It's be only a week since the conclusion of the successful Milwaukee Film Festival and we've got two more film festivals this week.
In fact, if you're a movie buff with specific film tastes, there are plenty of options over the next month or so.
We're already into the 13th Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival, which began Sunday and continues through Thursday with nightly films at the North Shore Cinema in Mequon.
And later this week, Milwaukee's first Native American Film Fest and Celebration kicks off at Marquette University. Begun by a new group called Native Punx, there are films Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
But the event begins with a screening of Disney's animated "Pocahantas" and a panel discussion Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Marquette's Alumni Memorial Union. Here's the complete schedule.
In the coming weeks, there are several more film festivals to choose from:
- The 23rd Annual Milwaukee Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film/Video Festival is scheduled for a four-day run starting Oct. 21 at the Oriental Theatre with a screening of 2009's "Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls" at 7:30 p.m. The remaining films will run at the UW-Milwaukee Union Theater. Details are available at the Web site.
- The 12th Annual Milwaukee Short Film Festival has scheduled more than 30 films to run on Oct. 29 and 30 in the Lubar Auditorium at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Details are at the Milwaukee Independent Film Society's Web site.
- Then there's "Piemonte Cinema," a free presentation of three films from the Piemonte region of northwet Italy Nov. 11 and 12 at the Discovery World Museum. My OnMilwaukee.compagno, Bobby Tanzilo, is one of the organizers, and he has all the details.
Another Senate debate: The U.S. Senate debate between incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold and Republican challenger Ron Johnson airs at 7 tonight on affiliates of the Wisconsin Public Radio Ideas Network, including WHAD-FM (90.7).
On TV: The Lake Express Ferry, which runs from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Mich., gets some TV time on the History Channel's "American Pickers" at 8 tonight. Pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz took the ferry in June as part of their hunt for antiques. A crew from the show filmed additional footage in August.
- Los Angeles' KCET-TV has decided to drop its affiliation with PBS and go it alone as a public TV station starting Jan. 1.
- The BBC says the upcoming sixth season of "Doctor Who" will be partly filmed in Utah. Expect it to start on BBC America next spring.
- ABC Family has ordered 20 more episodes of its "Melissa and Joey," which translates to 30 episodes for the season. Cable series usually have shorter runs than the 22 episodes most broadcast network shows have.
- Looking ahead to the week, here's a couple days' notice for this week's Milwaukee "Food Wars" between Sobelman's and AJ Bombers. It will air at 9 p.m. Wednesday on the Travel Channel.
The secret Abed storyline: NBC's "Community" is getting beaten, as expected, by CBS' "Big Bang Theory" in the 7 p.m. time slot. But the creative comedy from ComedySportz Milwaukee vet Dan Harmon isn't slacking off. Last week's episode featured a back story, with Abed (Marquette University grad Danny Pudi) literally in the background playing out a subplot.
Here's the video:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
