Film Festival is planned for September 26 - October 10, 2013.

In 2012 the festival had attendance over 50,000 and 77 sold-out film screenings according to Milwaukee Film.

The cool thing about the film festival for me personally is the last 2 years have featured to of my favorite documentaries to be released.

In 2011 the festival had The Interrupters, a film that took on the gun crimes of Chicago on the streets of Chicago...head on. The brave men and women of the group are doing their part to help at the most direct levels.

And in 2012, the US premiere of Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God was an amazing look inside the Catholic churches priest sex abuse scandals. Director Alex Gibney delivers a haunting and moving tale of lies, coverups and hope for the survivors.

While Mea Maxima Culpa was on the Academy short list for the Oscar, it didn't make the final cut (which is about as egregious as the snub of Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow...but that's another story).  Before I get too high on my horse with it, the 4th Milwaukee Film Festival DID feature 3 of the 5 nominees in the final Documentary category and is proving to be a place that midwestern viewers can count on for that programming.

Most of the details are still to come include the Call For Entries, Venues, Ticket Options and the like, but if the past couple years are any indications... the fall in the Milwaukee area will be hot!

Sold-out crowd at the Oriental Theatre for the MFF 2012 Opening Night Film, Starbuck 
(photo credit: Jennifer Johnson)