Cinebuds

The road to getting more film and television projects produced in Wisconsin turned into a freeway in recent years, with the effort picking up speed and ultimately leading to the creation of Film Wisconsin under the state’s Department of Tourism.

The purpose: to thoughtfully distribute $5 million every year in tax credits that drive economic development, invest in Wisconsin’s creative community and encourage tourism.

Cinebuds has gone along for the ride as this aspiration became reality, including a visit almost exactly a year ago with writer/director Nathan Deming and former studio exec Jeffrey Kurz from Action! Wisconsin. The statewide group’s energy led to the creation of Film Wisconsin, which in January asked Mequon resident and Emmy-winning producer Veronica Pope to lead the office.

With almost a year under her belt, Pope joined the podcast to talk about Film Wisconsin’s task of putting the state back on the cinematic map — an effort that has taken significant steps lately with the first wave of supported projects, including a feature-length indie filmed in Eau Claire. She also broke down her 20+ years in TV production, how the tax credit is fueling creation and why seeing movies in theaters stirs up such strong emotions.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

What is You Can See Everything?

It’s a movie. It’s about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It’s directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.

That’s all we got before we swerve into more questions. Is it a documentary? Is it factual? Is it believable? Does any of that even matter?

You Can See Everything has been tagged with the “like nothing you’ve seen before” label. And it’s hard to argue with that. After all, it’s not often that the phrase “no spoilers” intersects with something that purports to be a documentary. Half of the movie is, as Fielder and Oppenheimer follow Holmes at home before she heads off to prison.

As for the other half? The “no spoilers” of it all prevents us from getting into it too much here, although Kpolly and guest host Robyn Ehrlich of Milwaukee Film provide a proper warning before providing a few details in the full podcast. They talk about Fielder moving into the Holmes family’s beach house, the directors’ curious reenactment choices, conspiracy theories and whether the entire thing was just one big show.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

Witches. Historically, they’re misunderstood scapegoats. But from a storytelling perspective, they can be straight-up awful.

That’s the crux of Milwaukee Film’s currently running Halloween series, “All of Them Witches,” which focuses primarily on the titular characters doing terrible things — from mouse transformations to literal damnation — to people who usually don’t deserve it.

Dori and Kpolly take their patented (and delightful) skewed approach to this episode, starting with a spirited discussion about “threat mastery” and how watching someone go through something awful is actually a way for you to avoid such situations in your own life. Would this be more helpful for a scenario like finding a parking space in a chaotic downtown environment? Perhaps. But in the unlikely event you expect to be unfairly cast into the pits of hell in the future, Milwaukee Film’s series could come in handy.

Our dynamic duo also digs into the remaining movies playing this month, share some of their own Halloween media rituals, flash back to 1960s cult horror and debate the benefits of wearing a costume to the theater.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

The collection of film festivals that light up big screens around the area every year are more than opportunities to watch movies. They’re also a chance to share an experience you wouldn’t have otherwise, often with people from varied backgrounds and perspectives.

Back for its 29th installment, the Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival emphasizes that togetherness by picking five exclusively non-streaming selections that tell universal stories of inspiration, hilarity, entertainment, history and more. The main slate takes place at Marcus North Shore Cinema on Oct. 11, 12, 14, 15 and 19, with this year’s event featuring a bonus selection that organizers from the Harry and Rose Samson Jewish Community Center decided was “simply too important not to share.”

Two of those organizers, Chief Communications Officer Julie Lookatch and Director of Special Events Micki Seinfeld, join us to share their thoughts on the festival’s lineup, what makes the festival’s post-screening talkbacks so special, and why these cinematic stories welcome community members of all faiths and backgrounds.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

Cultural festivals are a major part of Milwaukee’s DNA, although we usually think of them in the context of summer celebrations at Henry Maier Festival Park. This category of events extends well beyond the lakefront, however, including the ones that take place in southeastern Wisconsin’s movie houses.

Getting the spotlight in this episode is the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival, which returns for its 11th installment from Oct. 1-4 at the Oriental Theatre. But this isn’t just four days of movies. After the credits roll, the conversation continues with post-screening talkbacks featuring filmmakers and guest speakers.

Taking us behind the curtain of this year’s event is Janan Najeeb from the Muslim Women's Coalition, which is once again partnering with Milwaukee Film to put on the festival. She shares her own must-see movies, led by opening-night documentary American Doctor, which includes one of those insightful talkbacks right after the screening.

Najeeb also dives into a “get to know you” chat that reveals her strict refusal to rewatch movies — despite her husband’s affinity for a certain dino-driven blockbuster. 

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

In this episode, Dori and Kpolly dive into Time Warp, a moving new documentary featured at the Dialogues Documentary Festival.

The film spotlights a passionate community group in a small Wyoming town, led by the delightfully optimistic Kenny Starling, as they put together a shadow cast production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What starts as an ambitious theatrical experiment unfolds into a heartwarming story about breaking down assumptions, finding community,and celebrating queer joy.

Along the way, Dory and Kpolly pay tribute to the legendary Tim Curry and his iconic roles in Rocky Horror, Clue and Legend. They also highlight the documentary's star-studded producer lineup — featuring Josh Gad, Billy Porter and John Cameron Mitchell — before sharing their thoughts on what else they've been watching lately (like Supergirl and Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride).

Grab your community and tune in for a friendly chat full of heart, laughs and pure movie magic.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

Strange but true. Funny but true. Deeply emotionally moving … but true.

Those feelings — and many others — are the foundation for Milwaukee Film’s Dialogues Documentary Film Festival, which returns to the Oriental and Downer Theatres from Sept. 24-27.

The key aspect of the event, however, is truth. The features screening across the four days are the real experiences of real people, from community activists right here in Milwaukee to cowgirls defying gender roles in Wyoming to astronauts leaving the confines of our atmosphere.

The festival is a favorite around the Radio Milwaukee offices, and Dori and Kpolly are more than happy to serve as our proxies as they discuss eight highlights with two very knowledgeable guests: Milwaukee Film artistic director Cara Ogburn and programmer Abbie Esterline. They talk about what audiences can look forward to, how they build the festival lineup and how important the “dialogues” part of the title is.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

There isn’t a single formula for becoming a global superstar. But there are a lot of different ingredients that could potentially go into it. While Dolly Parton’s particular mixture went heavy on music, her time on screen took her to a level only a select few reach.

When news of her death started to spread, Dori and Kpolly didn’t hesitate to upend their schedule for a chance to dive into the more visual aspect of Parton’s remarkable life: the television appearances and movie stardom that helped her achieve icon status.

Reportedly, her first time on screen was The Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour on local TV in Knoxville at the age of 10. Our discussion doesn’t go back quite that far, focusing instead on Parton’s time in the national spotlight that started on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967 and eventually extended to appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as big-screen triumphs like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.

In Dori and Kpolly’s conversation, you’ll hear how the iconic 9 to 5 theme song started with literal fingernail-tapping, how she found so many ways to make a positive impact on people’s lives, and even how she played a role in bringing Kpolly and his wife together.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

Many years ago, in a “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” type of moment, a wonderfully innovative mind looked at the disparate genres of horror and comedy and decided those two great things would, indeed, go great together.

And so we got Evil Dead II and Shaun of the Dead and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and — as of a few weeks ago — Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The latest film from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun that uses horror wrapping paper around a gift that’s about more than jump scares and blood-streaked faces.

To help uncover those deeper themes, Dori and Kpolly called in the assistance of Hannah Einbinder enthusiast and Radio Milwaukee social-media chief Zoey Knox, whose wide-ranging cinematic interests swing from satiric slasher to mid-2000s princess movies (more on that at the end of the episode), often in the same weekend.

Together, our film-loving trio brave the dangers of Camp Miasma in their non-spoilery review that covers everything from the subtle messages communicated by sour candy to the unexpected role Counting Crows play in the movie’s campy climax. 

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.

When your last installment pulled in three separate Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) and five different villains from across seven previous movies — plus a Sorcerer Supreme and the near-collapse of the universe itself — it’s almost impossible for a franchise to get even bigger.

So the minds behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day did something that’s simply unheard of in the realm of superhero movies: They got small.

OK, we admit that’s a relative comparison. This episode still focuses on a film that contains the return of a fully hulked-out Hulk, a slightly toned down Punisher and at least brief appearances from several classic Spider-Man villains (plus one main antagonist who will go unnamed for spoilery reasons).

But in this era of neverending escalation and audiences whose interest lowers as the stakes supposedly get higher, it was still refreshing to watch someone pull on a mask and have the struggle you care most about happen internally.

That’s arguably the driving force behind the droves of people who have already seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day — more than $2 billion worth worldwide as of this writing — and one of the major reasons our hosts gave it a rare 10-star rating (rare because we don’t actually rate movies on a scale).

This was a legitimate tear-jerker, whether you spilled them over Peter’s painful isolation or his quietly desperate pining for friends who had long since moved on or the brief appearance of the consistently wonderful Marisa Tomei or the other thing we will not spoil here. That emotional depth balanced the energy and fun we’ve come to expect from New York’s favorite web-slinger, making us believe these superheroes (and their genre) just might have some life left in them.

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Cinebuds is sponsored by Joe Wilde Garage Doors.