Under Construction
Introduction to the Documents Section
Of all of the sections of this website that are “Under Construction,” the Documents section will be under construction for the longest time. I may never complete this section. But that doesn’t mean it is not worth trying.
For now, the Documents section will contain evolving historical accounts and personal memories of film organizations that I was involved in between 1989 and 2004. That timeframe will expand to more recent activities (like Underground Cinema, Underground) as I get a handle on my personal archive. All of the observations and memories will be tied to ephemeral documents and publications produced by these organizations, as well as local press coverage of screenings and other events. Thus the section title, Documents.
Sometimes these observations will focus on very fine grained details that might only interest me as I re-examine events from over twenty years ago. Other times, I’ll take a step back and begin to formulate a historical argument about how these organizations and events relate to each other, and how their lessons can inform current film programming practices in Madison (including my own).
The Documents section will be an ever evolving draft, rather than a completed piece of writing. I’m not starting with an argument. I’m assembling these materials to discover and develop a historical argument that might be at odds with my personal memories of the period. I’ve already come across documents that contradict my faulty memory, prompting me to adjust what I have written.
As of the “soft launch” of jameskreul.com in late July 2023, I have utilized only a very small percentage of the documents that I have rediscovered. But I have written enough to get the ball rolling, so that people can see the possibilities for this project. None of the entries start at the beginning of the story for these organizations, they start with the documents that I wanted to write about before digging in deeper. So there is no need to reach out to me with “but how could you possibly forget about about…” comments, unless you have some documents that you’d like to share. There are parts that are missing, but there were even more missing parts before starting this. The point of it all is to slowly fill in the gaps.
This section could take up all of the time that I have to dedicate to the website if I let it do so. But I have other priorities including upcoming program notes and other film related activities. So if you’re interested in what has been discussed here, keep checking back for new material, updates, and revisions. Longer updates on new topics will begin as blog posts.
Eventually, I will organize the primary sources from my archive in a manner that will be useful to others who might be interested in writing about Madison film culture in this period. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to do that. But I will use websites I admire like Mike Everleth’s Underground Film Journal, and warholstars.org as possible models.
Independent Film and Video Collaborative (IFVC)
The Independent Film and Video Collaborative was a student organization at the UW-Madison that focused on both film production and exhibition. Its general leanings were towards experimental filmmaking, but also more generally towards independent and documentary filmmaking.
Madison Film Forum (student group and film series)
The Madison Film Forum was a student organization whose members were graduate students in the Communication Arts department at the University of Wisconsin—Madison between 1995 and 2000. They organized several film series and screenings that eventually changed how campus film events were covered in the local media, especially Isthmus. Madison Film Forum programs were integrated into UW-Cinematheque programming starting in 1998.
UW-Cinematheque 1998-2000
In late 1997, Communication Arts professor and film scholar Lea Jacobs secured resources create the UW-Cinematheque, a coalition of academic department and student film groups dedicated to bringing in films which would otherwise never reach Madison screens. I was appointed as the first graduate project assistant to coordinate 35mm film screenings by coalition members in 4070 Vilas Hall, which was renovated to provide one of the best film viewing experiences in Madison.
Wisconsin Film Festival 1999-2004
I believe that looking at the first five years of the Wisconsin Film Festival will be particularly instructive in relation to what is going on in Madison’s film market and film culture in 2023. In the short term, this section will draw on my personal archives from my time as a Festival programmer. Eventually, I plan to draw from the developing project at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision: Processing and Sharing the Collections of Amos Vogel, Jump Cut, Angles, and the Wisconsin Film Festival.”
Underground Cinema, Underground
Underground Cinema, Underground was a series of 16mm screenings of historical avant-garde and experimental films that Erik Gunneson and I programmed in 2017 and 2019. The first round of screenings took place at Wendy Schneider’s Coney Island Studios, in a historic basement on Madison’s East Side in August, 2017. The next incarnation was absorbed into Mills Folly Microcinema for its Summer, 2019 series at maiahaus, 402 East Mifflin Street.