The Bottom Line: MPC at Bucketworks

The wily beast that is Milwaukee Photographic Coalition (MPC), a loose group of seven artists that share a studio space in Riverwest and have shown together on occasion, closed their latest show, The Bottom Line which was installed at Bucketworks on the weekends of 4 & 11 May.  Such shows often struggle to find a theme between artists of such variety or risk monotony (never a problem of MPC).  In the past, these seven tended toward the broad and nebulous title that acts as the lowest common denominator of all the work, each artist using her/his statement to connect the work to the others.  Their winter show:  Boundaries of the Subjective.

However, for this, their Spring show, MPC cleverly sidestepped the problem by highlighting one of the great artistic struggles: financing.  Each artist, in addition to their main work, offered a document of the monetary and opportunity cost of the work shown.  From framing receipts to presenting a calendar, the wall of finances became an interesting (if perhaps a bit too snarky and pity-partyish) testament to that lowest of common denominators.

The photographic work itself was solid and typical of MPC: Bondage, nature, cross stitch, and the results of experimental processing were all on display.

The weeks of 30 April thru 27 May in Review

We (royally) have been spectacularly unsatisfactory at leaving the house this month.  Which is very similar to my extra-domestic behavior for the preceding months.  But now that the traditional school is over and I have managed to only take in a handful of screenings and shows (and failed to write about even those), the summer will offer a less hectic schedule.  This equals less guilt about staying in doors.

However, there is much to catch up on and much to do to prepare for the fall.

Let us begin with what we've missed in the month of May by staying home:

Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (MUFF) ran its twelfth edition 4 thru 6 May.  The five programs over three days at Union Theatre, KSE & Walker's Point Center for the arts presented more experimental film than you're likely to see in any one weekend at any other point in the year.  On Mon 7 May, following the very full weekend of screenings, performances and installations, Jurors Tara Merenda Nelson, Ryan Daly, & Stephen Nelson announced their awards: This Must Be the Place by Luis Arnias & for, like ever by Christine Negus.  Both filmmakers were awarded $200 for standing out in a hugely textured and crowded field.

On Fri 11 May, Brian Lis and the Student Cinema Action Network (SCAN) presented yet another UWM Student Film & Video Festival, which was founded 32 years ago by Rob Yeo (Film Chair) and Professors Emeritus Dick Blau and Rob Danielson and has happened at the end of every semester since (so far as MAG.dock is aware).  The Spring '12 edition featured 16 entries from 14 different filmmakers which included both under- and graduates.  This program's jury was Jessamy Meyer, UWM Conceptual Studies graduate Matt Ott, and Teddy Lingus.

UWM PSOA Dept of Film, Video, Performance, New and Unnamed media presented its Spring Semester Senior Screenings to showcase and celebrate the capstone achievements of the Dept.'s graduating senior BFA candidates.  This semester 35 students were featured who completed the 9 credit, year-long Senior Project course.  The Union Theatre played host to both days Thurs 17 May & Fri 18 May at 7pm.  Congrats to all of you!

12th Annual MUFF or how a writer should not try to define an underground film festival

Those movie-goers not already swayed by the challenges and charms of so-called Experimental Cinema – generally levying charges of pretense and pointlessness – are likely to remain unswayed after the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (MUFF), which ran Fri 4 May thru Sun 6 May. Unswayed, that is, if they found a path to any of the screenings. The three day event caters to a niche audience, many of whom are already aware of the fest or are seeking the programming MUFF offers. Spread over three venues, UWM Union, KSE, and Walker's Point Center for the Arts, with five lengthy and textured programs, this, the twelfth annual MUFF remained true to the festival's original vision: student organized, curated, and executed; low-key; free to the public; featuring scads of recent film, video, installation, and performance art from around the globe that will likely have no home in any of Milwaukee's other, more mainstream festivals.

That MUFF has a specialized audience is hardly surprising. Though former Faculty Advisor David Dinell described the programming of MUFF generically as “difficult films for difficult people,” experimental film – a term so broad we may as well define it as film that is not anything else, but can be – is not exclusive to the university set, with programming that draws its strength from diversity and texture in length, content, form and country of origin. 

Under the faculty direction of Union Theatre director emeritus, this year's student curated program featured short selections, one to 28 minutes, from across these united states as well as Canada, China, Russia and Australia among others. For as scattered as the geography of the programming, the form and content of the pieces were even more diverse. Among the subjects covered in this year's program were the following: Counterterrorism reports, images from the scrap heap of Hollywood, chatroullette.com conversations, an animated exploration of the grieving process, a cable-access personality, and a hand in repetition.  These and all the other subjects were captured on various video formats, ranging from HD to Hi8, 16 & 8(standard and super)mm film, and one piece that required four projectors and a non-synchronous soundtrack, requiring nearly the entire staff of the festival to attend to the single 5min closing piece.  While such topics and forms may seem out of reach (or perhaps, touch) of (with) the average suburban mall movie goer, MUFF seems to enjoy the shadows and caverns in which it resides.

That the festival moves from venue to small-out-of-the-way venue through out the weekend plays into the elusiveness and community mindedness of an “underground festival,” difficult to define but meaningful to and for those who want to find it.