Milwaukee Film Festival 2013 - Shorter is Better

 The release below comes from the folks at Milwaukee Film. The Shorts programs have been announced and are a lot of fun. If you've never been to a shorts program, I urge you to pick a topic that you tend to enjoy and check it out. No, you probably won't like everything over the 80 minutes or so you are there, but if you don't like one short film...the next one is only a couple minutes from starting. Short films are amazing to get a peek at on the big screen and many are truly special! Here's the release from Milwaukee Film on this year's shorts, enjoy.

Milwaukee Film Festival Announces 2013 Shorter Is Better Line-up
More than 60 of the best festival-circuit shorts featured through eight themed programs.

MILWAUKEE – Thursday, August 29, 2013 – The Milwaukee Film Festival, presented by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is excited to announce the line-up for its short film program, Shorter Is Better. Featuring more than 60 of the best shorts from all over the world divided into eight themed mini-programs, Shorter is Better not only provides the festival audience with a rare chance to view work from masters of the short format, but also a first glimpse at many future feature directors.

“The short film format has always been the place to find truly remarkable and inventive storytelling,” says Shorts Programmer & Development Coordinator Anna Sampers. “And the film festival is not just your best chance to see them how they were meant to be seen — in a theater — but oftentimes the only way you can see them at all!”
The 2013 Shorter Is Better line-up includes several annual favorites: Date Night, Let’s Get Animated, and Out of This World and The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Sh*t. New programs for this year include: …Make Lemonade, Modern Families, Obsession, and the short documentary collection Stranger Than Fiction.

For more information on Shorter Is Better and the rest of the 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival, visit mkefilm.org.

Shorter Is Better Media Sponsor: Tap Milwaukee

SHORTER IS BETTER LINE-UP:

Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Sh*t.
Total running time: 83 min
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED. Films too demented for the light of day will get their chance to leave you howling with fear or laughter as a torrent of sex and violence unspool before your very eyes. NOTE: Polite, functional members of society will not be admitted to this screening. BYOD (Bring your own diapers).


The Apocalypse (USA / 2012 / Director: Andrew Zuchero)
The Cub (USA / 2012 / Director: Riley Stearns)
Flytopia (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Karni Arieli, Saul Freed)
Hell No (USA / 2013 / Director: Joe Nicolosi)
It’s Not You, It’s Me (USA / 2012 / Director: Matt Spicer)
Oh Sheep! (Germany / 2012 / Director: Gottfried Mentor)
Perfect Drug (Belgium / 2012 / Director: Toon Aerts)
Sea Pig (USA / 2013 / Directors: Andrew Gilchrist, Jesse Allen)
Swarming (Kuhina) (Finland / 2011 / Director: Joni Männistö)
  
Shorts: Date Night
Total running time: 95 min
L'amour. Eros. A lie perpetuated by Meg Ryan and Hallmark. Call it what you will, these portraits of love in all its awkward glory (from meet cute to leave ugly) make for the perfect night out for lovebirds young and old as well as optimistic singles looking to mingle (responsibly, in the theater lobby).


The Bird Spider (La Migala) (Spain / 2011 / Director: Jaime Dezcallar)
CRUSH 472 (United Kingdom / 2013 / Director: Jess Scott-Hunter)
The Date (Treffit) (Finland / 2012 / Director: Jenni Toivoniemi)
Ellen Is Leaving (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Michelle Savill)
Routine (Rutina) (Spain / 2012 / Director: Ana Ortiz)
Taboulé (Spain / 2011 / Director: Richard García)
Ten Thousand Days (New Zealand / 2012 / Director: Michael Duignan)
Tram (France, Czech Republic / 2012 / Director: Michaela Pavlátová)
Undress Me (Ta Av Mig) (Sweden / 2013 / Director: Victor Lindgren)
  
Shorts: Let’s Get Animated
Total running time: 82 min

Boles

The only limit is your imagination when it comes to these animated offerings — a veritable cornucopia of color and style that will take you from DIY homemade curiosities all the way to the best animation that computer graphics have to offer. The only things more diverse than the forms on display are the remarkable stories they've chosen to tell.


Bird Food (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Richard Keane)
Boles (Germany / 2013 / Director: Spela Cadez)
I Am Tom Moody (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Ainslie Henderson)
Irish Folk Furniture (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Tony Donoghue)
Jonah (Tanzania, United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Kibwe Tavares)
Marcel, King of Tervuren (USA / 2012 / Director: Tom Schroeder)
Oh Willy… (Belgium, France, Netherlands / 2012 / Directors: Marc James Roels, Emma De Swaef)
Palmipedarium (France / 2012 / Director: Jérémy Clapin)

Shorts: …Make Lemonade

Total running time: 88 min

Walking The Dogs

Unless you're George Clooney, things don't always go the way you've planned. But if you take the bitter life has to offer and transform it into sweet, you might just have a chance at happiness. These protagonists are facing upheaval of various types; it's up to each of them to make the most it.


All Souls’ Day (Swieto Zmarlych) (Poland / 2012 / Director: Aleksandra Terpińska)
Fear of Flying (Ireland / 2012 / Director: Conor Finnegan)
Keys. Wallet. Phone. (Germany / 2012 / Director: Juliet Lashinsky-Revene)
Summer Vacation (Hofesh Gadol) (Israel / 2012 / Directors: Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit)
Walking the Dogs (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Jeremy Brock)

Shorts: Modern Families
Total running time: 84 min
Family. Can't live with 'em — well, that about sums it up, I think. These explorations take the nuclear family of the '50s and detonate it: Funny and sweet, heartbreaking and mature, these shorts are for anyone whose family keeps them going and drives them crazy in equal amounts. *Some shorts contain adult themes. This program is not intended for children.


Anna and Jerome (France / 2012 / Director: Melanie Delloye)
Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? (Pitaako mun Kaikki Hoitaa?) (Finland / 2011 / Director: Selma Vihunen)
Dotty (New Zealand / 2012 / Directors: Mick Andrews, Brett O’Gorman)
F**k the Parents (USA / 2012 / Director: Ethan Kuperberg)
Grandpa and Me and a Helicopter to Heaven (Morfar och jag och helikoptern till himlen) (Sweden / 2013 / Directors: Asa Blanck, Johan Palmgren)
Mobile Homes (USA, France / 2013 / Director: Vladimir de Fontenay)
Mud Crab (Australia / 2012 / Directors: Igor Coric, Sheldon Lieberman)
My Favorite Picture of You (USA / 2013 / Directors: Dan Lindsay, T.J. Martin)


Shorts: Obsession
Total running time: 89 min
ob·ses·sion: Noun/əb'seSHən/ An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind. Whether it's a desire to protect one's family, see the big city, follow their dreams or inappropriately lust after their hot aunt, the subjects of these shorts are obsessed. And before this program is through, you'll be too.


Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke (Australia / 2012 / Director: Mirrah Foulkes)
Eating Lunch (Äta Lunch) (Sweden / 2012 / Director: Sanna Lenken)
Georgena Terry (USA / 2012 / Director: Amanda Zackem)
GUN (USA / 2012 / Director: Spencer Gillis)
Peach Juice (Canada / 2012 / Directors: Callum Paterson, Nathan Gilliss, Brian Lye)
The Roper (USA / 2012 / Directors: Ewan McNicol, Anna Sandilands)
The Tuner (O Afinador) (Brazil / 2012 / Directors: Fernando Camargo, Matheus Parizi)
Woody (Australia / 2013 / Director: Stuart Bowen)

Shorts: Out of This World
Total running time: 91 min
You're about to enter another dimension: Supernatural, impossible and just plain bonkers, these shorts embrace the unknown and present us with a vision that is out of this world. Fans of the unknown take heed: These shorts will transport you to places you've never been — you're about to enter the MFF Shorts Zone.


The Captain (Australia, USA / 2013 / Directors: Nash Edgerton, Spencer Susser)
Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? (USA / 2012 / Director: Jason Willis)
Delicacy (USA / 2012 / Director: Jason Mann)
Dust (United Kingdom / 2013 / Directors: Ben Ockrent, Jake Russell)
Edmond Was a Donkey (Edmond Était un Âne) (Canada, France / 2012 / Director: Franck Dion)
Hotel (Spain / 2012 / Director: Jose Luis Aleman)
Record/Play (United Kingdom, Bosnia / 2012 / Director: Jesse Atlas)
Shelved (New Zealand / 2011 / Director: James Cunningham)
Ufologist (USA / 2012 / Directors: Ewan McNicol, Anna Sandilands)


Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction
Total running time: 102 min
These documentaries, no matter how outlandish they may initially appear, are 100% real. The true story behind a photo that defined a generation, the sublime art of pigeon catching, the promise of cryogenics? All of it true, all of it amazing. Yes, these people and situations exist. Believe it.


Eddie Adams: Saigon ‘68 (USA / 2012 / Director: Douglas Sloan)
The Flogsta Roar (Flogstavrålet) (Sweden / 2013 / Director: Johan Palmgren)
Mr. Christmas (USA / 2012 / Director: Nick Palmer)
Pouters (United Kingdom / 2012 / Director: Paul Fegan)
Unravel (United Kingdom, India / 2012 / Director: Meghna Gupta)
Vladimir Putin In Deep Concentration (USA / 2013 / Directors: Dana O’Keefe, Sasha Kliment)
We Will Live Again (USA / 2013 / Directors: Joshua Koury, Myles Kane)


The 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival runs September 26 – October 10, 2013 at the Landmark Oriental Theatre, Landmark Downer Theatre, and Fox-Bay Cinema Grill. Passes and ticket 6-packs for the 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival are currently available at discounted rates exclusively online at mkefilm.org/tickets. Festival passes and 6-packs are selling quickly, with early numbers already surpassing the total sold in all of 2012.

Tickets for individual screenings will be available through Milwaukee Film Festival Box Office starting September 11 for Milwaukee Film Members and September 12 for the General Public.

Stay tuned to the website for more on what to see -- and future announcements from my friends at Milwaukee Film.