Next week, September 24-27, Milwaukee Film will bring the “sitting down for our Netflix documentary” meme to life with its third annual Dialogues Documentary Festival. More than 30 new docs will light up the screens of the Oriental and Downer theaters. There’ll be films like the Rocky Horror-focused Time Warp, the Milwaukee-focused Heavy Is The Crown, and the AI investigation Ghost In The Machine. And, living up to the whole “dialogues” thing, the fest will feature plenty of talkbacks, Q&As, and/or panel discussions.

Check out the full lineup HERE. Get individual tickets HERE. Get an $80 all-access pass HERE.

Another thing to do: watch the new, Dialogues-focused episode of Milwaukee Film’s Popped Ones! What’s Popped Ones? The homegrown video series finds local luminaries sitting down with Milwaukee Film Social Media & Digital Coordinator Jolee Mallmann and chatting about films, Milwaukee, and their careers—all while eating popcorn and trying to guess various popcorn flavors. (“Luminaries” should probably be in quotes, only because I was on the show once.)

The new episode features WUWM Lake Effect co-host and producer Audrey Nowakowski, who rules. In addition to the upcoming fest, Nowakowski and Mallmann talk about the Save the Downer campaign, 1953’s Calamity Jane (the one with Doris Day!), and, of course, Willem Dafoe. Watch it all below!

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Matt Wild weighs between 140 and 145 pounds. He lives on Milwaukee's east side.