Cinematalk

Ben Reiser talks to Gracie K Wallner and Espere Eckard-Lee about BLOOD RUNS OUT. UW-Madison student Wallner’s vampire story features a woman surviving off the menstrual blood of her friends who realizes her supply is dwindling. This is a surprisingly charming tale of selflessness that tackles its extreme subject with a light touch. (JF)

Ben Reiser and Pauline Lampert talk to Edith Rodriguez about ASHES. A tragic summer romance set against the backdrop of the beautiful Texas countryside, Ashes is a bittersweet meditation on how grief and regret can intertwine and how we can choose to move past these feelings, or live alongside them. (JF)

Mike King talks to Julien Faraut about THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT. The most unbeatable team you’ve likely never heard of gets a revolutionary treatment in this stylish documentary, which breathes vital new life into the sports film. Our heroes are the Japanese women’s volleyball team, who utterly dominated the sport in the 1960s, winning the Olympic gold medal plus a whopping 258 consecutive matche...

Jim Healy talks to Achal Mishra about THE VILLAGE HOUSE. The astonishing debut feature from 23-year-old writer/director Achal Mishra, The Village House gently and lovingly captures a large extended Indian family over several decades as they gather at the matriarch’s rural home. As the movie follows the inevitable rhythms of change, such as children growing older and moving away to the city, it is...

Ben Reiser talks to David Van Auken about BID CALLER. About as Wisconsin as Wisconsin’s Own gets, Bid Caller follows Harold Betthauser, an auctioneer who has been overseeing auctions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 50 years. Filled with the colorful personalities, nostalgia and collectibles that are the center of Betthauser and his wife Marilyn’s weekly estate auctions, this doc feels as lived in...

Ben Reiser talks to Young Min Choi & Kaylene Yong about IN DUE TIME. Movies, takeout dinners, loneliness, and more movies -- In Due Time is the sometimes surreal, all too relatable story of one young woman’s Madison-based pandemic experience in apartment sitting, isolated from friends and family. (BC)

Ben Reiser talks to Cecelia Condit about I'VE BEEN AFRAID. As fun and playful as it is harrowing, I’ve Been Afraid finds experimental auteur Cecelia Condit reimagining the horror genre by using images from the digital age. Condit casts a mixture of familiar forms as objects stalked by mysterious and amorphous forces of terror. (PL)

Ben Reiser talks to Julian Castronovo about HANNAH'S VIDEO. Told in one beautifully grainy take and featuring two wonderfully naturalistic performances from young actors, Hannah’s Video tells the story of two high school students creating a video in memory of their recently deceased music teacher. (BC)

Dr. Darshana Sreedhar Mini talks to Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh about WRITING WITH FIRE. Hailed as “the most inspiring journalism movie—maybe ever” by The Washington Post, this rousing documentary spotlights the only Indian newspaper run entirely by women. Founded nearly 20 years ago by a band of fearless Dalit women in rural Uttar Pradesh, the Khabar Lahariya paper has aggressively taken on Indi...

Ben Reiser and Pauline Lampert talk to Scott Homan & James Zimmerman about WITNESS UNDERGROUND. Punk rock, B-movies, and Jehovah’s Witnesses unite in this heartfelt documentary. As members of Jehovah’s Witness start to explore culture outside of their religion, they have to wrestle with the possibility of being excommunicated from friends and family. Featuring in-depth interviews and extensive hom...

Ben Reiser & Pauline Lampert talk to Gretta Wing Miller & Sara Andrews about HOW TO FORM A UNION. Part instructional video, part call for reform, How to Form a Union walks us through the latest attempt to form a union at the Willy St. Co-op and details why such action was necessary. Of particular interest to Madisonians, the film shines a bright light on the power of community activism. (PL)

Professor Lori Kido Lopez talks to Debi Lum about TRY HARDER. At Lowell High, the senior class is collectively freaking out. Finishing up their tenure at the top-ranked public high school in San Francisco, the most academically ambitious teens in the nation are knee-deep in the cutthroat college application process, with all eyes and essays trained on a handful of uber-elite universities. As they...

Ben Reiser talks to Drew Durepos about FORMER SINNERS OF THE FUTURE. Static images, Super-8 footage, and director Drew Durepos’ singularly matter-of-fact voiceover narration combine to tell a circuitous narrative that touches on themes of impostorism, aging, and addiction. (BR)

Ben Reiser talks to Nathan Clarke about THE PASSING ON. The Passing On takes us inside the world of Black-owned funeral homes, a profession that has been historically vital to the Black community but whose ranks are now dwindling in number. Focusing on 2016 Embalmer of the Year James Bryant and his San Antonio funeral home, we are flies on the wall as Bryant puts his faith in a new generation whom...

Jim Healy talks to Evgeny Ruman about GOLDEN VOICES. In 1990, Victor and Raya Frankel arrive in Israel along with a mass of other Jewish immigrants from the crumbling Soviet Union. Back in the USSR, the couple were the most in-demand dubbers of international cinema, sometimes providing their voices to dozens of characters in a single movie. Now, the sixty-somethings are struggling to learn Hebrew...

Terry Kerr and Ben Reiser talk to Pawo Choyning Dorji about LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM. Ugyen, a young teacher in the capitol of Bhutan, dreams of moving to Australia and launching his career as a singer. In order to earn money for the move, he reluctantly agrees to teach at the world’s most remote school in the Himalayas. The villagers treat him with respect, gratitude and love. Filmed at an...

Ben Reiser talks to Caleb Peavy about ORIN & KEPA. An animal trainer forms an unusual bond with a wolf. A unique story told through an eclectic array of home movies and other archival materials. (PL)

Ben Reiser talks to Kym McDaniel about EXIT STRATEGY #5. Filmmaker Kym McDaniel uses a variety of artistic media to paint a strikingly honest and personal portrait of the search for identity while confronting emotional and physical traumas and reckoning with a complicated parental relationship. (JF)

Ben Reiser talks to Sofia Theodore - Pierce about HEAR ME SOMETIMES. The experimental Hear Me Sometimes is lush with beautifully textured images and sounds, addressing themes of motherhood, loss, expectation, care, and legacy. (BS)

Ben Reiser talks to Kate Corby about WEST. Kate Corby masterfully fuses dance and film once again in this short piece that loosely plays off of the Western genre, offering a gendered perspective on the rugged individualism, archetypes, and violence of the “American West”. (BR)

Ben Reiser and Johnny Fruit talk to Kristin Peterson about RINGOLEVIO. In this captivating and incisive feature film debut by Milwaukee-based artist and poet, Kristin Peterson, amateur entomologist, Ada (Nicole Velasco Lockard), travels to a remote part of Wisconsin to meet her girlfriend Marissa’s (Meredith Johnston) three brothers. Although Marissa offers Ada some warning about the unusual famil...

Mike King talks to Christian Petzold about UNDINE. “If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you.” So begins the latest film from leading auteur Christian Petzold (Phoenix, WFF 2015), a modern riff on an ancient myth about a water nymph. Undine reunites Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, the two captivating leads of Petzold’s Transit (WFF 2018), as star-crossed lovers caught up in a whirlwind romance. Indus...

Ben Reiser talks to Beah Travis & Justin Newhouse about WAY UPSTATE. A woman travels to her family’s cabin to find comfort in the familiar belongings held within. Way Upstate is an understated and beautifully realized exploration of grief and memory. (BC)

Ben Reiser talks to Emma Chang about THE MESSENGER. A woman wanders through a variety of striking locations, seeking her inner identity while confronted with different versions of herself in this unique short film. Director Emma Chang combines a Maya Deren-influenced dreamlike narrative with notable architecture and an experimental use of calligraphy to create a unique cinematic world. (JF)

Ben Reiser talks to Marissa & Sean Bode about YOU'RE ADORABLE. Marissa Bode stars in and directs this comedic short featuring an obsessive young woman who employs increasingly extreme methods to win over the man of her dreams. (BS)