Today we’re taking a look at Brandon Linden’s Bootleg Wisconsin, which is screening in the Emerging Visions section at the SXSW Film Festival. It’s a drama about the summer relationship between Katherine, a married woman from Chicago who spends her summer vacation visiting outlet malls, and Billy, a younger guy who works in the Wisconsin mall that Katherine visits. There’s a trailer above, as well as tons of clips on YouTube. Brandon answers the 4 Questions We’re Askign Everybody below.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Bootleg Wisconsin is the story of a young man who works at an outlet mall outside Kenosha. The store he works at is about to be closed. He starts up a relationship with a woman from Chicago who shops there and we see how it effects the two of them, and his friends and family.

My concept of it would read something like this: “If a Swedish director watched too many Naruse films drunk and then decided to do a near silent remake of Brief Encounter in a Midwest outlet mall you would have my film.”

I wanted to make the film after visiting the outlet mall with my wife, who was shopping. I got bored and started to talk to some of the kids who worked at the brand new hotel next door. They told me how the hotel was supported by people visiting the mall.

I started to think about the differences, social and economic, between the people who worked at the mall and those who visited it, and why anyone would stay overnight at a place just to shop. I wanted to make a film about this that was quiet, compassionate, and real.

Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.

I have owned daycares in Chicago for the past ten years, though I recently sold the business. I teach film history at Facets Multimedia here in Chicago and have for about the same amount of time (Class Discussions are downloadable for free from my website.)

Have you been to SXSW before? If so, tell us about your funniest story from the experience. If not, what are you looking forward to re: the festival and/or the city of Austin?

Never been to a film festival. Many years ago I took a vacation in Austin and spent the majority of the trip at the Austin Film Society, where I saw Satyajit Ray’s Two Daughters at the same theater where my film will be showing. The film’s humanism and structural complexity, combined with its casual intelligence was a watershed moment for me. To be showing my film in that theater is amazing.

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

Easy, Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles for the humanity and Airplane! for the laughs.