The Shepherd Express doesn't care for the film festival that it happens to be suing

Even though the Milwaukee Film Festival was easily one of the city’s biggest entertainment events of late September and early October, it wasn’t exactly a surprise that local weekly newspaper the Shepherd Express decided to completely ignore the event in print and online. After all, it’s been widely reported that ShepEx publisher Louis Fortis is suing MFF for "destroying" the film fest he used to run, the Milwaukee International Film Festival. So, while the paper seemed derelict in its duty as a self-described “voice for news, events, and culture” in Milwaukee by not even mentioning an event (one) with major news (two) and cultural (trifecta!) value, you could sort of understand the silent treatment … if you’ve ever suffered through an especially bitter break-up with a crazy ex.  

But as Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine noted yesterday, the ShepEx took its personal pettiness toward MFF to a strange new level in last week’s “Expresso” column, which ended with a short “Issue Of The Week” item on how MFF—which the uncredited writer doesn't refer to by name—failed “to generate the excitement and attendance of the original and very successful Milwaukee International Film Festival.” You mean the very same festival that the ShepEx once ran but doesn’t feel the need to tell readers it once ran? What a coincidence!

The A.V. Club had a really good time at MFF—it seemed to run fairly smoothly, and the selection of films was good to excellent. The festival is certainly not above criticism, but in what universe does a transparent, sheepishly presented cheap shot like this not make the ShepEx look silly? Murphy for one calls the criticism “complete nonsense," noting that MFF only counted screening attendance while MIFF also rolled party attendance into its overall tally, which accounts for its higher numbers.

Murphy writes: "Beyond the question of attendance, the new festival instituted numerous improvements: It recruited Marcus Corporation and was thus able to screen films for the first time at North Shore Cinema, while also continuing at the Oriental Theater. The festival added a shuttle bus between the two venues. And because it was released from the domination of the Shepherd, the festival was able to get all of its ads and promotion for next to nothing, including a package valued at $100,000 from the festival’s chief sponsor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for a cash contribution (according to Jackson) of just $1,000 by the festival. It was a heck of a festival. I look forward to more."