MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Whether you enjoy the black-and-white images of movies past, or the high quality effects of high budget movies today, The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research has you covered.
The Madison-based center is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and partners with the Wisconsin Historical Society. However, they don't just focus on films, television and theater with Wisconsin ties. The center collects films and behind-the-scenes aspects of entertainment for all genres and dating back more than 100 years.
“Personally I love movies from every era,” said Mary Huelsbeck, assistant director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
It would take someone who likes all kinds of movies film and television to manage one of the worlds major research centers for the entertainment industry.
“People are always surprised, you don't think of Madison when you think of Hollywood or television or broadway,” Huelsbeck said.
The center manages over 300 manuscripts, over 2 million photos and posters, and about 40,000 titles on film and video tape.
“So it's a massive amount of material,” Huelsbeck said.
If you're looking for a place to screen some of your favorite classic movies for fun, this isn't necessarily the place. But, if you want to know about the behind the scenes stuff that went in to making the classics, give the center a visit.
“We collect papers and related materials documenting theatre, film and television,” Huelsbeck said “So everything from photographs and posters to correspondence and contracts and scripts and costume designs, everything that goes into the making of a production.”
Back in the 1960's the Center would write letters asking for contributions and people in film and theater sent them what they had. While their archive is still expanding, they aren't writing letters like they used to.
Now researchers and students from around the world search online or come to Madison to learn about what happened to get the films on the screen and plays on the stage. Anyone can search what they have on their website: https://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu
Many of the films are Oscar winners, though that's not a criteria for the Center.
“Certainly that award adds some cachet to a film, but we really don't pick and choose what we collect based on if its won awards, everything is important to us,” Huelsbeck said.
In the spirit of the Academy Awards though, the Center did compile a list of Oscar winners and nominees with ties to Wisconsin. Huelsbeck said it's not a definitive list and some of the people may have only lived in Wisconsin for a few years.
People with Wisconsin connections who have been nominated for an Oscar
Mark Ruffalo
Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
Gene Wilder
Willem Dafoe
Agnes Moorehead
Nancy Olson
Michael Mann
Joan Cusack
Jeremy Scahill
Rob Marshall
Robert Stone
Ellen Corby
Brian Donlevy
Glenn Silber
Nicholas Ray
Terry Zwigoff
Peter Weller
People with Wisconsin connections that have won Oscars
Fredric March
Mark Rylance
Adam Stockhausen
Jim Rygiel
Spencer Tracy
John Ridley
Orson Welles
Don Ameche
Walter Mirisch
Errol Morris
Gena Rowlands*
Eric Simonson
Howard Hawks*
Tom Rosenberg
Marshall Brickman
*honorary awards