Whitefish Bay High School students band together to reopen Fox-Bay theater for their film festival

Alex Groth, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·2 min read
Sophie Hatton, left, and Anna Olsson stand in front of the Fox-Bay Theater Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at 334 E. Silver Spring Drive, Whitefish Bay, Wis. The Whitefish Bay High School students are using the Fox-Bay Theater for their high school film festival. “We are excited to gather as a community, especially after COVID, plus seeing student films is really fun,“ they said.

After years without a film festival, two Whitefish Bay high school students teamed up and spent months working to reopen the village's vacant Fox-Bay theater for a two-day event showing student films.

It took navigating a number of obstacles, including getting the projector working again, but students Sophie Hatton, a junior, and Anna Olsson, a senior, finally heard the news that they'll be able to host the Whitefish Bay Student Film Festival at the historic theater.

"If you have a passion project, you really can get it out. You just have to be determined enough," said Olsson, who will be attending University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall and hopes to major in the arts. "We've been really lucky through this process."

The vacant Fox-Bay theater, at 334 E. Silver Spring Drive, was the perfect place to host the film festival, the students said. It has been closed since September 2020.

"We miss Fox-Bay, and I feel like that's relatable for a lot of people here," Hatton said.

The marquee of the Fox-Bay Cinema Grill in Whitefish Bay shows what the theater was scheduled to show on Sept. 25, 2020.
The marquee of the Fox-Bay Cinema Grill in Whitefish Bay shows what the theater was scheduled to show on Sept. 25, 2020.

Showings, in coordination with building owner New Land Enterprises, will be Friday, June 9, and Saturday, June 10. If tickets sell out, the festival might add a Saturday matinee, said Village President Kevin Buckley.

Tickets are $5, include Sendik's popcorn and are sold online, at bit.ly/wfbtickets. The festival is still receiving submissions, so it's not immediately clear how many films will be shown.

Showtime is at 7:30 p.m. followed by a filmmaker roundtable. Any excess proceeds will be donated to Art Start Milwaukee program, which mentors young people through creative workshops and multimedia projects.

"Really excited for the kids," Buckley wrote to the Journal Sentinel. "This is going to be very cool."

The Fox-Bay theater closed during the pandemic. New Land Enterprises was awarded a grant from the village last summer to help renovate the Fox-Bay Theater Building, which they say may help secure a new tenant. At this time, the theater remains vacant.

Contact Alex Groth at agroth@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @grothalexandria.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Closed since 2020, Fox-Bay will host Whitefish Bay HS film festival