Festival gives launching point to emerging films

Event will be held March 30–April 3

Meg Hamel, director of the Wisconsin Film Festival, has never attended the event as a “civilian.” In some ways, that might account for its success.

Though hundreds of volunteers keep the festival running smoothly, Hamel feels a personal responsibility to maintain a visible, participatory presence — before, during and after the event. Her constant vigilance makes it easy for filmgoers to sit back and relax, trusting in top-notch content and an atmosphere to match.

“For a lot of other people, if you go to the Overture Center or a gallery, the director isn’t just hanging out,” says Hamel. “I hang out with the audience; I chit-chat. They know that the person putting in a lot of elbow grease to organize it is right there. The side effect has been that people feel like they belong. They’re not guests; this is their festival.”

Hamel first signed on as a volunteer in 2001, the festival’s third year. Though she had attended other festivals around the world, she hadn’t actually studied film. Still, she knew that her problem-solving skills could help the festival improve as it gained traction.

Case in point: starting films on schedule.

“I’ve been to plenty of festivals where movies will never start on time,” says Hamel. “It’s those little details that we try to get right. If you get that right, a lot of other details — like the audience enjoying themselves — will just fall into place.”

For most of the year, Hamel works in near solitude. While operations director Allen Ebert handles the business end of the festival, Hamel communicates with filmmakers, distributors and producers all over the world, primarily via e-mail.

Mostly, though, she watches films — lots and lots of films.

Juried films, including those in the Wisconsin’s Own categories, arrive between midsummer and the end of the year. A three-person jury in each category — student and non-student — decides which films to accept and which films to honor with the coveted Golden Badger. By Feb. 15, filmmakers know whether to celebrate or go back to editing.

Most films, however, come from a suggestion or word-of-mouth idea. Some follow themes or filmmakers popular with festival-goers in past years. Danish black comedies, for example, always draw fans.

Last year’s hit, “Feed the Fish,” featuring Wisconsin native Tony Shalhoub as a small-town sheriff, came on Hamel’s radar thanks to a Google alert for an article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “Flinging off e-mails” to anyone she could find on the production team, she connected with director Mike Matzdorff near the end of production. The production timeline worked well for a Madison premiere.

In some cases, Hamel booked films months ago. Typically, booking can take much longer.

“Films that played at the Sundance Film Festival recently are still not sure if they’re going to get the multimillion-dollar distribution deal, so we’re kind of on hold to see if that’ll pan out,” she says.

As volunteer staffers lock down the contenders, they transfer information from press kits onto a master database. In a seemingly small but important detail, Hamel and volunteer Jamie Wagner will write all 150 synopses in the festival program from scratch, eschewing canned press-kit copy.

Wagner, a first-year graduate student in film, joined the small team of “campus folk” who have helped select films. Today she sits at a computer, entering a Czech film into one of many spreadsheets. At a pause in the conversation, she pipes up: “How do I type the ‘s’ with an inverted carat on it?”

Standardizing information from many languages is only one of Wagner’s tasks these days. Films will arrive in different formats — 35mm film on multiple reels, DVDs from students.

Knowing each format and arrival date is critical to plan equipment needs. When a 100-minute feature arrives in metal canisters, the film from five shipping reels must be carefully rewound to fit the projection system of the day.

On the Friday before the festival, the crew will drive a truck to Chicago to pick up extra equipment for theaters unaccustomed to projecting high-definition video. On their return, engineers from the Department of Communications Arts help install equipment in each theater. Dozens of extra reels, rented from a warehouse filled with ancient cinema parts, make it possible to run multiple films on platter systems quickly and efficiently.

“We make up — that’s actually the term — the prints onto these medium-sized reels that can hold three of the smaller reels,” says Hamel. “We mark them in a particular way; we make it foolproof. We take that pair of 6,000-foot reels to the theater so the projectionist only has to make one connection. The film’s all pointing in the right direction; everything’s in the right order. After the film’s over, they’ll unspool that back on the shipping reels, put it back in the shipping cans.”

Two weeks before the festival begins, a Vilas Hall recording studio becomes the nerve center for the festival’s “tech team” of veteran volunteers — some on staff in communication arts, some graduates returning each year from positions elsewhere.

One person does nothing but track shipping. Student films from UW–Milwaukee receive the same treatment as a rare print from England: hunted down, tracked online and followed obsessively on the route to Madison.

As films come in, the team inspects every 35mm film and tape. Wearing white gloves, they feel every inch to check for breaks, tears or splices. Some problems are fixable; some require more detailed resolutions.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, guest programmer David Dinnell puts the final touches on three programs of contemporary experimental and independent films. The Ann Arbor Film Festival, for which Dinnell serves as program director, is known for its experimental focus. Dinnell plans to bring several new works to Madison directly from their world premieres in Ann Arbor.

“I feel especially gratified that Meg wants to create a wide platform for all expressions of cinema,” says Dinnell, who served as a juror for last year’s student films. “These are all very personal films, almost always made by one or two people, so they’re not studio production, without a large budget or crew. Sometimes it’s just a person, a camera, an idea and passion.”

In a deeper sense, this behind-the-scenes work is the most important. The Wisconsin Film Festival serves the state and community by supporting Wisconsin filmmakers who need a launching point. Without a state film office or a thriving industry culture, the festival lets students and professionals know that an enthusiastic audience exists for their work.

“She’s programming for people at their most curious,” says Dinnell. “They’ll be rewarded for taking risks; they shouldn’t be discouraged by something unfamiliar, but seek that out.”

As Hamel packs up for the evening, her work is far from over. For the next several hours, she will turn off her home phone and review film after film from her couch, undisturbed by overseas e-mails or distributor negotiations.

“I don’t think it’ll ever make sense to me how I can spend the whole year doing my thing, watching movies, talking to filmmakers, geekin’ out in my little office or at home,” she says. “All of a sudden, everything changes. People show up, and I want to say, ‘Oh! Have you heard about the festival, too?’ I’ve seen all the numbers and the people, but that sense of wonder never goes away.”

Get your tickets

Tickets may be ordered online and at the festival box office at the Memorial Union.