The former head of the Wisconsin Humane Society, Reed was named interim CEO in January following the departure of the nonprofit’s longtime president and CEO, Jonathan Jackson.

Jackson had led Milwaukee Film since its 2008 inception, first as artistic director, and then as executive director, before assuming the role of CEO in 2020. Calling his decision to leave the nonprofit “bittersweet,” Jackson didn’t provide much explanation for the move other than to say it’s time “to begin a new chapter.”

Reed is assuming the role of permanent president and CEO immediately, Milwaukee Film board chair Susan Mikulkay said in a press release.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are with Anne’s enthusiasm, leadership, and stellar expertise in jumping into this position as she has done and navigating a path for us through these past months,” Mikulkay said. “The executive committee is confident that Anne is the best individual to help take our organization to the next level.”

In her tenure as interim CEO, Reed said she has witnessed firsthand the “transformative power of Milwaukee Film’s work,” including the Milwaukee Film Festival, the nonprofit’s year-round programming celebrating film’s variety and depth, and its programs for kids and filmmakers.

“It is a privilege to lead such a dynamic organization that stands at the heart of Milwaukee’s cultural life,” she added.

Film Festival numbers

Chief among the nonprofits efforts is its annual Film Festival, which just wrapped up its 16^th year.

Over the duration of the 15-day festival, which ran from April 11-25, more than 32,624 people attended 379 screenings across the city.

“This year’s festival was a joyous celebration of independent and international cinema,” said Cara Ogburn, Milwaukee Film’s artistic director. “From a packed Downer cinema on a sunny day to watch Frederick Wiseman’s latest, to the return of our 500 person dance party for Stop Making Sense, the festival felt like a true celebration of cinema and community.”

More than 300 films were shown during the festival, including 132 feature films, 62 of which were documentaries. More than half of the feature films were directed by women or nonbinary filmmakers. The festival also screened 169 short films.

About $114,000 was raised for the nonprofit through the 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival Reel Impact Campaign, with $10,000 of those funds matched by Joan Lubar. An additional $10,000 of the funds were matched by couples Donna and Donald Baumgartner and Kelly and Jeff Fitzsimmons.

MINNEAPOLIS — Despite recent incidents, carjackings and auto thefts are actually down across Minneapolis. 

According to the city’s crime dashboard, so far in 2024 there have been 76 carjackings, down nearly 21% from last year (95) and 41% compared to the three year average (135).

“I feel very confident that the strategies that we have in place are working because we have seen statistically significant declines since we enacted them,” said Chief Brian O’Hara on Friday afternoon. O’Hara wasn’t ready to declare victory over crimes involving cars however.

Earlier this year, robbery sprees sent that crime data skyrocketing. 

“Early this year, the amount of robberies which also includes carjackings were up significantly in the city. They were up about 50% year to date when we started having a robbery spree problem,” O’Hara said. “Last week, we had three teenagers shot in one week, one of them was murdered. Two of the three were shot while they were inside of a stolen car. So it’s a very clear connection between, you know, auto theft and joyriding and then these robberies and carjackings.” 

The night before O’Hara spoke to WCCO, three teens were arrested for carjacking a woman.

“I think there’s 20 different reports in all for two of them. You know, everything from auto theft to joyriding in a stolen car and carjacking,” O’Hara said. “It’s a problem we’ve seen over the last couple of years.”

O’Hara credits multiple initaitves for the decline in numbers of those years. 

“We initiated a robbery response protocol where we saturate areas as soon as we can once we noticed these problems . . . and then even when we do have robbery sprees, there’s fewer robberies and carjackings reported,” O’Hara said. “We also now have juvenile investigators on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week . . . because there’s certain procedures and evidence collection issues that are different for juveniles. We want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can at the time of the incident — whether it’s three o’clock in the morning, or three o’clock on a Monday afternoon — to ensure that we’re doing everything possible to build these cases as quickly as quickly as we can.”

O’Hara says his investigators have also been working with closely with prosecutors to build stronger cases to prevent repeat offenders, but it can be difficult. 

“When we have these crimes, several robberies happening in a short period of time, particularly when victims are being approached and the incident is over in less than a minute, sometimes by eight or nine juveniles, sometimes while they’re wearing masks, it becomes very difficult for victims to give us accurate descriptions, to give us license plates, identifying information, that all complicates building these cases,” he said “So there’s been a whole lot of hard work that has gone into this. There’s a number of strategies, you know, and collaborations with other law enforcement that we’re putting together that the community will be seeing very publicly, very soon within the coming weeks, both to get violent offenders off the street and also to try and get as many illegal weapons that we can off the street before the summer hits.”

O’Hara says one of the biggest sources of help in police work continues to be tips from the community.

“If you do see people that look like they’re too young to be driving a car, circling an area driving recklessly, people driving around wearing masks, call that in, because that may be the clue for who we’re looking at a particular moment. And that has been very helpful to make arrests,” he said.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis is a historical home for Asian American and Pacific Islander businesses.

In coastal cities like New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, “Chinatowns” exist, but not in Indianapolis. President of Asian American Alliance Rupal Thanawala explains, “In many states and cities, Chinatowns really evolved because foreigners were not welcomed in the city. There were many neighborhoods that didn’t let them live there.”

Chinatowns became a safe haven from prejudice and racist laws. While these cities became magnets for Asians in the early 1800s, eventually they moved to Indiana. Originally from China, Moy Kee moved to Indianapolis in 1897.

He was the first citizen who had the right to vote and during that time not everyone was allowed to vote. Key opened up several businesses in the city. He is indiana’s first Asian American citizen. His face is plastered on the mural on Bicentennial Unity Plaza.

“He was the first citizen who had the right to vote and during that time,” Thanawala said. “Not everyone was allowed to vote. This is perfect timing since next week is election and to think at that time, 130-140 years back, a Chinese man could vote in the state.”

“Asian Americans make up 2% of Indiana’s population, and because Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are spread out throughout the state, there isn’t really an official hub,” said Thanawala.

Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, an historian and curator at Indiana Historical Society, pointed out that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra used to be Bamboo Inn, a Chinese restaurant from 1918 to 1961.

“Right here in the middle right above the roof, there is a huge sign that says chop suey,” said Martinez-LeGrand. Martinez-LeGrand described it as a booming restaurant in a prime real estate. She adds that they contributed to the local economy, even donating war bonds during WWII. The restaurant flourished with white patrons especially during the height of the KKK. Martinez-LeGrand showed photographs of waiters, and on another image, white customers posing in the front of the eatery.

“I think its important to see themselves in history to see who is supporting them in history,” Martinez-LeGrand said. “It’s important to know it existed here on the circle, which is prime real estate at the time.”