The Oriental Theater hosted a screening of The End, two-time Oscar nominee Joshua Oppenheimer’s upcoming feature film, with both Oppenheimer and the film’s composer, Joshua Schmidt, in attendance for a Q&A after the film.
Joshua Oppenheimer has been nominated by the Academy twice for Best Documentary. Once in 2014 for his debut feature The Act of Killing, and again in 2016 for The Look of Silence. Both films examine the aftermath of war and the desolation left in the wake of violence; a theme Oppenheimer continues to investigate in his newest film.
His previous two films, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, were focused on Indonesian oligarchs who came to power through genocide. His films had such a direct focus on the tragedies and the people involved that he could not safely return to Indonesia for future projects.
Oppenheimer was invited by an oil tycoon to visit the bunker he was buying for his family. He was plagued with questions to ask him — how would you cope with the guilt of the catastrophe from which you’d be fleeing? How would you cope with your remorse for leaving loved ones behind? After the experience, he watched the famous French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, sparking the idea that would become The End.
The End is a musical-drama about a family hunkering in a bunker in the midst of an apocalypse. The film is a cautionary tale; yet still about hope, longing and love. It’s quite haunting just how real the film can feel at points, but as Oppenheimer reaffirmed in the Q&A, “There’s still time to tell the tale.”
Before the screening, Oppenheimer spoke briefly to the audience alongside the film’s composer, Schmidt, a local of the Milwaukee area.
“Milwaukee was the most important stop on this tour.” Oppenheimer said. “One of the greatest thrills of my artistic life was writing The End‘s songs with Milwaukee’s native genius, Josh Schmidt.”
The End marks Schmidt’s debut in film composing, but he works as a composer and sound designer primarily for theater productions in the US, Canada, and the UK. His work has been seen at Steppenwolf Theater Company, American Players Theater, the Kennedy Center, and even here at UW-Milwaukee. Schmidt is notably a UWM graduate with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with Honors in Music Composition and Technology; as well as even returning to teach here at UWM.
The Oriental Theater will be hosting another Q&A with Mary Spicuzza, an investigative journalist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Kyle Cherek, former host of “Wisconsin Foodie” and Emmy Award winner, on March 15.