The Milwaukee Film Festival Starts Tomorrow--Boswell Community Sponsorship of "1971" and "Crumb" and So Forth.

The Milwaukee Film Festival starts tomorrow. We're a community partner, sponsoring screenings of both Crumb and 1971. Crumb's work as a graphic novelist (or as he was called when I grew up, an underground cartoonist) is chronicled in this 1994 documentary, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It's playing at the Downer Theatre on Sunday, October 5, 7 pm. Tickets available here.

As for 1971, it airs twice at the Oriental Theatre, on Thursday, September 25 and Saturday, September 27. The first screening is part of the grand opening, while the second ties into an ACLU panel discussion and reception, which features Betty Medsger, the author of The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI. Tickets to the screening are here, while info about Saturday's film/panel discussion/reception package, which costs $40 and benefits the Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU, is here. Here's the Journal Sentinel writeup about the film festival's offerings.

Just announced is John Ridley, the director and screenwriter of Jimi: All is By My Side, who is appearing for the film's Milwaukee premiere. Ridley, who was awarded an Oscar for Twelve Years a Slave, hasn't written traditional novels in some years, but between 1998 and 2004, he published with Knopf and Aspect, the old science fiction imprint of Warner (now Grand Central, a division of Hachette), and appeared at Harry W. Schwartz several times, being that his family is from Mequon.

As we've done for the last several years, many of the Downer Theatre screenings are followed by discussions at Boswell. Most of them are being held at the discussion tables in the magazine area. The complete schedule is at our front desk.

And finally, don't forget to say hi to ex-Boswellian Hannah, who will be introducing several films.