Spring can't arrive any sooner after this interminable winter. Thankfully enough, one of the surest signs of spring is approaching sooner than expected. The tenth annual , the coming home to the old college town story that was shot around the city last winter. Written and directed by Brent Notbohm, the film stars American Players Theatre actor and novelist James DeVita as a journalist returning from Iraq to reconnect with friends old and new in Madison.
Meg Hamel points to the movie's connections to the region's live theater community. "I think what makes Madison the film significant for our festival here has so much to do with the investment of acting talent from APT," she says. "It's not only the fact that Jim DeVita is in it, but also the film's making effective use of the people in our community who are so talented." The film built interest while shooting around town in 2007, as detailed here on The Daily Page, and released a trailer last summer.
"We're certainly excited for the opportunity, especially because this is going to be our world premiere,' says Madison producer Nick Langholff. "It's wonderful to be screening where we shot the film, and kicking off our festival run here in Wisconsin. Our actors are going to be able to be there, as well as a lot of other people involved with the film. Brent, Jimmy, and I are extremely excited."
Langholff notes that they completed their final sound mix a couple of weekends ago, wrapping up all post-production on Madison before handing off the final product to the festival. After screening in Wisconsin this April, the film will be heading next to the Syracuse International Film Festival in early May. It's official release date will follow on August 1.
Loose Cannons. "It's a great example of effective comic filmmaking on a shoestring budget. What's fun about a film like this is that there are some great jokes and gags in it. I am really looking forward to showing it at the festival with a live audience that will soak up its loopy humor."
This humor, and some of the kung fu fighting, are on full display in a trailer for the film.
More information about Loose Cannons can be found on its MySpace page, while other short works by Schlachtenhaufen can be viewed at Mad City Chickens, a feature-length documentary created by Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai of Tarazod Films. Nearly four years ago, the city altered its zoning ordinances to allow residents to raise a small number of chickens on their property, part of a growing Gallus-keeping movement in urban areas around the country.
Starring a mad scientist and his giant chicken that clucks its way around the isthmus, the documentary profiles the Mad City Chickens group here in Madison, takes a tour of the Murray McMurray Hatchery in Ohio, and interviews Mother Earth News Editor-in-Chief Cheryl Long, Backyard Poultry editor Elaine Belanger, bird flu expert Dr. Michael Greger, and many others. Other fowl featured in the film include a "California musical hen" and a "Texas life-saving flock," along with other birds hatched and not.
Tarazod is currently wrapping up the film, having this week. "It's thrilling and a bit frightening to be this close to our completion deadline," note Lovington and Lughai. "The documentary has come a long, long way from its early inception, but there's still some key edits to get through before the end of this next weekend." For now, there's the latest trailer for the film.
Numerous still images can be viewed in a viewed here. "From the nation's leading chicken experts to urban newbies," declare the filmmakers, "we capture the heart of the backyard chicken movement."
Standing massively astride both Madison and Milwaukee is . The winner of both an Audience Award and a Grand Jury Award at Slamdance 2008, the film tells the heartbreaking story of Mike and Claire Sardinia, who performed as Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline in their tribute act.
"When I was reading a listing of what was playing at Slamdance this year, I saw a one line description for a film describing Lightning & Thunder, who I've seen perform many, many times at Café Montmartre here in Madison," explains Hamel about discovering the documentary. "It took a few moments for it to sink in, and then I contacted the filmmaker, who really enjoyed the fact not only that I was calling from Wisconsin, but also that I had seen the act before. We both knew then that this was destined to play here."
Lightning & Thunder have been regular visitors to Madison in recent years, including shows at Montmartre for Halloween and New Year's parties. "Fans might remember Mike up on the bar at the Momo, dropping his trousers during one show to show his star-striped boxer shorts," says Hamel, or his performance at a Madison Mallards game in 2006. The documentary was profiled by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel film critic Duane Dudek back in January, who later announced its screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival.Song Sung Blue is ultimately a tragic love story about both singers, and as Hamel notes, "an astonishingly local film."
The Madison connection here is that Byer's parents both live in the city. His father is an ALS advocate in the city, while is mother is on the board of the Waisman Center at UW-Madison, where the film was shown in late January and profiled in the State Journal. If you missed that screening, there will be another chance to see it at the Wisconsin Film Festival. A seven-minute trailer for the documentary goes into greater detail. "This is an amazing story of a guy at a midpoint in his life who was diagnosed with a disease considered incurable," says Hamel, who notes that Byer will be in attendance at the screening to talk about his work. "You get this glimpse of this family's struggle with ALS, and it's a reminder that this could happen to any of us. This is a story of somebody who could easily be part of our day-to-day lives here in Wisconsin." These are only a few of the numerous films with local connections that will be screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival, which runs Thursday, April 3 through Sunday, April 6. Many more, including Wisconsin's Own and Wisconsin Student Shorts selections and others featured in the general programming, will be announced next Thursday when the full schedule for the fest is released.