Film Fest This Weekend

If you’re ready to get your movie binge on, but you haven’t already bought tickets for this year’s Door County Short Film Festival, don’t sweat it. Weekend passes are still available for $25 at northernskytheater.com, or at Northern Sky’s Gould Theater ticket office on Feb. 16, 5-6 pm and Feb. 17, 12 pm.

At this year’s festival, three feature-length films – Love Differently, Puppy Love and Love and Irony – will be screened alongside over 20 short films. Guests can enjoy refreshments, participate in Q&A sessions with featured filmmakers and vote for which film should win the 2024 Golden Mug Award.

The movie marathon will start at 7 pm on Feb. 16 and continue 1-7 pm on Feb. 17.

Northern Sky’s Gould Theater is located at 9058 County Rd. A in Fish Creek.

Off the Wall and on the Big Screen

While the feature films fit neatly into this year’s theme, “Love in Wisconsin,” the short films are a bit harder to categorize. It’s not a Door County festival if it’s not a little quirky – and many of the shorts slated for the Door County Short Film Festival fit that bill. Here are just a few of the most unique selections, in order of appearance at the festival.

• Ballad of a Mushroom Cloud directed by Len Borruso. The only information about this film on IMDB, besides the names of the cast and crew, is that the opening scene “was filmed in -9º F with a windchill factor of -35º F. The record button on the camera froze in record mode. It eventually defrosted.” Make of that what you will. 
• The Birth of the Modern Snowmobile directed by Nate Sheppard. Wisconsin inventor Carl Eliason’s contributions to the development of the snowmobile are documented in this six-minute short.
• “When You’re Here, You’re Pizza!” directed by Tim Schwagel. This noir-inspired thriller follows an unlikely protagonist: an unwaveringly-dedicated man who orders the same pizza every day. 
• Expiration Dates directed by Wesley Morgan. The documentary crew of this film follows a man who has been collecting the obituaries of everyone he knows in his community since the 1950s.
• Swept Off directed by Melonie Gartner. This film is the final installation of a four-part anthology the Manitowoc filmmaker began around a decade ago. 
• 3 Hours Per Frame: Creating of Wood directed by Morgan Jones. This short documentary celebrates renowned stop-motion artist Owen Klatte, who worked on Gumby, James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas.