The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media. The 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival officially kicked off last night with the premiere of “UECK” at the Oriental Theatre. Over the next two weeks, nearly 250 films will screen as part of the festival, which runs from April 16-30. The Recombobulation Area is proud to be a Community Partner for several films at this year’s festival, all of which are part of the Documentary Festival Favorites Program, including “The Dads” (on fathers of trans and nonbinary children), “Seized” (on the police raid on the Marion County Record in the small town of Marion, Kansas), and “Your Attention Please” (on social media and the attention economy, and fighting back against Big Tech). I recently had the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers of “Your Attention Please,” which screens on Saturday, April 18, and on Thursday, April 23. Director Sara Robin and producer Jack LeMay joined us to talk about the film, and they will be in attendance at the Saturday screening at the Oriental Theatre at 1:15 p.m. As someone who is entirely too online myself, this film gave me a lot other think about, both on a personal level and from a policy standpoint. “Even over the course of making the film from 2023 to now, you can see this marked shift in the average person that you talk to,” said LeMay. “When we approached people three years ago and said, ‘is this one of the major issues we’re facing?’ or ‘is your relationship with your phone dysfunctional?’, (or) ‘is it at the root of some of the issues you have in your life?’, most people would say it probably has something to do with it, but they’d be skeptical of how deep that problem really gets. Now, we have a lot more people saying, ‘thank god this film is coming out, I’ve been thinking a lot about this’.” “(Attention) is something that’s being taken away from us,” said Robin. “Our focus is not as much in our control as it used to be, and as we want it to be. So, I think understanding the immense power that’s on the other side of that is a really helpful first step to realizing that this is a really difficult battle for the individual, but it’s a really important one.” Watch the trailer below, and find times to screen the film at the Milwaukee Film Festival here. The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea. Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend. Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off! Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.news/subscribe
