- Announcer: The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

[upbeat music] [light piano music] [laughter] - Pete Schwaba: Hello, and welcome to our annual Wisconsin Film Festival episode of Director's Cut.

That's right.

It's that time of year again when movie fans descend upon Madison with film guide in hand and ready to watch as many films as possible between April 4 and April 11.

Tonight, we will give you a sneak peek of what this year's festival has to offer.

And I am confident there is absolutely something for everyone, as usual.

From categories that offer works by Wisconsin's own Big Screen, Little Folks, restored classics, and, this year, an exciting in-person visit by Oscar-winning director Alexander Payne.

In addition to incredible films, the festival offers an opening night at the Barrymore Theater, exciting Q&As throughout, and some really fun parties.

And throughout the show, we will show you some clips from this year's films.

Joining me now to kick off the show is festival artistic director Mike King.

Mike, third year in a row.

- Absolutely.

Thanks for having me back, Pete.

- Can't stay away, can you?

Never.

[Pete laughs] - It's always fun to talk to you about the festival.

Can you give us an overview of this year's festival?

- Absolutely.

As you so eloquently put it in your intro, we're bringing films from all across the world and all across the history of cinema to Madison for one week-long celebration of the best of movies.

And this year, we're gonna be at some new spaces, which we're really excited about.

We're kicking off the festival at the Barrymore Theater with the first Madison screening of a film called Io Capitano.

This is one of only five movies that was nominated for Best International Film at the Oscars this year.

- Nice.

- This will be Madison's only chance to see it on the big screen.

We'll also be at Music Hall, which is at the bottom of Bascom Hill.

We'll be back at the Bartell for the first time in about ten years.

And we'll be at Flix Brewhouse for the first time as well, during the weekdays, at the end of the fest.

So a lot of fun new places we're excited for our audience to experience.

- That's really cool because the Sundance screens, as they used to be called, were great theaters, but they were so far away.

- Right.

- This seems a little more central.

Are all the venues walking distance?

- We're getting back there.

Certainly over the weekend, it's gonna be a pretty well-collected set of venues on campus and nearby.

- That opening night, is it sold out?

Because if it's not-- - It's not; you can still get in.

- That is a really fun-- you guys always pick a great movie, and it's kind of electric.

There's been some speeches given, awards given out.

And then everybody seems to really enjoy that.

- Yeah, it's gonna be a full house, for sure.

It's headed that way.

So if you don't have tickets yet, I encourage you to pick them up.

- Very cool.

Where can people get tickets?

- Of course.

They can get tickets online at wifilmfest.eventive.org.

That's our site that has the complete festival guide of the over 100 movies that are available.

And you can buy them there online, 24/7.

- Okay, and no scalping, though.

There will be no scalping this year, under any circumstances.

- Absolutely not, no.

- Okay.

Is there an overall theme at all to this year's festival?

- The theme is great cinema, like we do every single year.

We really have a huge swath of kinds of movies, all the way back to the silent era.

We present films with live accompaniment, to movies that just premiered last weekend at South by Southwest.

So it's really all across the history of the medium and all across the globe, from our Wisconsin's Own movies that were made right around the corner from our theaters to movies from the other side of the planet.

- Fantastic.

Let's take a look at our first sampling of films that will be at this year's festival, including a clip from a Golden Badger-winning film titled Parallel Botany.

[knocking] - [singing in Wolof] - [speaking Wolof] - [speaking Wolof] - [speaking Wolof] - [speaking Wolof] - [speaking Wolof] [somber music] [all shouting] - [speaking Arabic] - [speaking Wolof] [speaking Wolof] [all shouting] Io Capitano!

- Narrator: In 1840, a ship set sail, carrying goods from the Dutch East Indies back to Holland.

On board were a variety of fruits and spices: lemons, pomegranates, coffee, sugar, nutmeg.

Not long into the journey, the crew noticed the goods had been tampered with.

Fruits appeared discolored or malformed.

Tea leaves had withered.

Over the coming days, more strange incidents were recorded by shipmates.

Once, someone reported seeing a lemon throbbing.

And another heard a strange, high-pitched buzz coming from a pomegranate.

The cause of these events was never discovered, and the crew decided to throw the goods overboard rather than risk some strange disease or other evil befall them and return to the motherland empty-handed.

[foreboding music] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] [strident vocalizing] [spirited music] - [speaking French] - [singing in French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] [crowd roars] - [speaking French] - Welcome back.

Still talking with Mike King here.

Mike King, part two.

- Yes.

- Hey, before we saw those clips, you said something about musical accompaniment.

- Yeah.

- Can you explain that a little bit?

What's that about?

- Sure.

So we're presenting a couple of silent films directed by Frank Capra, and those are gonna have live piano accompaniment, which is always so fun and something you can't get at home, seeing movies with a live musician playing along to them.

And we're also screening a documentary about the University of Wisconsin professor Richard Davis, who was a famous bassist.

And there will be some bass accompaniment to some movies in that screening as well.

- That is really cool.

- Yeah, it's exciting.

- Where will those be?

What venue?

- Well, the Capra films are at the Cinematheque, and the Richard Davis screening is at Music Hall, appropriately.

- Very nice.

- Yeah.

- Oh, that'll be fun.

Can you talk a little bit about Alexander Payne's appearance?

One of my favorite films all time is Election.

- Great, yes.

- Citizen Ruth, Election, Sideways.

- Yeah.

- Was he hard to get?

And what do we anticipate with him being here?

- Well, he has a long relationship with our director of programming of our Cinematheque, Jim Healy, so they're friends.

And Alexander Payne is gonna be here presenting on closing night the 20th anniversary screening of Sideways, which will be really wonderful, at the Barrymore Theater.

That's gonna be the last screening of the festival.

Right before that, at the Barrymore, if you get there early, he's gonna be presenting a film a film called The Long Haul, which is sort of like a trucker noir from the '50s.

He's a huge cinephile, Alexander Payne.

So he always picks deep cuts for us to screen.

And it's really exciting to see what he's gonna come up with.

He'll also be hanging around at the Cinematheque the weekend following the festival, presenting The Holdovers on Friday night and then another amazing classic Hollywood movie, Westward the Women, on Saturday.

So plenty of opportunities to see Alexander Payne.

- Oscars just seem to follow him.

- Yes, definitely, yeah.

- Every film, it's either an actor or him as a director.

Did you like Holdovers?

- Of course.

I thought it was great.

- It was great.

- Yeah, can't wait to see it on 35-millimeter at the Cinematheque Friday.

- That's really cool, yeah.

That'll be fun.

So can you give us some details about this year's Wisconsin's Own films?

What are we looking at?

- Yeah, absolutely.

And I'm excited to see your interviews with all the great Wisconsin's Own filmmakers that we'll be having participate this year.

- Yeah.

- We have, of course, our Golden Badger-winning films.

So every year, there's a lot of films submitted for Wisconsin's Own.

And then a jury convenes and watches all of them and awards three titles every year.

So that's always really exciting to see the winning films.

And they'll be presented before Io Capitano on opening night.

And then I mentioned the screening of the Richard Davis film, which will also include a documentary about Lynda Barry.

And then we have a new premiere of a film called Angels of Dirt, which is directed by Wendy Schneider, who did The Smart Studios Story a few years ago.

- Oh, great.

- So lots of really exciting stuff in Wisconsin's Own.

- Oh, I can't wait to see that one.

If you have one film, you need to tell people to see one film-- - Wow.

--this year, at this festival, what would you-- - Well, I think that you can't go wrong with the movies that are playing the Barrymore.

That's a big house, and that's an exciting place to see a movie.

So I would say come on out to Io Capitano on opening night, and then you'll be wanting to come back again and again and again.

I'd also mention a couple of recent additions we've just had that aren't even in the print guide we just announced.

- Oh.

- We have an amazing new action movie and a blockbuster from Korea called Roundup Punishment.

That will be screening Tuesday night at the Barrymore.

- Fantastic.

- And then we also added the closing night movie that just played South by Southwest.

It's gonna play our closing night.

It's called The Idea of You.

It's a romance starring Anne Hathaway.

- Outstanding.

We'll talk to you a little bit at the end of the show, too, and get your closing thoughts.

- Beautiful.

- But those sound really fun.

That sounds like great movies.

Up next-- up next, a clip from the powerful documentary titled One with the Whale.

[machine beeping] - Please stop and stand for the pledge.

[all speaking Sivuqaq Yupik] - We're trying to follow our ancestors' footsteps.

It's in our hearts to provide from the sea, the land, and the air.

[class speaking Sivuqaq Yupik] - Subsistence has been a way of life for thousands of years.

If you don't do subsistence activities, you die.

- We took a whale shower.

- Sometimes, going out hunting means that some people don't come back.

[class speaking Sivuqaq Yupik] - The woman prophesied that Chris would be known as the greatest hunter in the world.

The moment Chris harvested his bowhead whale, he became a man.

On Facebook, my son received hundreds and hundreds of hate messages and death threats.

- A lot of crazy stuff.

I don't even want to talk about it.

- All: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States America.

- To those people that say that climate change is not happening, you've got to live here to see it.

- It's becoming harder and harder to find the kind of food we need.

- I want to be like my brother.

I'm trying to follow in his footsteps and keep our culture alive.

[dramatic music] - I'm still in the closet.

I don't really tell anybody about who I am, what I am.

- All: One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

- Whoo!

- Spiritually, inside of us, something is missing.

♪ ♪ - That was a clip from One with the Whale.

And joining me now is director Pete Chelkowski.

Pete, welcome to Director's Cut.

- Glad to be here, love it.

- Yeah, the film looks really-- I have so many questions.

First, can you give us-- we saw in the clip a little bit.

Can you give us an overview and expand a little bit upon what we saw in that clip and how you found the movie?

- Sure.

My partner, Jim Wickens-- we've worked together for years.

He started the first environmental detective agency.

And we were on the high seas in the Pacific and Palau working for another network.

And we were hunting illegal fishing and child enslavement.

And we busted a ship in the middle of the Pacific, I mean, a thousand miles at sea.

And there was children on board.

But we quickly realized that this was not enslavement.

This was fathers and sons.

And it was much more complex.

But the network was like, "Okay, you guys got the bad guys."

And we were like, "Oh, they're not really the bad guys.

It's more complex."

But they didn't want to hear it.

And we suddenly realized, there's a lot of racism in the environmental space.

So we were looking for a story to break that open, to crack that open.

And Jim found, on Facebook, the story about Chris getting attacked-- he was the youngest kid ever to harvest a whale in his village.

He was 16 years old, and they just got internet.

It's a tiny little island in the Bering Sea, closer to Siberia than to Alaska.

And all the villagers started celebrating, and they were super stoked 'cause there's no trees.

You can't grow anything.

Most of your protein and food is from sea mammals.

But at the same time, a lot of environmentalists, followers of Paul Watson, got wind of it.

And they started sending this 16-year-old kid thousands and thousands of death threats and hate messages.

- Wow.

- So we were like, "Oh, my God.

Is this an interesting story?"

And thought this was something that deals with the gray area that I live in.

- I want to back you up a second because you said you busted people at sea.

And I saw in your bio that you work for an undercover agency called Eco Storm.

What is that like?

That's very different from filmmaking.

It's interesting that found a movie in this, but it sounds like very dangerous work.

- Yes, it can be.

It can be monotonous, but at the same time, in the flip of a second, it can be super dangerous not because of just environment, but also dealing with a lot of the characters who don't want governments and companies and militaries who are opposed.

So Jim Wickins, my business partner-- we have a film production company-- he started Eco Storm, the first environmental detective agency that goes, fights crimes against the planet, but not just environmental, but it can be also social issues and people.

So that's how we-- It's not for everybody, but it does involve filming because a lot of the stuff we have to do is undercover.

We need to bring back proof to government, to NGOs, to newspapers.

- You have, in your bio-- I was just reading some of the things you've done.

You seem to really be drawn to remote areas.

And this looks like a very remote area.

What is your attraction to these places?

- I mean, I have to say, Gambell is probably the most remote place in America.

It can take a day or two to get there.

I'm not sure.

I grew up-- my father was a professor of Islamic studies of, specifically, Persian.

Although he's a Polish Catholic, so he's a Polish Catholic teaching Islam in New York City.

We traveled a lot when we were children, so I think there was always something about difference.

To me, it's something about that the places look so different, but there's this commonality that connects all of us.

And that's always what I'm looking for is that commonality with things that look foreign.

- What's your next project?

Where are you going next?

- We have a project called In the Footsteps.

And it follows Ibn Battuta, who is like the Marco Polo of the Muslim world.

And it's a way of changing the narrative about Islam and correcting the narrative.

Everyone's ears and the media has been so ingrained with terrorism, et cetera.

So it takes a comedic, fun tour with American-Muslim celebrities as they go through the Muslim world in the footsteps of Ibn Battuta, who is like the Marco Polo of the Muslim world, as I said.

- Well, you'll have to come back and tell us about that one.

At least you won't need a life jacket for that one, Pete.

That sounds like a great project.

Thanks so much, and best of luck with your screening this year.

And keep up the great work.

Great having you.

- I appreciate it; really happy to be here.

Thank you.

- Yeah, you got it.

Up next, a short film by a graduate of the UW-Madison comm arts program.

[dice clattering] - Latin was fun for the first few years.

Magister Anderson dyed her hair electric orange and had a pet sugar glider.

Magister Lewis rode his motorcycle to school and offered rides to the smart kids, which, in retrospect, was probably illegal.

Then there was Magister Hall.

My pediatrician did say I was a nervous child, clowns, large fountains, Judgment Day.

Magister Hall fit snugly into my phobias.

He had a crisp, bald head and a torso built like an oil drum.

I don't remember him blinking.

He'd silently weave between our desks, waiting for the right moment to cry out one of our Latin names.

He usually picked on Utilis.

- That was a clip from Know Thyself.

Joining us now is Samira Mian.

Thanks for joining us.

Great to have you here on Director's Cut, Samira.

- Thank you so much for having me, Pete.

- Sure.

Can you give us a little more background or a little more of a look into the film?

- Yeah, sure.

So I was really trying to remember how I came up with the idea.

And I honestly have no idea why I decided to make this, other than the fact that I was working a full-time job in post-production at the time.

And I really wanted to tap into something creative.

And my friend sent me a fellowship through Sundance that required making a short film.

And she was like, "You have a lot of weird stories.

"Why don't you just pick a weird story and make a short about it?"

And honestly, that is how this came to be.

- So your background is in animation, or you seem to have a passion for it.

Now you've directed something.

What do you prefer?

Do you like directing or animating?

- So when I graduated from UW-- Go, Badgers-- I really thought that I was gonna pursue a career in post-production.

I was really into sound design.

I really was into animation.

But I did really-- like, in my heart of hearts, I was like, "I kind of want to be a director.

I kind of want to be a writer."

But I was very scared about how to even, like, go about that.

So when my friend sent me this fellowship, it just re-sparked that interest in making my own things.

And I did quit my job at Nickelodeon about two years ago to fully pursue making my own art.

And it was a hard decision, but I am really grateful for it.

- Wow.

That's pretty-- and you just graduated from UW in 2018.

You've already worked for Nickelodeon.

You made your own film.

It sounds like you're making things happen.

Is animation as tedious as people say, even now, with technology being more accessible and easier to use?

Do you still have to have incredible patience?

- Yes, yes.

If anything, I think having access to so much technology and the fact that most animation is made digitally, even if it has a 2-D style, I think that a lot of times, it gives people license to be really nitpicky about how they want it to come out.

- Interesting.

- So it's tedious, but very rewarding.

- Yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about your experience?

When you were a student here, you studied comm arts.

What was that experience like for you?

- It was an amazing program.

I loved the comm arts program.

I came in knowing that that's what I wanted to do, and I stuck with it, didn't change my major.

I just learned more than I ever possibly could have imagined I would learn.

From the hands-on skills of being on a set to learning how to use all the different software, skills that I still tap into this day, I got my money's worth, I can say that.

Definitely got my money's worth.

And some of my best friends that I made from the program are, to this day, my best friends.

So I'm very grateful.

- That's terrific.

Have you seen the film yet with a live audience?

- No, I have not.

- And will you be here for the festival?

Will you have that experience?

Oh, excellent.

- Yes, I'm very excited, especially because after I submitted this short to the fellowship, which I did not get, but that's fine, I was like, "I'm never gonna show this "to anybody ever again.

"I'm just gonna put it on my hard drive, and it'll just be a little thing for me."

And it really was only until about six months ago that I decided to share it.

So I'm just like, the idea that it's being shown to anybody other than my mom is still kind of crazy to me.

It's still kind of crazy to me.

- Well, we only have about 20 seconds left.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

What do you want to be doing?

- I would love to continue being a writer and director.

I am working on my next project, which is a live-action comedy.

And I'm hoping to make a feature next.

- Outstanding.

Well, we wish you luck.

And I'll look forward to seeing you at the festival.

That sounds like fun.

I wish you luck with your screening.

That's great.

- Thank you so much, Pete.

Looking forward to connecting.

- Yeah, you're welcome; thanks for being here.

We'll talk more with Wisconsin filmmakers in just a moment, but first, here's a look at three more brilliant films featured at this year's Wisconsin Film Festival.

- [speaking French] [light accordion music] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] [laughter] [coughs] [chokes] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] [man groaning] - [speaking French] [gun cocking] [gunshot] [suspenseful music] - [speaking French] - [speaking French] [gunshots] [intense music] - Okay.

Hmm.

Yeah.

'Sup?

Smells good.

Americans smell good.

Americans smell good.

Americans.

- ♪ You smell good, sir ♪ ♪ I'll bet you are American ♪ ♪ You smell good, man ♪ ♪ I bet you are American ♪ ♪ You don't smell good ♪ ♪ You are not American ♪ ♪ Americans smell good ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ ♪ Americans smell good ♪ ♪ Americans smell good ♪ - [speaking Italian] [quirky music] - ♪ Ah ah ♪ - [singing in Italian] - [speaking Italian] - ♪ Ay-a-ay-ay-ahh ♪ - [speaking Italian] - It was very new at the time and still today.

- [speaking Italian] - [speaking Italian] [gentle music] - He opens up the visuals.

♪ ♪ - You hear his music, you know it is Ennio.

- It can't be anybody else.

- It's not just popular.

It's an anthem.

- Deep, deep, deep emotion.

- [operatic vocalizing] ♪ ♪ - [speaking Italian] [sweeping orchestral music] [gentle piano music] - [speaking Italian] - The Wisconsin Film Festival takes place from April 4 to April 11.

With over 150 films to choose from, it is a movie heaven.

The festival attracts thousands of moviegoers that watch films on several screens around Madison.

Go to the 2024 Wisconsin Film Festival website and start picking your movies.

We've got more directors and more movies coming your way.

Here's a clip from the film A Room Alive!

[jaunty music] - [singing in Spanish] - So my name is Lynda Barry, that's my Earth name.

But in the Comics Room, I go by different names.

And this semester, this year, I'm Professor Cats, the Musical.

And every year or every semester, I change my name.

And also, my students also, when they come into this room, have a name that they use when they're in this room.

And that's one of the joys, is to see the names that people pick.

- That was a clip from A Room Alive!

And joining me now in the studio is the film's director, Tommasina Cappelli.

You prefer Tommie, though, right?

- Yeah.

- You told me that on the phone yesterday.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Great to have you here.

- Thank you for having me.

- Hey, really cool music.

- Yeah.

- Where did that come from?

- That was a big process.

I think music is such an important part in our comics room.

It provides energy when we're thinking of making comics and people together.

So I spent a lot of time online looking for free music to use that wouldn't get me copyrighted or anything.

And I wanted to also try to do something upbeat to match the energy of the room.

And there's some fun songs throughout.

- Yeah, you don't need to get sued doing an independent short film, right?

So that was just stuff you could use, the music?

- Yeah.

- That was a really great choice.

And it just adds so much with your visuals.

That was really nice.

Tell us more about the film.

- Yeah, so it's a room in the humanities building, where we have the making comics courses that I've taken for a couple of years.

And it's just such an interesting space.

As soon as you walk in, there's art all over the walls from years of stuff that's just all been tacked up.

And you feel like you're surrounded with all these comics, names of people that took the classes before.

And like I said, there's music.

There's candy.

So it's such a special place that I wanted to shed a light on 'cause it's not that big of a department, and I wanted to show people it.

- It must be a special place 'cause it inspired you to make this little documentary that's so great.

Can you talk about your relationship with the professor, Lynda Barry?

She seems like a central figure in the film.

- Oh, yeah, I love Lynda Barry, very famous cartoonist who was my teacher as well as Jeff Butler, who, his comics name is Captain Action.

And so I know Lynda has kept-- or Professor Cats, the Musical, as she's referred to in the film.

And they inspire me so much.

They were my teachers.

And I think you could really tell they love teaching and making comics.

And I think they inspired a lot of past classmates I've had to continue making comics and art throughout.

- So, all right.

So you have that inspiration, that love to make comics.

- Yeah.

- Now you've made a film.

Was that on your horizon, too, or did it just come about because you were drawn to this experience you had here?

I think, I mean, I mainly did film classes.

I was a comm arts major, but my freshman year, I came across this room.

And I was like, "I wanna take the class that's in here, 'cause this room is awesome."

- Nice.

- And so I took the comics classes and fell in love with making comics, too.

And I think it's interesting how you can blend the two and how they infer each other, whether you're thinking of frameworks or the layouts of a comic and stuff like that.

And so it's an interesting dynamic between the two that I got to explore a little.

- So you have a degree in digital cinema, and you have a BA in communication arts.

What are you gonna do with that?

And now you've made a film.

Where are you going in the world here?

- Well, that's the question.

That is the question.

I mean, I'm making my own films right now, working on my own projects.

I recently did the wedding video for my brother.

- Okay.

- So we're doing some things.

I'm also trying to make my own comics.

And so I've got a love for both that I want to continue to grow in.

- Yeah.

You said you drove here today with your dad.

- Yes.

- Has your dad seen the film?

- Yes, he has.

- What does he think?

- My family was the first to watch it.

They all had a fun time.

B'Cause I was working on it over the summer as well, continued editing.

So they're like, "Oh, we can finally see what she's been doing in the basement, working on."

- Right.

- And so I think they enjoyed it.

I hope they did.

And they're gonna be at the screening, which I appreciate.

- That's exciting.

Most kids are having parties in their basement.

You're down there making animation.

- Yeah.

- I think that's really cool.

- I was on the computer for hours.

- Good for you.

Well, I wish you luck on your next project.

And I hope your screening goes well here.

That'll be exciting to see it with a live audience.

And I hope Lynda Barry likes it, and her Earth name.

I hope she really enjoys-- - I know.

- I hope she really enjoys your film.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you, yeah.

- Yeah.

Next up is a clip from a Wisconsin Film Festival alum with a sequel to his 2022 film.

Here's February.

[truck rattling] [motor grinding] [motor stops] - ####ing thing.

[motor grinding] [motor turning over] [motor stops] [motor grinding] Piece of ####.

[motor turning over] - Joining me now is director Nathan Deming.

Nathan, welcome.

- Hi, Pete, how's it going?

- Well, it's going okay.

Sorry to interrupt you.

If you do get a nibble during the interview, don't worry about it.

Take care of business, and we'll just do our best to-- - I'm not getting anything.

- Oh, man.

- Yeah.

- I'm sorry.

- Yeah.

- Did you have to use one of those dealios that we just saw on the clip to-- Where are you, by the way?

- I'm out on Lake Altoona right now in Eau Claire.

- Okay.

- And fish are not biting, so... - It's been kind of a mild winter.

Do you have enough ice under you to support you?

We're not gonna lose you?

- I found the one spot.

- Okay.

- One spot, yeah.

- It's great to see you.

You have been on this show before.

Disclaimer, I had a bit part in a movie you did.

I wanted a much bigger part.

You said, "Absolutely not."

We moved on.

[Nathan laughs] You remain an incredibly resourceful filmmaker.

Your films just look great.

Can you tell us a little bit about what's happening in the clip we just saw?

- The clip you just saw is about halfway through the film.

Those are our two main characters.

Well, Miguel is our main character, who we spend the first half of the film with.

And Miguel is a brand-new resident of this small town in Wisconsin that I'm exploring through these month films that I guess I'm committed to now.

And... [Pete laughs] Yeah, and so he's struggling to fit in until he discovers ice fishing.

And the only person who knows anything about ice fishing that his family can connect him with is an unusual co-worker of his brother-in-law's.

And that's Carl.

So this is the first moment-- this is the moment after they meet, and the first meeting doesn't go well.

And this is their start of their night together.

- What gave you the idea to make a film-- I know you're trying to make a film for every month.

And it's a good thing you're a young guy 'cause that seems like it would be very time-consuming.

What gave you that idea?

And will the stories have some kind of common thread or are they all standalone?

- That's a great question, Pete.

- Thank you.

[laughs] - I have a lot of stories about Wisconsin I think I'd like to tell.

And I don't always love "plot," and I love character.

So I love this framing device, first, as just an inspiration point to start off.

It's really fun to start each month and think about how this month makes me feel, especially in Wisconsin.

I know February in somewhere like Australia is probably a little different, but-- - Yeah.

- February in Wisconsin, to me, is like the doldrums.

It's just the repetition of winter.

You're a month past the fun holidays, the fun winter holidays.

You got March to kind of look forward to.

- Right, right.

- It's the last month that you're slogging through to get through to warmer weather.

- I love that your story involves an immigrant.

People, when they think of immigration, typically, lately anyway, seems like they think of the border or big cities.

And you don't really equate those stories to small towns.

So is that the crux of your story, is how this immigrant is assimilating into the area?

- Totally, yeah.

I mean, the film really is like two films 'cause the first half is not just Miguel's story but kind of his whole family's story.

And you see his whole family and his sister and her husband and their kids.

And they've been in America a little longer than Miguel.

But yeah, I think I was inspired to-- I mean, you saw January.

The last one was about an older church volunteer, clearly a pure Wisconsin character.

So for February, I wanted to do somebody as different as possible, somebody who was brand-new to Wisconsin, somebody who would look on the winters with complete different eyes and curiosity.

- I think I have an idea for you.

If you run out of steam and you need a breather, let's say after June, you're tapped, just re-title Dog Days and make that July.

[Nathan laughs] - 'Cause that was a-- - Have another month film, yeah.

- That was a great film, and you tell Wisconsin stories so well, and you have such subtle humor.

I just love it.

Have you seen it with a live audience yet?

We have about 30 seconds left, unfortunately.

- Oh, no, I haven't.

And I will on April 7 at the Marquis at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

I'm pumped; I'm gonna be there.

David, the lead, who's from California, is gonna be there.

And Ritchie-- who I wish I could have said more about Ritchie.

He is not an actor.

He plays Carl, and he killed it.

So he'll be there, too.

- I hope it's as entertaining as what you're doing now 'cause this is pretty good.

That's not even a fishing pole, is it?

That looks like a s'more stick or something.

- It's an ice fishing pole.

- Oh, it is, okay.

All right.

Well, you're not looking for anything over two pounds with that, are you?

- [laughs] No.

- Are you fishing for minnows?

[laughs] - Nothing right now.

- Whatever, all right, well, best of luck.

I know you got to eat, so good luck with the fishing.

And I look forward to seeing you, buddy.

- Thank you, Pete.

- You're welcome.

- All right, look forward to seeing you.

All right, bye, Pete.

- Back at it.

Our next film is an action drama short titled The K-Town Killers.

- Your daughter's car is behind my car.

She needs to move her car.

- Oh, it's okay.

I parked my car on the street.

I can pay tomorrow.

- What?

No.

Your daughter's car, it's behind my car.

She needs to move her car.

- Oh.

- Do you understand what I'm saying?

- Okay, okay.

I will tell her, but you don't have to press.

You don't have to be pressed.

- What?

- It's slang my daughter taught me.

- Is this a joke to you?

I have to leave.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Do you understand?

I have to be somewhere, and I can't leave until your daughter moves her car.

So will you please go tell her to move to her car?

- Okay, I'm gonna go get her, okay?

- [exhales] - Why is it that you are the only one that I ever have problems with?

Why can't you just follow the rules here, maybe take this a little more seriously?

Yeah, thank you.

[tense music] - Joining me now are directors Vahan Bedelian and Healin Kweon.

Welcome to Director's Cut, you guys.

- Hello, hi.

- Thank you, Pete.

- I just want to say, first of all, when I was looking through the guide, this film jumped out at me as one I couldn't wait to see.

So I'm very happy you guys happened to be on this show.

I'm excited to talk to you about this.

Who came up with the idea or was it both of you?

And where did it come from?

- Yeah, Healin, do you want me to answer this one?

- Yup, go for it.

- I guess I'll go.

Yeah, yeah.

So this initially started because I was training kickboxing.

And I used to lie to my mom.

She would ask me, "You're not actually "getting hit in the head, right?

You're just getting exercise."

And I was like, "No, of course not."

Meanwhile, I was getting hit in the head a lot.

And I told that to one of my coaches, and he said-- I was fighting in stadiums at a time when my parents didn't even know I was training.

And he said, "No mother wants to watch their child get hit in the head."

So that sort of became the genesis of the story about a girl who was lying to her mom about being a fighter.

And then so I came to this idea with Healin.

And the idea developed over time, and Healin had a personal connection to it, too, which she can go into.

- Yeah.

I mean, when Vahan reached out with the script, not only was it really well-written and fun, but I related to it so much because I had an identical incident from the film happen to me.

So me and my mother-- it used to be just the two of us in Koreatown, in Los Angeles.

And my mom went through a traumatic accident, where our landlord risked my mother's safety trying to save money.

And when she confronted him, he threatened her with a violent gesture, which made me extremely angry.

And of course, I defended her.

We had a huge verbal fight, so loud that all the neighbors came down to check their mailboxes at the same time.

But I'll never forget what my mom said to me after when we went back to our apartment, where she told me never to do that again outside and that it looks bad for a woman to shout loud towards someone older than her.

So she was more concerned about my image and behavior as a woman when I stood up to that man to defend her.

So back then, at that time, I was really upset.

And I wanted to share a story that touches many daughters like me who are seeking approvals from their mother for the woman they have become, but also for the mothers whom they devoted their lives bringing their daughters up.

But they feel like they're losing connections from them.

So that's why I wanted to share this story as well.

- Wow.

I have to ask, what happened after the confrontation?

Did things get better or worse?

- Well, I could tell that he no longer-- He kept being very rude throughout the whole time me and my mother lived there because it was just the two of us, and he was a guy.

But after that, he started avoiding me.

And we eventually moved out of the apartment.

I declare that I won that fight, yeah.

[both laughing] - I noticed you guys used an actress or actor-- I think actress-- from the Milwaukee area here in Wisconsin.

First of all, thank you for showcasing Wisconsin talent.

But are there not enough actors in Los Angeles?

How did you come across this actress?

- Well, casting was-- you wanna go?

I mean, it was a very challenging part for us because Korean-American, it's not a huge pool.

And especially for the mother's role, to find an older actor who can act in both English and Korean was like looking for a four-leaf clover.

And I remember that there's this Korean internet site that's for the Korean community, where a lot of elderly Korean women look into.

We even posted our casting call there, where it's more likely for getting second-hand objects or apartment rooms.

So we went through that whole journey of looking for the right actor until we finally found Joy, who is our actress for the mother.

And she was phenomenal.

But yeah, up until then, it was really hard for us to get the right casting.

So we're very lucky to have found her.

- That's great.

We have about 30 seconds.

Vahan, the description of the film reads like a Tarantino film.

Is there any interest in turning this into a feature, or are you happy with it as a short?

- Healin and I actually just finished writing a feature for this film, so that is the plan next to turn this into a feature.

And we're very excited about that.

- Good.

Well, it's a much safer career path than getting kicked in the head.

So I'm glad you found your way into film.

And will you be in Madison?

- Absolutely.

I will be there with Joy Sung Kim.

- Oh, great; excellent.

- Well, good luck with the screening.

I hope it goes well, and congrats on the film.

- Awesome, thank you so much.

- Thank you so much, Pete.

- Yeah, thank you.

Thanks to all the filmmakers who have joined us for this preview.

Here is our final grouping of film clips, including a clip from a Golden Badger-winner titled Patient.

[piano strings plucking] [gentle piano music] ♪ ♪ - Okay, so this has happened multiple nights?

- On and off, I would say, on and off.

- On and off, okay.

When was the first time or how long has it been?

- I mean, if I'm really honest with myself, it's been going on for a while.

- I'm sorry to hear that.

Well, I really hope that we can get to the bottom of this.

And where, exactly, can you point to?

- It's right down here.

- All right.

- So it started last night?

- Yeah.

I'm sure it's just something I ate, you know.

You can give me the once-over and give me, probably, even an over-the-counter or something would be fine, but I'm sure it's not a big deal.

- Man, I can't get used to these strange Black people on the wall.

Everything about them white except the color of their skin.

A cop stopped me.

I told him I was an African chief.

And he became really friendly and let me go.

- You don't even know how to talk like the brothers on the block.

- I'm Blacker than you are.

[percussive music] - Do you always wear that thing around your neck?

[gentle guitar music] - It's too difficult getting home.

You either have to go down by canoe or else go by ferry across the river.

My 27 years as a Black man have been the jolliest years of my life.

[percussive music] - When the women walk around with no shirts, don't they drive you wild?

- I'm a bushman, I'm already wild.

- We're back for a couple of minutes with the festival artistic director, Mike King.

Mike, it looks like another really just amazing list of films.

What excites you the most about this year's film festival?

- Well, thank you.

One of the things that excites me the most, for sure, is bringing filmmakers to Madison.

You've just done great interviews with so many filmmakers from all across the state.

And we're also bringing filmmakers from across the country, like Alexander Payne, who we mentioned, and even from across the world for bringing in a European filmmaker named Anderson Jarvik, who's gonna present three films at the festival this year.

So bringing all these people together to Madison to communicate directly with our audience is a really special experience that the film festival offers.

- I think what I love about when-- at least in the film community, when people come to a festival, they might not have much connection to, they still are just so passionate.

It's not like they're just here to collect a paycheck or an endorsement or something like that.

They can't wait to talk about films and just encapsulate that whole film festival experience.

We've got about 30 seconds.

Can you tell us a little bit about the children's program?

- Absolutely.

We've been having a long-running-- this is the tenth anniversary of our Big Screens, Little Folks program, which screens films for all ages.

And it's a really great way-- if you have a young person in your life and you wanna bring them out to the festival, we have great shorts programs and features expressly for them.

- That's fantastic.

I might hit you up for Alexander Payne tickets.

- You got it.

- I'll do the old handshake where I slip you a 20 or something like that or a double sawbuck, as they say.

That's a joke.

I'm not trying to say there's any impropriety going on.

Thank you so much for your time today, Mike.

I know you guys are gonna do another great job this year, so good luck with it.

- Thanks for having me.

- My pleasure.

Thank you for all the filmmakers for being here today.

Thank you for watching this presentation of Director's Cut.

For more information on the Wisconsin Film Festival, please go to wifilmfest.org.

Until then, please find your seats.

The movies are about to start.

I'm Pete Schwaba.

Thanks for watching Director's Cut.

[gentle music]