It’s September, which can mean only one thing: the Milwaukee Film Festival is almost upon us. The 2015 fest—which runs September 24-October 8 at the Landmark Oriental Theatre, Landmark Downer Theatre, Fox-Bay Cinema Grill, Times Cinema, and Avalon Theater—promises the usual diverse lineup of important feature films, documentaries, and shorts, as well as dance-happy screenings of Stop Making Sense and midnight screenings of The Shining. And now, MFF2015 has just gone ahead and announced its entire lineup. Yes.
Of particular note to Milwaukee Record readers who were raised on Steven Spielberg films and subsequently spent their formative years making weird home movies with their friends (just us?) is Raiders!, a hilarious documentary about Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala, who spent their teenage years laboring over a shot-by-shot remake of the 1981 Indiana Jones adventure Raiders Of The Lost Ark. The film will serve as the festival’s Closing Night presentation. Raiders! director Jeremy Coon and its editor, Milwaukee’ own Barry Poltermann (American Movie), will be in attendance.
MFF2015’s Opening Night presentation will be Youth, the latest film from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, starring Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz, and Harvey Keitel. The festival Centerpiece film will be Peace Officer, an all-too-timely documentary that follows former Utah Sheriff William “Dub” Lawrence as he copes with the death of his son-in-law at the hands of Utah’s SWAT Team, a unit “Dub” helped create.
Check out the rest of the lineup here. Discounted passes and ticket 6-packs for the 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival are currently available here. Tickets for individual screenings will be available starting September 9 for Milwaukee Film members, and September 10 for the general public.