Firestarter stokes the flames of Milwaukee's growing film scene

Milwaukee filmmakers Shawn Monaghan and Phil Koch met two years ago thanks to YouTube: Monaghan posted a parody of the misbegotten Will Smith vehicle I Am Legend, Koch posted a response, and before long, the pair had collaborated on 30 webisodes that they eventually edited together to make a 45-minute film. It’s this spirit of collaboration and feedback that prompted the pair to start the bimonthly Firestarter Film Festival, where local filmmakers get a chance to screen their work in front of an audience and network with likeminded folks. Firestarter recently moved from Alchemist Theatre to bigger digs at Live Artists Studio, where the next festival will take place Friday. The A.V. Club recently caught up with Monaghan to talk about the festival and Milwaukee’s surprisingly active film scene. 

The A.V. Club: Why did you start Firestarter?

Shawn Monaghan: We meet up with friends once a week or so, and show each other what we’re working on lately, but we wanted to see if we could create a public forum for something like this. Our thought was, “Let’s do it every other month,” and a lot of people said there was no way we would find enough filmmakers who have enough content to run a film festival for five hours every other month. But every time we’ve run it, we’ve had more filmmakers and more films—every time at the end of the night, I’m turning four or five people away.

AVC: You didn't expect that much participation?

SM: It’s really unbelievable how many people are bringing films. Some people have brought in animation, 3-D films where everybody had to put 3-D glasses on, some guys did a documentary on eye surgeons—all he does is crack jokes in the middle of surgery—and some people bring in films that they shot just to show at Firestarter.

AVC: Did you have any idea that there were this many filmmakers in Milwaukee?

SM: No clue. We were hoping, and that was kind of naïve on our part. The first Firestarter was just us and maybe seven of our friends. We thought, “Okay, we’ll get some exposure, our friends will get some exposure, but then the next event, people started hearing about it.”

AVC: What are you getting out of this?

SM: Well, I’m a filmmaker, I do a ton of films—I’ve got like 300 films on YouTube. So part of it was that Phil and I wanted to screen our own work. At the beginning of Firestarter we were able to show a handful of our pieces and get feedback, and a lot of people have worked with us because they’ve seen our work. Now we’re at a point where we’re showing so many films that we only show maybe two of our own pieces. We’ve met a bunch of new actors and composers—really good people that I definitely want to work with on future projects. And then just creating this new group of people that are all gathering together.

AVC: Is Milwaukee a good place for filmmakers?

SM: I think it is. Last year, I shot our 48 Hour Film Project at the Villa Terrace. The Pabst Mansion is awesome and they want to get more involved with filmmakers in the area. I mean, how many movies have you seen where it’s Times Square? It’s like, here we are at Times Square again! Or the Empire State Building. I’m a big fan of history, I mean, let’s just say City Hall in Milwaukee. I know people who haven’t been inside there. It has all these crazy balconies and they used to have pigeon netting up there because people were jumping off the balconies during the Depression. I mean, there are a lot of unique things in Milwaukee that people haven’t used in films. You know, Milwaukee’s a smaller city; it has its ups and downs. There are a lot of established companies in Chicago, and I think that when work happens here in Milwaukee—like they shot No God No Master here, and I’m not sure how many people they used from Milwaukee versus bringing people in from Chicago or other areas. But the more people here are practicing their craft, the more prepared they’re going to be for other events, or even their own feature films.