UW Cinematheque + WCFTR

The Cinematheque represents UW-Madison academic departments and student film groups and is dedicated to showcasing the best in international cinema history and fine films which would otherwise never reach Madison screens. As the screening facility of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) and a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the Cinematheque regularly showcases archival and other rare prints from around the world.

Upcoming Screenings

Recent Blog Posts

  • Scanned page with several colored boxes identifying various page components

    Teaching a Computer to Read a Pressbook

    Ben Pettis From the 1910s through the 1980s, Hollywood studios promoted their movies through the creation and dissemination of pressbooks—bound pamphlets containing publicity materials, advertising layouts, accessories for sale, and other promotional tactics. These promotional …

  • Body and Soul cover

    Resources for studying the Hollywood Studio System, with thanks to dear friends

    An extraordinary gathering is taking place this week at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Over 200 scholars, teachers, archivists, and creators will be participating in the inaugural Hollywood Conference. An ambitious …

  • Wendy Clarke sitting among AV equipment and paper hearts

    Love, Links, Archives: Sharing the Wendy Clarke Collection

    Throughout the Love Tapes, Wendy invited participants into a small booth where they talked for three minutes about what love meant to them. The people who shared their views and experiences represent a wide expanse human experience; African Americans, Asian Americans, Puerto Ricans, and people of many other races and ethnicities all recorded love tapes. Members of New York City’s gay, lesbian, and transgender communities are also well-represented in Clarke’s work. The Love Tapes and much of Clarke’s work represents a model of participatory media culture that preceded the Web and the proliferation of social media; she offers a challenge to traditional cinematic canons and the narrow subset of voices which have traditionally been privileged. The WCFTR is pleased to be able to share the collection–now digitized, searchable, and richly described–with new audiences, allowing the voices within it to speak to us again.

  • Cover of Program Three, described below

    Revisiting Early Programming at Cinema 16 with Viewing Notes and An Online Playlist!

    Tanya Goldman In this blog post, Tanya Goldman continues to examine materials from WCFTR’s Amos Vogel collection. Digitized materials discussed below – and many more! – are available on the Internet Archive thanks to a …

  • The title "HELP!" overlaying an Afram employee at work

    Help: Afram and Black Capitalism

    The Fall 2024, Volume 94 edition of The Velvet Light Trap opens with the article, “Help: Afram and Black Capitalism” by Will Hair. The essay provides a formal and historiographic unpacking of Help, a 1970 ABC television production …

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