MMF Points Of Interest

Tonight Points of Interest is playing at the Milwaukee Film Fest. Now, this film seems like somewhat of a sleeper coming in to it’s premier night but is one of the most thoughtful unassuming pieces I’ve had a chance of seeing at this years fest.

Truly exercising a “curious eye” Points rides along with touring bands Juniper Tar and Strand Of Oaks on their east coast tour. Like a roadie or merch guy Points spends equal time on the bands and their performances as it does on exploring local flavor.

So if you are looking for a journey in less than an hour and a half look no further. Points of Interest 9:30 - Oriental theater.

Bonus! WWD will be doing an interview with the films creators this coming week. So watch the film, get in the know, enjoy the interview. deal? deal.

Check out WWD’s very own Parker Winship’s review of the film at AV Club MIlwaukee.

#500, MFF - We Need To Talk About Kevin

This is the 500th post ever ever on World Wide Dirt and what better way to celebrate than with a meditation on a film about a bow and arrow kill spree?  We got a Kristin Peterson photo and a sleep-deprived movie reviewer, and I will throw in a poem just for fun.

We Need To Talk About Kevin played at the Oriental Monday night.  It begins with a tomato fight.  The whole movie is full of spills and slush and rain.  At first it travels in a spiral between time frames, but eventually the movie kind of settles into a flashback.  Here is what is awesome: there is a really off relationship between Eva, played by Tilda Swinton, and her son Kevin.  It is abusive and dysfunctional and they don't get along, but sometimes, and this is the part I really like, they just do.  There's no motive for it, no solid dramatic justification, just an emotional one.  They embrace and you don't know why, but you feel it, just like day to day a person feels different though maybe they don't know why.

John C. Reilly was cool too.  He's not John C. Reilly, but he has enough personality to fill this character that's not there, not a definable person, just a man on the periphery of a woman's memory.  It's a certain kind of actor that can give weight to air.

Here, as promised, a bonus poem:

there were nights maybe mornings? after class?
he never went to math.
that he would read to me stories about roses maybe lillies
that really were women and f-stops
after maybe midnight in the iberian peninsula
dreams--lovers are made this way

neighbors had a cat named Grolsch and
later in my new 22 I would discard possibly
to the left
with a sprinkler in rain

and I would fall deep asleep
snortling hastened breaths, first time
I may sleep
not pretend to sleep
in a stranger's bed who liked the same music as me.
He smiled too much but told a damn good
story.  Maybe?  I'll find out if I like it better and
report back to you.  Or mom.
She will call him Prince
after Harry
or the other one.

HAPPY 500!  Time to beddy-bye.  Sweet dreams!

MFF - Date Night

It’s a rainy sunday and I walk past Henry’s where I see a couple married friends, standing smoking beneath the bars street side canopy.

“What you doin?” Derrick asks.

“I’m headed to the Downer. They got a shorts showcase about relationships. It’s called Date Night. I’m going alone.”

We laugh at the irony and I buy a bottle water from CVS before heading in. Now, it’s not like I couldn't have gotten a date (right?). I could have, I could have, I could have. Well whatever.

It’s a hell off a thing, an event that attracts couples. Cause some are playing kissy face some are arguing a little

(would you like to sit here? would you answer me? I did honey - I said Yes twice.)

One thing about a theater full of couple is that half the crowd doesn't know how to shut the fuck up. Really? what is it? Throw a little sexual tension in the mix and all movie etiquette goes out the window. Talk talk talk.

Either way I was impressed. Maybe I just like things in little doses. I always wanted to open a restaurant called Sean’s Little Bites - where you could have little portions of everything you like. One shrimp, one piece of steak, one broccoli, one chewy chips ahoy, one cheese curd, one baby pickle - well, you get the idea.

I was really impressed by a short called Dear Abbott.

I watched all these funny, sad, cruel tales of love and when it comes down to it, these films told me what I already knew. Relationships are horrifying, sure things can work out, sure things can be fun, uplifting and gratifying but love is the devil, no doubt about that.

Lets dance with that devil. I’m ready.

MFF - Late Night, Dish Guy Edition

So I got done washing dishes with Parker and we decided to grab our guy Joey and head over to The Best Damn Fucking Midnight Program Ever. Shit.

I tell ya, checking out short film showcases is cool for many reason, variety obviously, also if you’re not into something that much, you can probably handle it for eight minutes.

Anyways - wait - is “anyways” a word? I’ve heard no. well anyways we had some good stuff in the shorts showcase.

Robots talking about robbing banks - Little dude pooping out an egg - Bears and prostitutes - Dinosaur Ballet - and Max Fischer’s dad talking about honey being sucked off his dick.

So that something right?

Pretty Pumped to see the Gainsbourg film tonight. Hopefully see you all there.

Big week coming up.

Hey Pretty Pretty - Opening Night MFF

I didn’t bring a pen or anything. I’m also not huge on tape recorders, cameras or the factual retelling of any event. But I guess I’ll try to round it out real nice like.

John Axford and Randy Wolf and I attended the opening film at the third annual Milwaukee Film Festival.

The film was called Natural Selection and while there were things I didn’t like about it there were plenty of thing to like about it. And considering that making movies is hard as shit, thats three fourths of an endorsement. got that?

After the film I skipped out on the Q and A and got the quesadilla slice at Ians. It was above average and Jack and Parker picked me up and we rolled to discovery world.

I must have lost the Ax Man along the way. It was like the time me and President Obama hit up the east side for our joint birthday party. He got caught up with a bad crowd at Rascals so I dipped.

Anyway, what an opening night event they had! I mean hot damn! We got drinks, we got mini burgers, we got burlesque dancers, we got a Serge Gainsbourg cover band. And we got friends, well wishers and too many pretty ladies to count.

Shout out to Ghazal Sheei who orchestrated this barn burner. Cool lady, cool name, cool party.

Then I went home, went to foundation, ate a hot pocket in bed. You get the gist.

So here’s the plan. Lets support the Milwaukee film fest in any way we can. It makes the city more fun, it’s as plain as that.

Check the SITE. See some stuff.

Also Check out the AV Club write up by WWD's very own Parker Winship.

Milwaukee Film 2011

Well here we go. We’ve made it another year around the sun and it is time for the 2011 Milwaukee Film Festival. This year the folks over at MFF have been kind enough to grant World Wide Dirt press credentials, so we’ll be reviewing films, doing interviews and reporting party antics from today until the festivals conclusion on Oct. 2^nd.

Exciting huh? I think so.

So I’m gonna start the party right now and give you a little rundown of what’s going on with my feature Heavy Hands.

I just received another shipment of footage from my people over at Pro 8 MM. They are based out of California and are really just lovely. Everything looks pretty good and I lost a minimal amount of footage in the ole mugging a couple months back.

So now it’s down to the job of editing as I go along. I have a pretty good edit going on the first act as well as dialogue and background noise for everything.

In the last shoot with Milwaukee’s own Marissa Nans as well as fill in Milkman Billy Mills I recorded sound on site. So we’ll just have to see how it all matches up.

Also did a shoot with star milkman and overall awesome guy Jake Bohanon. His involvement in the film started over a year ago when I worked at the Palomino. He walked in one day with a dapper new do and had MILKMAN written all over him.

All and all things are going really well. I just put together the new trailer and me and Tyler Luther will be getting to the music this week.

I’ve been putting quite the ensemble cast together and am really jazzed for everyone to see how their scenes turned out. I personally I’m liking what I’m seeing.

Whitewater cast – Mitch Olson, Aaron Patnaude, Jim Winship, Parker Winship, Billy Mills and me.

Milwaukee – Frankie Latina, Nick Sommer, Kelly Cunningham, Amelinda Burich, Marissa Nans, Jake Bohanon, Travis Thorp, Jeb Platt, Erik Ljung, and Colby.

Silver Lake – Sheila Teruty

Dogs – Carter and Frank

So you can see the potential right? And I still have one more act to shoot. Be surprised my friends, prepare to be very surprised?

But for now, head over to the MFF gala party at Discovery World and check out as many flicks as you can.

But be SURE to see POINTS OF INTEREST – Friday Sept 30^th. MARK IT DOWN.

-Sean

the golden disc

do it. what a world. i'm trying to get over double-spacing after a period. i heard that it has no place in modern typesetting.  it's a hand-me-down from typewriters.  before typewriters, printers used single-spaces.  now that we have word processors, it's back to one space. it served the human race for such a short amount of time, but it's how i learned to type and i got to unlearn it now if i'm gonna be published & whatnot. all i can remember about my dream last night is lots of cold water. anyone who wants to dream while awake should slip into a movie theater and watch the nicholas winding refn movie drive. if you click on the picture above, you will have some inkling of the way i feel as i write this post.

#493, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff

closer to the truth

i'd say you can't get enough

you know

you're gonna have to face it

#492, Feel Like Sofia Coppola

On the bridge, my city looked new like I had been electroshocked or posttraumatic shocked or culture shocked and my old eyes looked on the same old buildings and saw some slow undiscovered fragment in them like when you learn a new nickname for an old acquaintance.  My brain wheezed and the world was an illustration in Goodnight Moon, if in Goodnight Moon they read Goodnight Moon and wished that the room and the moon and the cow and the light all looked like they did in Goodnight Moon.

-Tom Berth, Ides of September Challenge

something from a moleskin

it wouldn't mean anything if i wrote it down.  words are better at capturing what's not there than what is.  bones from air is miraculous but bones from muscle is not only reductive but morbid.  i could write it down but what little is left of the experience would turn to vapor.  it wouldn't even be mine anymore and fuck, it's all i have so why would i give it to you, moleskin.  get your own life or i will you one, but it will be one made from raw materials, not a xerox copy what once was.

- Tom Berth

helium dreams

what if i were to right down exactly what i was thinking right now?

"radian" by air is a good song

i am thrilled

i just got over a cold and when i did it was like i was an alien on earth but more like i was on vacation in my own life

i'm not worried, which is unusual

i love getting over a cold as long as it doesn't fuss up my lungs

you feel high but better, like your mind is bruised but you still think fine

i took a walk the other day after a movie and i thought "i could live here" (as in i could end up in a place like this one day) when i was looking at these professors' houses and lawns just off campus, it was green, brown, cool.  there was a party and baby's were crying and someone said, "we're office neighbors," rugs nailed to the wall, smokers on the front porch.

i only realized later it looked just like my parents' neighborhood.

what is that feeling edging over me?  it's broad and almost oppressive but i'm more here because of it

god

(i didn't really write everything was thinking)

Heavy Hands 9/4/11

Heavy Hands all day every day.

Getting about forty minutes of footage by tuesday, shot milkman scene this last thursday, more milkman and Hitchhiker this coming thursday-

Then on to the great chase. All very vague I know.

Striking distance soon, very soon.