UW Arts Institute to expand Wisconsin Film Festival offerings

The Arts Institute will present the second annual Wisconsin Film Festival, March 30-April 2.

This year, the festival will expand to include the Orpheum Theatre and Madison Art Center downtown. Festival programming will focus on independent film and Wisconsin filmmakers as well as showcase world cinema and experimental film.

“The UW Arts Institute is an ideal institution to present a film festival and make it a major cultural event,” says Tino Balio, Arts Institute executive director. “The Wisconsin Film Festival is one way the institute will work to build bridges with the community, enrich the downtown cultural district, and forge innovative partnerships with state and community arts interests.”

The Arts Institute will again work with partners including the UW Cinematheque, a coalition of academic departments and student film groups that programs independent and international cinema and retrospectives, and the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee, the student film organization offering regular series including recent cinema, European and experimental film. The Wisconsin Film Office and Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission also will support the festival.

The first festival last spring drew more than 3,000 people. Building on this success, the Arts Institute has made the festival a regular part of its arts programming and outreach to contribute to the cultural life of the university and community.

Mary Carbine, director of the Wisconsin Film Festival, will work closely with festival partners including James Kreul, programmer for the UW Cinematheque and founding co-programmer of last year’s festival; Henry Doane, owner, and Merijoy Endrizzi Ray, directing manager, of the Orpheum Theatre; Sheri Castelnuovo, curator of education for the Madison Art Center; Alyssa Bailey, Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Festival coordinator, and Stanley Solheim, director, Wisconsin Film Office. An advisory board of university, community and film industry representatives will assist in festival development.

Created in 1998, the Arts Institute is an intercollege unit of the College of Letters and Science, the School of Education and the School of Human Ecology. Governed by the arts faculty and staff, its mission is to develop, promote and administer interdisciplinary artist residencies, fellowships and awards, public programming and outreach activities.