United Way Partners with Milwaukee Film Festival
Skip to Content
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

United Way Partners with Milwaukee Film Festival

Main Content

September 14, 2015

Brian McKaig, VP of Marketing & Communications
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

Who doesn’t love a fun summer movie? Did you catch the three biggest mega blockbusters this season? Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Minions.

Superheroes, dinosaurs, and small, yellow, cylindrical, creatures with one or two eyes, what’s not to love? But beyond escapism, some movies are powerful instruments for change.

As a former journalist, I understand the profound power of a story well told. Storytelling is what makes us human; it is our common currency and as such can be a powerful tool for positive change. Compelling narratives have the ability to bring us together, to galvanize us into action. Documentary-makers commit years of their lives in an effort to bring us these vital and often complex stories and in doing so they make the issues we face as a society both more tangible and increasingly urgent.

That’s why I’m so proud United Way is partnering with the 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival to screen and hold a post-film panel discussion of Romeo is Bleeding, a documentary about gun violence and the effects it has on kids, families, and communities. Through the film and conversation, we are hoping to educate a diverse new audience about the ways they can come together to create lasting change in our community.

A synopsis of the film offers a glimpse of the film’s relevance to a Milwaukee audience:

A fatal turf war between neighborhoods haunts the city of Richmond, CA. Donte´ Clark transcends the violence in his hometown by writing poetry about his experiences. Using his voice to inspire those around him, he and the like-minded youth of the city mount an urban adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the hope of starting a real dialogue about violence in the city.

Join us on Saturday, October 3 at 2:30 p.m. at the Oriental Theater for the special screening and post-film discussion. The cast from the movie will be in attendance, participate in the panel discussion and perform!

If you can't make it to the special screening, the film is also showing two additional times during the film festival:

  • Friday, October 2 at 12:30pm / Times Cinema
  • Thursday, October 8 at 1pm / Times Cinema

A special thank you to Johnson Controls, Inc. for sponsoring the film screening and panel discussion. Johnson Controls’ sponsorship also allows us to present a 30-second video trailer before each movie at the Film Festival. The video highlights our recent Intern Day of Action and encourages people to get involved with United Way by volunteering.

Have something to say? LEAVE A COMMENT:

The following required items were not provided or are in the wrong format. Please provide the required responses and submit again:

Your email address will not be published. All fields Required.

Name: 
  Please enter your name
  Please enter a valid email
Comment: 
  Please enter a comment

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukehsa County blog and social media presence is designed as a source for information, sharing and collaboration about United Way and health and human service related topics. As part of our commitment to our readers, we expect all posters to abide by the following rules:
 • Posts and comments should be on topic, conversational, and serve to educate or entertain  
 • Posts and comments may not be unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, harassing, obscene or otherwise rude or in poor taste  
 • Posts and comments may not be used for any commercial purpose or otherwise to promote any outside organization or its activities
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County reserves the right, at our discretion, to remove any post or to revoke a user’s privilege to post to our page. Comments found to be in conflict with the guidelines above will be removed promptly.
Comments are not necessarily those of United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and its employees and we do not guarantee the accuracy of these posts.