The 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival has been over for quite some time now, but these documentaries left such an impression that we are still thinking about them.
These four features addressed important social causes, revealed new something about the human spirit, left the audience with a call-to-action and even introduced us to 25 rescue cats to fall in love with.
Let us look back on these program highlights of the festival.
25 Cats from Qatar
This film is a must-watch for cat lovers. “25 Cats from Qatar” follows Milwaukee native Katy McHugh, who is the owner of Sip & Purr Cat Cafe, as she works with a network of rescuers to bring felines from Qatar to the United States, where they have a higher chance of finding suitable homes.
Even though Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the metropolitan state does not have a support system for the plethora of stray cats that roam its streets.
The story here is that migrant workers collaborate with McHugh to fly cats from Qatar to the United States, where she can shelter them at her cafe all the way in the Midwest.
There is an important message of responsibility that society needs to begin taking on to support the welfare and overpopulation of stray cats.
It is emotional and heartwarming as the audience watches McHugh navigate obstacles to find the 25 cats best suited for adoption.
Meowtel has sponsored traveling screenings of the film alongside some special events to raise money and awareness for small cat rescues.
Director Mye Hoang has a history with feline related documentaries, with her previous picture being “Cat Daddies,” where she met the subject of this feature while touring that film.
“25 Cats from Qatar” will be available for purchase starting August 12.
Baby Doe
“Baby Doe” is a piece about pregnancy denial, following the case of a woman who gave birth alone and left her newborn in the woods. Years later, DNA evidence links a married mother of three, Gail Ritchey, to this case, causing her arrest for murder.
Director Jessica Earnshaw started her journey with this grievous topic following another case of pregnancy denial, but after seeing the story of Ritchey in the news, she shifted her priorities.
Earnshaw is interested in getting intimate with her documentary focus by spending full days and weeks at a time with them, filming constantly.
“I try not to put the camera down, because if I do, I can’t predict the future, and it’s usually when I put the camera down, something happens,” said Earnshaw at a Q&A after the MFF screening.
Her goal is to disappear into the background of her film and become part of the fabric of the lives of her program subjects.
The film raises awareness of a mostly unknown psychological condition that is not widely accepted. Its goal is to humanize and accurately paint the portrait of a woman who has been heavily demonized in media depictions of her case.
Family and friends around Ritchey could not conceive her being convicted. It was an unimaginable reality that broke this household.
“I think she [Ritchey] felt a huge amount of responsibility for everybody involved in this trial process. She was praying for the judge, the prosecution, and the jury. It was a huge, long prayer list, like every day,” Earnshaw said.
Pregnancy denial or unrecognized pregnancy is surrounded by multitudes of research done by experts, but the disorder is not recognized in the DSM, which is seen as a manual for mental illness inside the courtroom.
Much of pregnancy denial comes from women who were raised in religiously conservative communities and grew up as people pleasers.
Pictures from when the baby was found in the woods were allowed to be shown to the jury, with the prosecution originally wanting to enter as many as 25 crime scene photos, but the judge deemed that a ridiculous amount.
“We actually had a judge at a screening who just thought it was ridiculous that the pictures were allowed in that courtroom,” Earnshaw said.
Ritchey felt awful seeing the jury experience these images of the baby and had difficulty seeing them herself.
There was a disconnection between Ritchey and her baby, where she does not remember this event happening, never seeing the baby. Everything felt like hearsay, and Ritchey felt the worst about hurting her loved ones.
“In the courtroom, when she saw the baby for the first time, that was really the first time she’d ever seen the baby, and I think that had a real profound effect on her,” Earnshaw said.
In an earlier cut of the film, Ritchey is interviewed in prison, and shown to have lost a significant amount of weight, but Earnshaw cut this after audiences took this to mean she is healthy inside prison.
Earnshaw described the current state of Ritchey as paranoid and deteriorating because prison does not provide the support she needs.
“I don’t think people understand that pregnancy denial is a thing,” Earnshaw said, “and if you look for it, you’ll see these kinds of stories about girls who give birth and the baby ends up in a toilet or trash can or whatever, and there’s more to it.”
Those involved in the production of “Baby Doe” have planned a social impact campaign about education of the illness and general sex education to keep the shame away, which is often what causes these unrecognized pregnancies.
Cycle
This documentary investigates police brutality in the United States by looking at the killing of Ty’rese West and had its world premiere at the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival.
“Cycle” not only tells a story, but it is a deep examination of police brutality and the system that covers up excessive uses of force.
It takes a unique approach by using the bicycle as a metaphor for this pattern that seems to keep repeating itself.
The structure of this picture is intentional and very well organized, while also presenting raw footage from the people on the ground who experienced these events in real time.
Throughout the program, the filmmakers chose to intercut the sections with visually striking animation, animated by Gabriel Gonzales, of images such as Lady Justice, bullets, a bicycle wheel and balancing scales.
Director Laura Dyan Kezman teamed up with local digital creative William Howell to craft a scathing takedown on the systemic nature of police brutality that society finds itself constantly undergoing.
Howell was close to this story, capturing the grief and anger of Ty’rese West’s family and community, which Kezman was able to methodically help curate into an emotionally gripping narrative.
The UWM Post interviewed Kezman and Howell at the world premiere.
Piper Harried (UWM Post): What do you hope college students take away from this film? What can they do after this regarding the social cause?
William Howell: I hope that we’re able to create a lot of love and understanding tonight. I think that culturally, we’re divided. We live in a city that is the most segregated in the United States, and tonight it’s going to be a powerful night, and just helping to break that cycle.
Laura Dyan Kezman: We’re hoping to spark conversations that may not be organically getting started right now. This film is coming out during a moment where the conversation has died down. There aren’t people marching in the streets. There aren’t any signs on windows right now. And it’s really important for us to remind people that even when you don’t hear about it through a viral hashtag or in the media, it’s still happening. We’re hoping that it inspires people to think more critically about the chain of communication that comes from police departments to the media and also to get more involved and pay attention to their local elections.
Harried (UWM Post): How did you hear about Tyrese’s story?
Howell: Well, I mean, for me it was just natural. We’re all just one tight-knit community. So as soon as it happened, when his picture came up on my Facebook page, it broke my heart. His father and I were best friends in middle school. And so, for me, it was just natural to get involved.
Kezman: And I learned about this story through a good friend of mine. She introduced me to Will, and then we ended up having a three-hour conversation. Will broke down elements of the story that you can only know from being on the ground in the community. People in the community knew what was happening, but those narratives were not being elevated to the media cycle.
Harried (UWM Post): This was filmed and researched for over five years. What was that process like? Were there any challenges or obstacles that you faced during that time?
Kezman: We faced many challenges and obstacles. However, it showed us that the road map to hold law enforcement accountable is not only unclear and very difficult, but it is constructed to be that way. Even after the time spent getting the information, a lot of which is public information to begin with, we still don’t have all the answers. We had to deal with many unanswered requests.
Ethan Ainley (UWMPost): Will, you were kind of the first one working on this film and kind of started it. What type of documentation did you provide?
Howell: I’m a videographer. Originally, I just wanted to document life as it happened. I didn’t know anything about filmmaking, and I didn’t even know that this would become a movie. I think that’s the most beautiful part of this is the raw footage that you see was just us embracing each other and trying to support Monique [Ty’Rese West’s mother]. My uncle was the police chief at the time. I felt such a deep connection to the story in both ways. I wanted to make sure that I was a person who could positively lead the community and make sure that this story would be heard.
Ainley (UWMPost): Some of the most powerful moments in the film were the interviews with Monique. What do you hope audiences take away from those interviews?
Howell: I think it’s to elevate the understanding for other mothers who may not be able to relate to the anxiety, the constant low-grade anxiety of having a black son. When he leaves the house, you don’t know what type of interactions are waiting for him. I think that she really emulates the truth of that experience, and I’m hoping that can be shared cross-culturally in an empathetic way. We’re able to show the reality and the devastation of when things like this happen, but also show the hope, resilience and strength Monique embodies. There is an entire community of people who, when this **** happens, rally together. It’s important to show that side of it too, and not just the victimization, but the strength that comes from things like this.
The Librarians
Milwaukee Film chose this documentary as its centerpiece for the festival. “The Librarians” chronicles book banning across the country and the several librarians who stand on the frontlines fighting for First Amendment Rights.
This powerful picture addresses a trending topic with diligence, ferocity and a huge heart.
Some of the team behind “The Librarians” participated in several Q&A events during the Milwaukee Film Festival. This included discussions after the screenings and a special conversation at the Milwaukee Public Library.
Director Kim Snyder, producer Maria Cole, librarians Martha Hickson and Carolyn Foote were in attendance at the event.
“In terms of hesitation to get involved,” Foote said. “We were just like astounded that someone would want to tell our story.”
Snyder did not have any reservations about getting involved with this hot-button topic due to her decades of experience with retelling a number of social issues.
Crafting a final cut of the film was complicated because Snyder and company had to go back and forth between shooting and editing.
“I always said it felt like an octopus with tentacles,” Snyder said. “You couldn’t talk about one thing without talking about school boards, and you couldn’t talk about that without talking about white Christian nationalism, and I wanted to do everything important to have historical context.”
Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.
-From “The Librarians”
The librarians at the Q&A explained that at most school board hearings, the people in favor of banning books provide passages and images out of context to provoke a reaction.
Snyder and the leaders of this campaign collaborated with the librarians who starred in the program by deploying them around the country to screenings of the work.
“I’ll tell you this was a very lonely fight for me,” Hickson said. “If you sent a card to your librarians at your children’s school or local library, saying I’ve just seen this film. I’m horrified by what’s happening in this country, and if this should come to our library, I want you to know that I am here to support you.”
The Milwaukee Public Library invited these four individuals connected to the piece to hold a community conversation at the East Branch.
In this conversation, people in the Milwaukee community asked about what they could do to help the cause and discussed the motivations behind book banning.
“This is a community story, and all of you are members of communities. You saw people in that film coming out to board meetings, testifying at legislative hearings and coming to the aid of the local librarians. I hope each of you will feel moved to behave similarly,” Hickson said.