A Festival Begins In Brewtown

Last night Milwaukee Film opened its second festival with fanfare and great success. There were two showings of the critically acclaimed film, "Blue Valentine" at Marcus North Shore and The Landmark Oriental, and by all accounts, it's starting with more momentum than in 2009.

The opening gala at Discovery World was a blast, and Jenni and I tried to shut the place down, but I had to get up this morning for PT at 7. I did, and now I need a nap before my four film feast this afternoon and evening.

I loved the 88.9 Radio Milwaukee DJ show and music at the gala. We got to see Tarik in action, our fave local deejay. We also loved the location, and that we could hang out on the balcony outside of the upper floor of Discovery World and gaze out over the Dennis Sullivan, Calatrava, harbor, and the glittering skyline. I do wish that the Calatrava had been open and lit like last year, but the wind certainly precluded the former. But lights would have been a treat. I hope that gets done next year.

I also liked the projection of the schedule on the wall of the structure at Discovery World, where they project actual films during certain Friday nights for Fish Fry and a Film in the summertime. And the huge tent attached to the museum was also a great idea. What I missed terribly was the open area in the basement with the aquarium, which was a great place to hang out last year. Again, I hope that's opened up again.

The festival has great people running it like Jonathan, TJ, Kyle, Andrea, Anna, Andrew. I was happy to interact with all of them last night, as well as hanging with Cassandra, the manager at Marcus North Shore, a person I enjoyed hanging with during my time on the Features Screening Committee. We had so much fun people watching, talking about film and life.

Man, today is going to be great. I'm gonna post my entire schedule of films (four today) and blog about each film as much as possible. But time will be sparse this next ten days. I'll be working full-time and screening the rest. My wife is a Film Fest widow, for the most part.