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• WHAT HAVE WE DONE ALREADY? •
Our film festival was founded in August 2005 by Dominic Inouye, an English instructor at Pius XI High School, and James Carlson, the Executive Director of Bucketworks. The original volunteer team consisted of Jeff Cartier, Holly Moore, Dave Polacek, Seth Sondag, Sarah Whiteaker, and J.P. Russell, whose image now graces our official “big red dot” logo.
FilmFest
May 21–22, 2005
Originally called FilmFest, this 3-day event featured the films of 34 individual high school directors and 1 class collaboration from 12 Milwaukee-area schools. Also featured were films from the UW-Milwaukee Student Cinema Action Network, local filmmakers Mark GE and George Jirasek, Madison Wis-Kino filmmakers Tona Willams and Lucie Ferrari, as well as director Carlo Besasie’s Wishtaker.
Opening night at Pius XI High School featured previews of the weekend’s films, plus student musical and breakdancing performances. And, at the awards ceremony, winners in the six categories received prizes valued at over $800, including the Grand Prize, a screening at that year’s Milwaukee International Film Festival (MIFF).
Original logo
Festival Program, Opening Night
Festival Program, Saturday
Festival Program, Sunday
Festival Program, Awards & Thanks
Filmshops
November 20, 2005
To inspire students and help them prepare entries for the next festival, we created Filmshops, a series of workshops which brought local professionals to young filmmakers. The first series featured 6 workshops: screenwriting (Ben Budd), storyboarding (Dominic Inouye), lighting (Kurt Denissen), greenscreen technology (Kyle Olson), iMovie (Dj Himes & Jeff Cartier), Final Cut Express & Pro (Jenny Plevin), and an intro to film production (Holly Moore).
2nd Annual Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival
April 28–29, 2006
We changed our program name to Milwaukee Spotlight and got a new logo:
This year, 25 individual filmmakers and 6 class collaborations submitted entries from ‘’14 local schools, PLUS we got our first out-of-state entry from Battle Creek, Michigan.
The second year saw a 75% increase in attendance. Our Spotlight Team grew to 18 members, and we garnered the support of two dozen individual and corporate sponsors, which allowed us to provide over $8,000 in prizes, including the MIFF Grand Prize.
Festival Program
3rd Annual Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival
April 28–29, 2007
We kept the name, but developed our beautiful new logo, featuring founding team member J.P. Russell, who is a film student at UW-Oshkosh.
The third festival featured 40 films from 12 Wisconsin schools and also attracted submissions from students in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York.
In addition to our usual MIFF Grand Prize, as well over $3,000 in prizes, each award winner received a “Dinner with a Pro”: students were paired with professionals from the local filmmaking community like Mark Metcalf, Jeff Fitzsimmons, and Mark GE, who shared their personal expertise and insight over a delicious meal.
We added wonderful new members to our team and received sponsorship and donations from over 40 individuals and organizations.
Festival Program
4th Annual Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival
October 11–12, 2008
This time, about 55 entries in 8 categories went through three rounds of judging! This year’s high school categories are Narrative, Experimental, Documentary, Animation, Music Video, PSA, and Beyond Wisconsin (this last category received entries from Ohio, Texas, and NYC). And this year, we added a college category, Spotlight U.
The awards ceremony featured wonderful jazz singing from the Gloria Miller Duo, catered food from Roots Restaurant, the red carpet and the spinning disco ball—and, best of all, a surprise Grand Prize win by W.E.B. DuBois student Dominique Smith!
Festival Program
News Release
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