The project’s producers Michael Keeney, left, and Katherine Thompson, right, working on a 2016 entry with cameraperson Jimmie Blanchard.
The whole idea of completing a short film in just 48 hours sounds crazy — impossible even. But Madison has a whole community of filmmakers that participates in an annual festival dedicated to the proposition that great films can be made in a short time.
On July 19, I attended two screenings and watched all 30 films created for this year’s Madison’s 48 Hour Film Project, which has been running since 2001. On Friday, July 13, the teams were handed this year’s challenges — designed for fun, and also to ensure that the filmmakers don’t cheat and use something they’ve worked on already. The challenges were character names (Uncle Bob/Aunt Bitsy), a prop (wallet), and a phrase (“I love it. What do you call it?”). All the teams that set out to make films met the narrow deadline, except for one team that was five minutes late.
As I walked into AMC Dine-In (the dearly missed former Sundance Theater at Hilldale), the first thing I noticed was how packed it was. This festival has started to sell out regularly. I walked by the box office and overheard someone saying there were only 30 tickets left, but I think someone goofed on the math, because I actually had to stand against a wall for most of the first screening session before, mercifully, extra chairs were brought in.
I’ve witnessed three or four of these events (and acted in a few short films), but this year’s lineup was the strongest I’ve seen in years. The lead’s Mark Wahlberg impression in Piss Take, a literal pissing contest, was my favorite moment of the whole night. Nice Melons Films, longtime participants and last year’s winners, came up with Super Nudging the Xiphoid, a coming-of-age romance involving stone heads, which got many chuckles. Friends & Film’s Farm Hands has one of the best, funniest postmodern dissections of an artistic ego I’ve seen outside of snooty, hipster threads on Pitchfork forums. Slice To Meat You, from Mad Cow Productions, puts a garlic knot-style twist into the horror genre — with tasty results. KGB Films’ absolutely hysterical A Fantastic Feeling is a puppet-based riff on the 1980s classic Big, demonstrating the team’s mastery of green-screen technology and puppetry.
There was no shortage of excellent dramas, either. Cedar Cabins Productions’ Welcome Home made some audience members tear up with its rumination on letting go after losing a significant other. Vermillion Team’s The Edge explores the interplay between socioeconomics and depression. Getting Through, from Top Hat Balloon, features two cousins, one of whom is grieving the loss of his father; it has a gut-punch ending and stellar special effects. Snowdrift Films’ silent film Unspoken examines the changing physical relationship between two young lovers. Film Underground’s What We Left Behind manages to look at racism and seamlessly incorporate time travel.
Which one of these 30 films is going to become “Best of City”? We won’t know until the award ceremony screening at the High Noon Saloon on Aug. 19.
The winning movie will be screened at Filmapalooza in Orlando in March, and several will be chosen from that pool to be screened at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
