By Jim Lundstrom

The Central Wisconsin Film Festival has really stepped things up for the 4th annual event Nov. 6-8.

"We went from one day to three days. That's a success story," said festival director Jim McKnight.

The festival is an event sponsored by the Portage County Arts Alliance, and run by arts-minded volunteers such as McKnight, owner of Gimme Shelter Construction in Amherst.

"That is pretty much more than a full-time job," he said, "but film is an old passion for me. I'm a visual artist, that's my background. I'm a painter, and that's how I got into designing houses, eye-pencil coordination. It seems all tied together in getting the arts scene going."

The rapid growth of the CW Film Fest is proof of McKnight and company's commitment to stimulate the area's arts scene.

"I just love the whole deal of watching the movies and talking to people and being able to make it happen so people can see their work," McKnight said. "It just kind of steamrolled. It's really fun. I wish I had a permanent job doing it."

Part of McKnight's job has been simple networking.

"I'm pretty inspired by the Wisconsin Film Festival, and I've got some great help from the director down there," he said. "The last couple years I've gotten down to the Wisconsin Film Festival in the spring. I think I've made better contacts. Last spring I was on a panel with some other independent film festivals around Wisconsin. I think that gave us a little more legitimacy."

For this year's festival, McKnight and the committee went through 22 hours of films.

"That's probably double our usual amount of submissions," he said. "We were just astounded. Some years we struggled to get one good program for two hours' worth of films."

Not all of the 22 hours was festival worthy, but committee liked enough of it to create a three-day festival to be held at three venues.

"We put together four of five hours of really good stuff," McKnight said. "Then we scrambled and found a couple more venues and thought, let's go for it and see what the community can bear."

The festival begins Friday, Nov. 6, at the venue where it all began, the Jensen Center in Amherst, where nine short films will be shown, followed by a talk back with some of the filmmakers.

The films continue Saturday at Campus Cinema in Stevens Point with three separate programs: Documentaries, 4:30 p.m.; feature film, El Regalo de la Pachamama, 7 p.m.; Students shorts and More, 9 p.m.

The festival winds up Sunday evening with a reprise of the Shorts program at The Garage, Stevens Point, at 5 p.m.

"I'm really excited about some of the films we've got this year," McKnight said.

One of the don't-miss films of the festival is also the festival's first full-length feature film, Pachamama. The movie, featuring non-professional actors, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy joining his father on a three-month journey along the ancient salt trail of Bolivia. Director Toshifumi Matsushita's first feature film won the Cinelatino Audience Choice Award for Best Picture for the 2009 New York International Latino Film Festival this summer.

"That was one of my top five that I saw in Madison last spring (at the Wisconsin Film Festival)," he said. "I met the director. There was no way I thought he would submit his film. It's been all over in terms of international film festivals and really getting rave reviews and he just sent it in. It's a beautifully photographed film, very high production, but it's a great story, too. It's really exciting to get that out there in this community."

The CW Film Fest also does an audience-based Best of Show.

"It's always surprising what's best of show," McKnight said.

McKnight mentioned a few other potential crow pleasers, including University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee film professor Cecilia Condit's Annie Lloyd, which will be featured in the Shorts program on Friday and ends the Documentary program on Saturday.

"She filmed her mother for the last 30 years. It follows her through to near the end of her life," McKnight said. "When we watched it as a committee, it's a really powerful film. After it rolled there was a stunned silence. Nobody could say a word. There were a lot of teary eyes. It's the most incredible short film I've seen in a long time. It really had a buzz down at Madison, where I first saw it. I put that in the short collection right before the break because I don't want anything after that film. I want people to be able to hold on to that image for a while."

McKnight said the committee also got a kick out of a short by Kevin Acevedo called The Last Page.

"This is a comic farce about a guy trying to write a novella and he can't figure out the last line. It's great," he said.

And there is a dark tale called Ghost Conversation that leaves an impression. Directed by Jeremy Bessoff, it features the work of three Milwaukee puppeteers.

"This was made with full-sized puppets. It's kind of a hallucinogenic dream about warfare, kind of a dark, scary movie. The technique is really interesting. That was a no-brainer for the festival."

This year's festival also sees the return of perennial fest entrant and Central Wisconsin filmmaker Craig Knitt, who is also co-founder of the Appleton-based Wildwood Film Festival. He has a short comedic entry called Happy Boy.

"Craig Knitt is a great resource," McKnight said. "He's a teacher who took a year off to make films. He's a perfect example of a guy making a living doing something else but really living to make film."

And that, ultimately, is what the CW Film Fest is all about.

"I just love the whole deal of watching the movies and talking to people and being able to make it happen so people can see their work," McKnight said.