2025 Wisconsin Film Festival Film Guide

APRIL 3-10, 2025

The Wisconsin Film Festival is presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Communication

Arts.

About the Festival

First launched in 1999, the Wisconsin Film Festival curates, promotes, and exhibits programs that showcase the art and history of world cinema. A non-profit annual event supported by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Festival advances the teaching, research, and public service mission of the University by exposing the campus and the greater community to films and filmmakers from Wisconsin and beyond. The Wisconsin Film Festival is firmly grounded in the belief that cinema is an essential art form that enriches human experience and enhances our knowledge of wide-ranging cultures. As such, we seek to create a strong sense of community by creating a diverse program of films for viewers of all ages presented with state-ofthe-art projection. The Wisconsin Film Festival is the Wisconsin Idea in action.

Festival Sta

Professor Je Smith | Director

Mike King | Artistic Director

Ben Reiser | Director of Operations & Wisconsin’s Own Programming

Jim Healy | Director of Programming, UW Cinematheque

Terry Kerr | Big Screens, Little Folks Programming, Educational Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator

Mattie Jacobs | Wisconsin’s Own Programmer, Print Tra c Coordinator

Cammie Kleinman | Wisconsin’s Own Programmer

Karin Kolb | Big Screens, Little Folks Senior Programmer

Kyra Hunting | Big Screens, Little Folks Programmer

Kathleen Ricci | Corporate, Campus and Community Partnerships and Grants

Christina King | Art Director

Tommy Washbush | Designer

Katrina Simyab | Marketing and PR Specialist

Jane Schroeder | Hospitality and Events Coordinator

Justin Dean | Technical Director

Michaela Holzhuter | Digital Communications

Jamie Drewry | Financial Specialist

Film Descriptions

Mike King (MK)

Jim Healy (JH)

Ben Reiser (BR)

Terry Kerr (TK)

Mattie Jacobs (MJ)

Cammie Kleinman (CK)

Kyra Hunting (KH)

Karin Kolb (KK)

Zach Zahos (ZZ)

Karen Pearlman (KP)

Mary Huelsbeck (MH)

Je Smith (JS) Projectionists

Julian Antos, Olivia Babler, Travis Bird, Sam Davisson, Sam La Strapes, Hasti Soltani Support Sta

Boyd Hillestad, Pete Sengstock, Ken Sabbar, Julie Van Esler, Lynn Malone, Sophie Hougland, Clara Schanck

TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY MARCH 8 at NOON!

Ticket Info

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Order Online

Set up your account at WIFILMFEST.EVENTIVE.ORG

If you’ve already purchased a Festival pass, Holiday 10pack, or any 2024 tickets, you already have an account.

”All-Festival” passholders can acquire tickets for individual screenings beginning noon CST on Friday, March 7 Passholders can acquire one ticket for any and all individual screenings, as long as screenings do not overlap. Find more pass instructions at wifi lmfest.eventive.org.

Tickets to the general public will be on sale beginning noon CST on Saturday, March 8 . Holiday 10-packs may be redeemed at this time. Tickets are available for purchase online 24/7 through the end of the Festival. Tickets ordered online will be sent directly to your email. Just show the QR code on your phone at the theater, or print your tickets at home.

BEFORE THE FESTIVAL

In Person

There are no cost savings for in-person ticket purchases, and if possible, we recommend purchasing/ acquiring tickets online.

Barrymore Theatre

2090 Atwood Ave.

3/8 Noon – 4 PM

3/15 Noon – 3 PM

3/16 Noon – 3 PM

3/22 Noon – 3 PM

3/29 Noon – 3 PM

Mitchell Theater 821 University Ave. @ East Campus Mall

3/8 Noon – 4 PM

3/12 4 – 7 PM

3/19 4 – 7 PM

3/26 4 – 7 PM

Leopold’s Books

Bar Ca è 1301 Regent St.

3/12 7 – 9 PM

3/27 7 – 9 PM

AT SHOWTIME

During the Fest

Tickets will be available during the Festival at all Festival venues. If available, Rush Tickets can be purchased only at showtime at the individual screening venue.

Free Tickets for UWMadison Students * Every current UW–Madison student with a valid WisCard is eligible for one free ticket to every screening at every Festival venue all Festival long—a chance to see any of our 150 fi lms FOR FREE! Just arrive at a screening with your WisCard and, if we have a seat available, it’s yours, free! *Subject to availability. Learn more at wifilmfest.org

2025 Festival Locations

For details on transportation, parking and accessibility, visit wifilmfest.org/venues

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART 750 University Ave chazen.wisc.edu

MUSIC HALL 925 Bascom Mall

UW CINEMATHEQUE

Room 4070, Vilas Hall 821 University Ave. cinema.wisc.edu

THE MARQUEE 2nd Floor, Union South 1308 Dayton St. union.wisc.edu

BARRYMORE THEATRE 2090 Atwood Ave.

BARTELL THEATRE 113 E. Mi in Street

FLIX BREWHOUSE 85 E Towne Way On the east side of the Mall, near Dick’s Sporting Goods. fl ixbrewhouse.com

GENERAL ADMISSION

Prices do not include tax or service fee ALL-FESTIVAL PASS $325

CHILDREN UNDER 12 ADMISSION for Big Screens, Little Folks screenings only:

$12 $6

CHECK WIFILMFEST.ORG FOR NEWS AND UPDATES. FESTIVAL SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please note:

Most lines are outdoors so please dress appropriately. If patrons are not in seats 10 minutes before the screening, we will resell your seats.

40 Acres

SAT, APRIL 5 • 8:30 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

Narrative

Director: R.T. Thorne • Cast: Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Greyeyes, Kataem O’Connor anielle eadwyler stars in this tense postapocalyptic thriller. n a self-sustaining farm in the middle of nowhere, a family has weathered the total collapse of society. Haley and Galen raised their children to be vigilant against marauders, but when their eldest son meets a young woman beyond their perimeter, it leads to a deadly security breach. eadwyler proves herself a natural action hero, instilling in her character a battle-worn gravitas that elevates 40 Acres beyond its genre premise. First-time filmmaker .T. Thorne stages the action scenes with inventive verve, particularly in a nighttime shootout illuminated only by gunfire. Full of fresh ideas Thorne shows killer instincts in his first feature (Variety). An exhilarating blast of action the film is astonishing. This is a complete vision from a newly minted director (Collider). 2024 Toronto, 2025 SXSW Film Festival. (MK)

Afternoons of Solitude

SAT, APRIL 5 • 8:30 PM

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

THU, APRIL 10 • 4:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Documentary • Spain • 2024 • Spanish with English subtitles • 126 MIN

Director: Albert Serra

Anywhere Anytime

TUE, APRIL 8 • 3:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

WED, APRIL 9 • 5:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Apple Cider Vinegar

SUN, APRIL 6 • 2 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH MON, APRIL 7 • 12:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Documentary • Belgium, Netherlands • 2024 • English, Arabic, Portuguese with English subtitles • 85 MIN

Director: Sofi e Benoot

Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse

SAT, APRIL 5 • 5:15 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: ALICIA SAMS

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 98 MIN

Director: Molly Bernstein, Philip Dolin

nter the ring with this mesmerizing portrait of one of the world’s top bullfighters. oung and dashing, Andr s oca ey has been dubbed The Messi of Matadors, and his electric screen presence holds our attention like a matinee idol. oca ey’s bloody work, however, is all too real, and the film is damning in its un inching depiction of the sport’s disturbing barbarism. et one cannot deny the spectacle of the pageantry, the daring of the torero, and the moment to moment action that keeps you leaning forward in your seat. Indeed, the danger is authentic, and oca ey does not make it out unscathed. In its unadorned depiction of a controversial tradition, Afternoons of Solitude admits to the coexistence of beauty and travesty, leaving us simultaneously dazzled and repelled here is a film to contend with. Acclaimed arthouse stalwart Albert Serra has found a new gear with his first documentary, which takes his characteristically superb cinematography and sound design into a new realm. Winner of the Golden Shell at the 2024 San Sebasti n Film Festival. xtraordinary a major work from a richly maturing filmmaker (Variety). iewer discretion advised. (MK)

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: GIAIME ALONGE

Narrative • Italy • 2024 • Wolof, Italian with English subtitles • 83 MIN

Director: Milad Tangshir • Cast: Ibrahima Sambou, Moussa Dicko Diango, Success Edemakhiota

In Turin, Italy, Senegalese immigrant Issa struggles to survive, navigating an unforgiving city that renders him invisible. After losing his job due to his undocumented status, Issa finds new hope as a food-delivery rider, gaining a fragile sense of independence until the bicycle he sacrificed everything to buy is stolen. esperate to reclaim his only means of survival, Issa embarks on a relentless odyssey through the city, encountering both cruelty and unexpected kindness along the way. rawing inspiration from ittorio DeSica’s neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves, director Milad Tangshir crafts a raw, urgent portrait of life on the margins where, like in eSica’s movie, something as simple as a bicycle can mean the di erence between stability and destitution. Tangshir’s striking debut feature captures the fear, resilience, and eeting moments of beauty and humor that define Issa’s existence. elivering suspense while maintaining a humanistic perspective and diverging from DeSica in several fascinating ways, Anywhere Anytime sheds light on the fragile realities faced by the people we pass by every day. Co-screenwriter Giaime Alonge will join us in person for these screenings. 2024 enice and Toronto Film Festivals. (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Department of French and Italian and Institute for Regional and International Studies National Resource Center

This charming, globetrotting documentary considers something so omnipresent that many of us take it for granted the world of stone. From stunning locales like the lava fields of Cape erde and a quarry in alestine, to the side of the highway in California, we meet a fascinating range of people working with one of our planet’s essential materials. The impetus for this ecological inquiry was director Sofie enoot’s discovery that her kidney stone contained weddellite, a mineral from across the globe, prompting her to very reasonably wonder, how on arth did an Antarctic mineral end up in my body Her film is playfully wide-ranging in seeking the answer, akin to the documentaries of Werner Herzog if he viewed nature as magical rather than chaotic. ncompassing everything from crime scene detectives to nature webcams and interviewing everyone from genuine scientists to genuine cranks, Apple Cider Vinegar is a marvelous consideration of our world and what we’re doing to it. enoot’s one-of-a-kind survey exists at the intersection of Chris Marker and atr cio Guzman for its philosophical gravitas and Agn s arda and Laurie Anderson for its playfulness (Slant). A warmly engaging, sometimes whimsical a air tracing the connections between life and nature, the everyday and the profound (Screen Daily). (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse explores the life and work of the groundbreaking cartoonist behind Maus, the ulitzer rize-winning graphic novel that redefined comics as a serious literary form. aised in Queens by Holocaust-survivor parents, Spiegelman channeled his personal history and a love for subversive satire into a body of work that blends art, politics, and cultural critique. From his provocative New Yorker covers to co-founding RAW magazine, his in uence spans generations of artists and readers, as evidenced by peers like ill Gri th, Joe Sacco, and obert Crumb, all of whom appear in this documentary. The film also examines Spiegelman’s role as a fierce advocate for free speech, particularly following the controversial banning of Maus in 2022. Disaster Is My Muse reveals how Spiegelman’s art continues to challenge and cast light on the dark corners of our turbulent world. After the screening, producer Alicia Sams will join us in person for a discussion on the film and Art Spiegelman’s work. (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Mosse/ Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, UW Hillel, and Alan Ginsberg & Linda Tuchman-Ginsberg

The Bloody Lady

with live accompaniment by claire rousay

WED, APRIL 9 • 8 PM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

Animation, Narrative • Slovakia • 1981 • Slovak with English subtitles • 72 MIN

Director: Viktor Kubal

In pursuit of eternal life, a noblewoman bathes in the blood of all the young women and men in her castle. Animator Viktor Kubal’s haunting cult classic is based on the infamous case of Countess Elisabeth Bathory, a 16th century mass murderer frequently cited as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This creepy animation is only enhanced by an evocative new score from acclaimed artist claire rousay, whose recent album Sentiment was named one of 2024’s best by numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wire, and NPR. “Watching The Bloody Lady accompanied by rousay’s soundtrack unearths new elegance and poignancy” (The Quietus). “rousay’s work on the soundtrack distills the emotional core of ubal’s film, conveying the creeping sense of horror through layered textures, the instruments stretched out like ta y. rousay’s interpretation brings the film to life in a way that teases out details that the original soundtrack might have colored over” (Spectrum Culture). “The Bloody Lady is a remarkable display of menacing and haunting atmosphere and continues to prove why claire rousay is a legend in the making” (New Noise). (MK)

Breaking Glass

TUE, APRIL 8 • 6 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR:

JONATHAN HERTZBERG

Narrative • UK • 1980 • 104 MIN

Director: Brian Gibson • Cast: Hazel O’Connor, Phil Daniels, Jon Finch, Jonathan Pryce Hazel ’Connor is ate, a post-punk new wave singer-songwriter trying to make a name for herself in London at the dawn of the Thatcher-era. Performing in low-rent clubs, Kate befriends Danny (Phil Daniels, star of Quadrophenia) and makes the dynamic young man her manager in a bid for superstardom. Making her way to the top, Kate starts to cast aside both her values and her friends. She discards her loyal, junkie saxophonist (a haunting Jonathan Pryce) and she even trades in Danny for a slick, big label producer (Jon Finch, star of Hitchcock’s Frenzy).

Bushido

TUE, APRIL 8 • 5:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

WED, APRIL 9 • 2 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • Japan • 2024 • Japanese with English subtitles • 129 MIN

Director: Kazuya Shiraishi • Cast: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kaya Kiyohara, Taishi Nakagawa, Jun Kunimura

Falsely accused and cast out of his hometown, former ronin Kakunoshin Yanagida lives in poverty in Edo with his daughter, Okinu. Yanagida’s only solace is the game of Go, where his fair play demonstrates that he never abandoned his samurai’s code of honor, his bushido. It is through his passion for the board game that our hero uncovers the truth behind his disgrace. Realizing who is responsible, fury drives Yanagida to seek vengeance, even at the cost of his bond with his daughter. Will his code of honor allow him to hold on to his sense of mercy?

As Kate watches the music scene mutate into something ugly, even violent, will she be able to hang onto herself? Breaking Glass was intended as a star-making vehicle for the dynamic Hazel ’Connor, who writes and performs all of Kate’s songs. Though the soundtrack album sold well internationally, Paramount Pictures trimmed 11 minutes for their limited U.S. release of the movie and, in this shortened version, it eventually earned a small cult following thanks in part to cable TV airings on USA Network’s Night Flght. The movie marked the feature directorial debut of Brian Gibson, who later helmed the smash-hit, Oscar-nominated story of Tina Turner, What’s Love Got to Do With It. O’Connor’s high-energy musical performances, along with Gibson’s gritty, widescreen images of an increasingly fascistic England, make this a must-see on the big screen. This Wisconsin Film Festival screening will allow viewers to see the complete, 104 minute European version of Breaking Glass, prepared for its first ever .S. release by Fun City ditions. Fun City founder and UW-Madison alum Jonathan Hertzberg will join us in person to introduce this “nervy, wild-hearted neon scream of a movie” (Jason Shawhan, Nashville Scene). (JH)

Director Kazuya Shiraishi’s earlier film, The Blood of Wolves (2018), was a stylish homage to Yakuza melodramas of the 1970s. In Bushido, Shiraishi employs thrilling sequences of swordplay and renders the narrative in gorgeously photographed widescreen images, harkening back to classic Japanese samurai cinema. Shiraishi ultimately delivers a powerful tale of pride, sacrifice, and the unbreakable ties between a father and child. (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for East Asian Studies

By the Stream

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM

BARTELL THEATRE

WED, APRIL 9 • 2:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • South Korea • 2024 • Korean with English subtitles • 111 MIN

Director: Hong Sang-soo • Cast: Kim Minhee, Kwon Hae-hyo, Cho Yun-hee

South Korea’s most industrious auteur Hong Sang-soo returns, reckoning with the forces of desire, politics, and nature in this mature and sensitive ri on the campus novel. Our audience surrogate is Jeonim (Kim Min-hee), a perceptive yet humble arts instructor at a women’s

college in Seoul. She invites her uncle, Sieon ( won Hae-hyo), to direct an upcoming theatre festival after a scandal involving a younger director who transgressed with multiple female students. Sieon arrives clouded by his own past controversy, having been iced out of a high-profile acting career for his outspoken, left-leaning views (a bio shared, in real life, by Kwon himself). Jeonim observes, at first with annoyance, how her department chair, Professor Jeong (Cho Yun-hee), fawns over and irts with Sieon, before arriving at a more serene understanding as time passes. Revisiting the university setting of Oki’s Movie and other mid-career milestones, Hong stages with agonizing precision the comic psychodrama of giving a guest lecture, contending with o -screen administrators, and groveling for tenure. But By the Stream stands apart from those earlier, borderline-experimental works due to its fairly straightforward design and earnest empathy for both young and old: a tearful scene where Sieon asks his students to profess their goals in life surely ranks as one of the most heartfelt in Hong’s career. ewcomers and devoted Hongheads alike will easily slip into the film’s generous, even lunar rhythm, where ellipses are signaled by the passing cycles of the moon. Hong understands the irreducible pleasure of watching his characters reminisce, in unbroken takes punctuated by the occasional zoom, along an outdoor table cluttered with soju bottles, grilled eel, and tteokbokki, all while a creek gently murmurs nearby. (ZZ)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for East Asian Studies

SAT, APRIL 5 • 7:15 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR:

HEATHER MCADAMS, CHRIS LIGON 90 MIN

Artist and filmmaker Heather McAdams and songwriter and musician Chris Ligon present the very best of their painstakingly curated mm film collection for a unique and inspiring evening of non-stop laughs and entertainment in their inimitable style. Drawing from their extensive collection, amassed over more than 40 years and edited in their signature “bumper to bumper” style, this selection of short subjects is sure to please everyone, especially those with a short attention span! The program includes amazing vintage trashy movie trailers for films like Superchick, Swedish Swingers, and Sex Kittens Go To College; forgotten TV commercials for goofy games like the Town Dump and toys like u y Fuzzy Shrinky inks sensational songs by Ricky Nelson, George Jones, The Staple Singers, and more; plus four one-minute animated cartoons made by Chris and Heather for MTV in the mid 1990s. Chris and Heather will appear live on stage to introduce the films and attempt to explain themselves! Don’t miss Scratchmen, Elvis, and You: The Films of Heather McAdams, Sunday morning at Cinematheque.

Cocksucker Blues

SAT, APRIL 5 • 9:15 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Documentary • USA • 1972 • 93 MIN

Director: Robert Frank

Ladies and gentlemen: the Rolling Stones… as you’ve never seen them before. Iconic photographer Robert Frank’s notorious, long-suppressed documentary captures the band’s bacchanalian 2 American tour in all its rocking highs and shocking lows. This was the Stones’ first time stateside since the Altamont disaster of Gimme Shelter, and the band is unquestionably at the peak of its powers, delivering electrifying performances of tracks from the just-released Exile on Main St., and sharing the stage with 22-yearold opener Stevie Wonder for an exhilarating medley of “Uptight” and Satisfaction. stage, the “Lucifers of rock,” as one interviewer dubs them, nearly live up to the title: drugs are rampant, as is debauched carousing with groupies, spurred on by the aimless downtime endemic to touring. But amid today’s unending stream of sycophantic, o cially-sanctioned rockumentaries, Frank’s film is all the more striking for allowing such an unvarnished glimpse at life on the road for the ultra-famous. Maybe too unvarnished—faced with this film’s hard look in the mirror, the Stones blocked its release, allowing it to be seen only under very rare circumstances in the 50+ years since. Beyond its merits as cinema, the film is an invaluable artifact of an era as it actually was, rather than as its participants wish it to be remembered. “The most famous rock-and-roll movie that barely anyone has ever seen, the lost chord of the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band. Cocksucker Blues isn’t for the faint of heart, and that’s just fine the faint of heart don’t listen to Exile on Main St. A hell of a film, in every sense of the phrase (Slate).“The gnarliest rock-band tour movie ever made, and the best Stones movie too” (Cinema Scope). If the title wasn’t clue enough, viewer discretion advised. (MK)

© June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, distributed by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Presented with support from Je Smith

Color Book

MON, APRIL 7 • 5:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

TUE, APRIL 8 • 12 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 99 MIN

Director: David Fortune • Cast: William Catlett, Brandee Evans, Terri J. Vaughn

This richly realized indie hangs on a universal milestone: a dad taking his -year old son to his first baseball game. They could use the distraction—still picking up the pieces after his wife’s recent passing, Lucky is figuring out how to raise a child with Down Syndrome on his own. As the two embark on an odyssey through greater Atlanta, they encounter a series of obstacles that only strengthen their resolve to make it to the game. Shot in jaw-dropping black-and-white and boasting a superb leading performance from Will Catlett, writer/director David Fortune’s debut feature is a deeply moving work. Tender but never treacly, Color Book is imbued with a warmth for its characters and surroundings that is all too rare, not just in contemporary storytelling, but the world at large. “I was blown away by how present Color Book felt. Fortune renders the viewer not even a y on the wall, but a guardian angel nestled up to the family.” (RogerEbert.com). Truly o ers a new category. Call it deep fidelity, in which the filmmaker captures without ash or pretense the material, emotional and even spiritual lives of his protagonists. Charles Burnett’s classic Killer of Sheep comes to mind as an analogue” (Variety). Prix de la Critique, Deauville Film Festival. Best Narrative, Austin and Denver Film Festivals. Audience Choice Award, Chicago Film Festival. (MK) Presented with support from Arts for All Wisconsin

Critics & Cineastes

SUN, APRIL 6 • 3:30 PM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: TIM HUNTER, JON DAVISON 123 MIN

The Critic

Narrative • USA • 1963 • 6 MIN

Director: Ernest Pinto • Cast: Mel Brooks Mel Brooks lends his distinct voice to this scar-winning short film, an animated satire of the avant-garde art world. A newly restored DCP from Sony Pictures will be screened.

By Kevin Thomas

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 48 MIN

Director: Tim Hunter

A punch to the nose from singer/ actor Tommy Sands, Frank Sinatra’s son-in-law, got Kevin Thomas promoted to the role of full-time film critic for the Los Angeles Times, where he worked for close to 50 years. In By Kevin Thomas, an a ectionate featurette-length interview with the writer from director Tim Hunter (Tex, River’s Edge) and producer Jon Davison (Airplane!, Starship Troopers), Thomas provides the details for the Sands story and goes on to tell fun tales of Hollywood titans, like Joan Crawford, Mae West, Fritz Lang, Roddy MacDowall, Barbara Stanwyck and others. Movingly, Thomas recalls how legendary director George Cukor provided the best mentorship and advice on how to live as a gay man in the contemporary world. Thomas discovered and celebrated numerous filmmakers whose work were not being covered by Charles Champlin and Sheila Benson, the first-string critics of the Times. In his book, Cinema Speculation, Quentin Tarantino devotes an entire chapter to Thomas, where he writes, “along with making foreign movies more palpable to regular L.A. moviegoers, the other big job Kevin Thomas had was reviewing most of the new exploitation movies coming into town…and in regard to both positions, nobody in the country did it better.” (JH)

Being John Smith

Experimental • UK • 2024 • 27 MIN

Director: John Smith

What’s in a name? John Smith, director of witty avant-garde classics like The Girl Chewing Gum and The Black Tower, muses on his life as an artist with the most blandly common name in all of Britain. Smith is amusingly self-deprecating yet unusually forthright about the universal desire for recognition, especially as he considers whether it’s worth preserving one’s legacy in a world that’s crumbling. 2024 Toronto, New York Film Festivals. (MK)

It’s Not Me

Experimental • France • 2024 • English, French with English subtitles • 42 MIN

Director: Leos Carax

Shaving cream, stretch limousines, Bowie’s “Modern Love,” Baby Annette: these are just some of the things Leos Carax (Holy Motors, Mauvais Sang) has left his indelible mark on, or in the latter case invented wholesale, across five decades in French cinema. Carax re ects on and refracts his boundary-pushing corpus in this wide-ranging, provocative, and frequently hilarious essay film. Initially commissioned by the Centre Pompidou to create a 10-minute self portrait, Carax kept expanding his project with more and more footage, both archival and original (an exquisite scene of his daughter playing piano shows he retains his poetic touch). In this resulting featurette, Carax draws a dizzying number of connections between his career, cinema history, and the world at large, linking Murnau with cell phones, Chaplin with the European migrant crisis, and Muybridge with his longtime muse Denis Lavant (Beau Travail). Clearly haunted by the ghost of (Late) Godard—who makes a poignant, posthumous cameo—It’s Not Me is preoccupied with the global atrocities and cultural breakthroughs of the 20th century, and deeply troubled by this balance in the 21st. Don’t even think about missing the post-credits scene, which soars higher than all the MCU stingers combined. (ZZ)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for the Humanities

The Dalai Lama’s Gift

SAT, APRIL 5 • 6 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 76 MIN

Director: Ed Bastian

POST-SCREENING PANEL DISCUSSION

In a Wisconsin cornfield in , a monastery was built by volunteers, practitioners, and spiritual seekers in preparation for one of the most ancient and complex rites in Tibetan Buddhism: the Kalachakra Tantra or the Wheel of Time. Never before performed outside of Tibet or India, his Holiness the Dalai Lama performed this rite for world peace in person at what would become Deer Park Buddhist Center. This would be the first of eight visits the Dalai Lama would make to Wisconsin. Director Ed Winslow Bastian brings to the table lots of never before seen footage of the time leading up to the Dalai Lama’s visit, the construction of the temple, and the visit to Wisconsin by his Holiness. Following many of the young and idealistic who gathered at the Deer Park Monastery, The Dalai Lama’s Gift traces the lives a ected by the rite and explores how Tibetan Buddhism has shaped them since the visit. The story is partly told through a series of intimate interviews, including with the Dalai Lama and Geshe Lhundup Sopa, the spiritual guide of Deer Park and Professor of Tibetan Buddhism at UW-Madison. The Dalai Lama’s Gift showcases an overlooked part of Wisconsin history and the spiritual lives and connections formed by Tibetan Buddhism. (MJ)

Presented with support from

Dead Lover

SAT, APRIL 5 • 3:45 PM BARTELL THEATRE

SUN, APRIL 6 • 1:30 PM BARTELL THEATRE

Narrative • Canada • 2025 • 86 MIN

Director: Grace Glowicki • Cast: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Leah Doz

Gleefully madcap and hilariously macabre, this microbudget Frankenstein ri begins with a poor gravedigger who fears her work has rendered her unlovable. o sooner has she finally found her soulmate than he’s lost at sea, leaving behind only a severed finger. ut true love never dies, and this devoted gravedigger will stop at nothing to resurrect her man. irector star Grace Glowicki (Strawberry Mansion, WFF 2021) and her equally committed collaborators marry German xpressionist aesthetics with Looney Tunes energy to create a whirlwind Gothic romcom like no other. I cackled throughout Glowicki’s film, an already ingenious work elevated by her enlivening performance. It’s a loony, delirious dark romantic film with a handmade quality. Dead Lover is a camp classic in the making (RogerEbert.com). oth singular in vision and singular in execution, filmmaker Grace Glowicki’s fantastic horror-comedy must be seen to be disbelieved. It must be seen to be believed too. ne of the oddest, strangest, weirdest films in recent memory... begs for unconditional entry in the cult film canon (Screen Anarchy). 202 Sundance, otterdam Film Festivals. (MK)

Debut

SAT, APRIL 5 • 6:15 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

Archipelago of

Earthen Bones — To Bunya

Experimental • Canada, Chile, Australia • 2024 • 20 MIN • Director: Malena Szlam

Filmed on mm in Gondwana ainforest, this rapturously beautiful short uses in-camera multiple exposures to layer the volcanic and verdant landscape. 2024 Toronto, ew ork Film Festivals. (MK)

Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued

Narrative • USA • 2025 • English, French with English subtitles • 77 MIN

Director: Julian Castronovo • Cast: Philippa James, Rebecca Benoit, Song Hui, Julian Castronovo Julian Castronovo’s first feature length film comes on the heels of two terrific shorts (Hannah’s Video, WFF 2021 and Noise, WFF 2024). The appropriately titled, Debut… is a boldly experimental narrative featuring Castronovo as a character named Julian Castronovo who stumbles on an enigma wrapped inside a riddle while inhabiting a sparse, run down ew ork City apartment. A aul Auster-like neo-noir with existentialist tendencies, the film is some how both spare and dense, with a relentlessly twisty narrative and an austere visual palette primarily consisting of evidentiary photographs, webcam footage and computer screen grabs, all accompanied by an artificial sounding o screen narrator with a ritish accent, taking us through discoveries gleaned from Castronovo’s diaries. Compelling and complicated, eerie and strangely moving, Debut… marks the feature length arrival of a major new talent on the land scape of American independent cinema. 202 otterdam Film Festival (BR)

Diciannove

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:30 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

MON, APRIL 7 • 2:45 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • Italy, UK • 2024 • Italian with English subtitles • 109 MIN

Director: Giovanni Tortorici • Cast: Manfredi Marini, Vittoria Planeta, Dana Giuliano Nineteen and anxious to get on with his life, Leonardo leaves his hometown of Palermo to start business school in London. But the freedom of partying all night while crashing on his sister’s couch quickly turns into a massive hangover, and he realizes that he’s made a mistake. Overnight, he reinvents himself again, now studying classic Italian literature in the picturesque medieval city of Siena, avoiding his classmates and roommates at all costs. The ease with which Leonardo shifts identities hints towards a troubling undercurrent in his life or is he just nineteen and figuring himself out A prot g of Luca Guadagino (who produced the film), 2 year-old writer director Giovanni Tortorici takes on his first feature with invigorating brio, pulling out all the stops: lively 35mm cinematography, nervy jump cuts, a brilliant knack for music, and even animated sequences. Tortorici’s youthful energy is matched by the magnetic lead performance of Manfredi Marini, a major discovery in his debut film Diciannove introduces two fresh talents we’ll surely be seeing much more of. 2024 enice Film Festival. (MK)

Endless Cookie

TUE, APRIL 8 • 8:30 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Animation, Documentary

Canada

Director: Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver

2025

97 MIN

One of the year’s funniest and most wildly psychedelic cartoons is… a documentary about life in Canada. This enjoyably shaggy collection of tall tales from the frozen north comes from the cracked minds of half-brothers Seth and Peter. Though separated by 16 years, hundreds of miles, and race (Seth is white, eter Indigenous), they bond over surreal memories of 0s Toronto and contemporary Manitoba. Flush with a grant from the Canadian government, Seth heads to his brother’s chaotic Shamattawa home to record a few of his best stories—only to be constantly interrupted by Peter’s eight kids, 16 dogs, noisily failing appliances, and own train of thought. eter’s descriptions of getting caught in his own bear trap, scamming pizza delivery men, and his grandmother’s unbelievably gross candy recipe are brought to colorful life by Seth’s hallucinatory animation, where any random object might pipe in with a comment. Beneath all the good humor lies a pointed commentary on Canada’s treatment of its indigenous people. “Endless Cookie may be the strangest, most seemingly nonsensical documentary in some time. But there’s one truth to a whackadoodle odyssey like this one you will definitely have a story to tell afterwards (POV). 202 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

Familiar Touch

TUE, APRIL 8 • 5:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

WED, APRIL 9 • 11:45 AM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 90 MIN

Director: Sarah Friedland • Cast: Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Andy McQueen

“I’m not one of those elderly people you have to watch constantly. Indeed, uth is charming, put together, and spry, which is why she’s so puzzled to find herself having just entered an upscale assisted living facility. The kind nurse takes it in stride, and so begins uth’s transition into a new phase of her life, in the memory care ward. Writer director Sarah Friedland and star Kathleen Chalfant have crafted an uncommonly graceful and dignified portrait of aging that never delves into tawdry sentiment or cheap laughs—though it is pretty funny at times. Inspired by her work as a memory caregiver and teaching artist to older adults, Friedland collaborated with the residents and sta of the active retirement community where the film was shot, bringing to Familiar Touch a level of compassion and verisimilitude rarely seen in stories of any kind. xquisite… precise, funny and deeply moving. Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again (Variety). Winner of est ebut Film, est irector, est Actress prizes at its premiere at the 2024 enice Film Festival. (MK)

For Worse

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:30 PM BARRYMORE THEATRE

Narrative • USA • 2025 • 90 MIN

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: AMY LANDECKER

Director: Amy Landecker • Cast: Liv Hewson, Amy Landecker, Bradley Whitford

This very funny comedy is a perfect showcase for two Hollywood favorites with strong local ties writer director star (and W-Madison alum) Amy Landecker, and producer co-star (and Madison ast grad) radley Whitford. Freshly divorced in L.A. and eager to start her life over, Lauren immediately enrolls in an acting workshop. Although she’s old enough to be the rest of her classmates’ cool mom, that doesn’t stop her from hooking up with her very first scene partner at his cramped apartment. ext thing she knows, Lauren’s a plus-one at a Gen wedding, where she unravels like an underage bridesmaid. At her low point, she finds a sympathetic ear in the bride’s dejected dad (Whitford), who seems like he’d rather be anywhere else just like Lauren. Featuring game supporting turns by Gaby Ho mann and en Marino, Amy Landecker’s debut feature fearlessly wrings big laughs out of the quintessential midlife crisis—trying to keep up with the next generation. 202 S SW Film Festival. (MK)

Friendship

THU, APRIL 3 • 7:30 PM BARRYMORE THEATRE

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 100 MIN | Director: Andrew DeYoung • Cast: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd are at their hilarious best in this bromance-gone-wrong. Craig Waterman seems like a regular suburban dad—and like a lot of regular suburban dads, he has plenty of acquaintances but no real friends. So it’s a dream come true when a misdelivered package brings him into contact with his cool new neighbor Austin, and they actually get along. ut their blossoming friendship goes o the rails when Craig’s obsessive nature gets the best of him, and his increasingly unhinged e orts to get back in Austin’s good graces threaten to destroy both their lives. Robinson and Rudd are perfectly cast as foils—the former all simmering volatility, the latter e ortlessly smooth and charming. The unique comic voice that makes obinson’s sketch show I Think You Should Leave a must-see is just as sidesplitting on the big screen—among its many highs, Friendship includes what is without a doubt the greatest drug trip in the history of cinema. But what makes Friendship cut extra close is that the sentiment behind Craig’s mania is all-too relatable—after all, making new friends doesn’t get easier. And wouldn’t you go the extra mile to be pals with Paul Rudd? “Hilarious… one of the year’s funniest comedies” (Indiewire). “The funniest movie of the year” (The Daily Beast). “One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life” (GQ). 2025 SXSW Film Festival. (MK)

Gazer

SAT, APRIL 5 • 8:30 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

TUE, APRIL 8 • 2:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 114 MIN

Director: Ryan J. Sloan • Cast: Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia DeBonis, Renee Gagner

This analog throwback to the paranoid thrillers and neo-noirs of the 1970s and 80s focuses on a woman with dyschronometria, a condition that a ects her ability to accurately perceive the passing of time. ecently fired and separated

from her kid, Frankie is just about out of options when Paige, another down-and-out stranger, o ers her some much-needed cash. All Frankie needs to do is steal Paige’s car back from her abusive ex. But when Paige never shows up at the rendezvous, Frankie becomes the suspect in a much larger crime. Forced to navigate the sleazy New Jersey underworld, Frankie’s already fragile mental stage rapidly deteriorates. “The kind of debut that should restore your lost faith in independent cinema. Self-financed by rookie director Ryan J. Sloan and shot in between shifts at his day job as an electrician, the 16mm thriller is a white-knuckler that feels consistently fresh. Gazer might be inspired by New Hollywood, but its existence is almost reason to believe that a similar filmmaking renaissance could be on the horizon” (Indiewire). 2024 Cannes Film Festival. (MK)

The Glass Wall

FRI, APRIL 4 • 11 AM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: RITA BELDA

The Unicorn in the Garden Animation, Narrative • USA • 1953 • 7 MIN

Director: William T. Hurtz

This contemporary fable, a tale of mythical creatures, henpecked husbands, and booby hatches, is based on a short story by James Thurber. One of the most beloved stand-alone animated shorts made at the studios of United Productions of America (UPA), it has been restored in a new 4K DCP from Sony Pictures.

The Glass Wall

35MM • Narrative • USA • 1953 • 80 MIN

Director: Maxwell Shane • Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Gloria Grahame, Ann Robinson, Jerry Paris, Robin Raymond, Joe Turkel

In one of his first Hollywood movies, Italian cinema superstar Vittorio Gassman stars as Peter Kuban, a Hungarian concentration camp survivor who arrives in New York as part of a refugee ship, only to find himself arrested for stowing away. Desperate to remain in America, eter ees into the neon jungle of Times Square, pursued by immigration o cers. Injured and bleeding from his escape, Peter is forced to rely on help from a few disparate New Yorkers: Maggie (Gloria Grahame), a tough, down-on-her-luck factory worker who meets Peter at an automat; Tanya (Robin Raymond), a Hungarian American exotic dancer; and Tom (played by future TV sitcom director Jerry Paris), a struggling jazz musician whose life Peter saved during the war. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Manhattan’s streets, Peter forms a series of unlikely alliances with his new comrades. Our hero’s odyssey leads him into a race against time that concludes at the just completed United Nations building—its towering glass wall representing both the hope and the barrier that stands between Peter and freedom. The Glass Wall serves up a poignant blend of human desperation, compassion, and a powerful call for sanctuary, all set against the backdrop of post-war America and excitingly filmed in Times Square and other NYC locations. This special screening of The Glass Wall will be presented in an archival 35mm print from Sony Pictures, with an introduction by Sony V-P Rita Belda. (JH)

Presented with support from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

The Glass Web 3-D

THU, APRIL 10 • 8:30 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 1 SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: BOB FURMANEK, JACK THEAKSTON, GREG KINTZ Cleopatra Follies

Narrative • USA • 1953 • 9 MIN

Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. Thrill to the dancing of Paula French and Shirley Hayes, aka The Pussy Cat Girl, in the long-lost 1953 3-D burlesque short by the great Ed Wood Jr., writer and director of such timeless classics as Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 from Outer Space. Photographed in “exciting Multi-Vision Third Dimension,” Cleopatra Follies was recently discovered and restored by the 3-D Film Archive.

The Glass Web 3-D

Narrative • USA • 1953 • 81 MIN

Director: Jack Arnold • Cast: Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe, Marcia Henderson, Kathleen Hughes

Between making It Came From Outer Space (also showing at this year’s WFF) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (WFF 2019), Jack Arnold directed this terrific and unjustly forgotten film noir one of the very few in 3-D! On the set of rippedfrom-the-headlines live television procedural “Crime of the Week,” hotshot screenwriter Don Newell (John Forsythe) and meticulous researcher Henry Hayes (Edward G. Robinson, swinging between steely and paranoid) vie for their producer’s attention. After hours, they also compete for the same woman, actress Paula Rainer (Kathleen Hughes), though without each other knowing. A downright combustible femme fatale, Paula blackmails Don, who is married, and bleeds Henry dry with mocking glee. On his way to pay for Paula’s silence, Don stumbles into a crime scene—and Henry decides to recreate it, with every incriminating detail, for this week’s episode. Satirizing the TV industry’s bloodlust before A Face in the Crowd and Network, The Glass Web spins a workplace rivalry into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. The eternally underrated Arnold directs it all with sleek, riveting economy: a key sequence in Paula’s apartment rivals Hitchcock with its handling of real time, modern architecture, and red herrings. The 3D e ects, newly restored by theFilm Archive, is sure to elicit vocal reactions with a near-fatal tra c collision, water spray, and, no kidding, ying cabbages, surely some of the most outrageous e ects from the format’s golden age. (ZZ)

Sponsored by Kristin Thompson

Revolving Rounds

Experimental • Austria • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik End your festival with a far-out journey into the moving image itself. Filmmakers Christina Jauernik and Johann Lurf ( , WFF 2018) track in on a mid-century 3-D device called a cyclostéréoscope, past the point of no return. 2024 Locarno, Toronto, New York Film Festivals. (MK)

Greetings from Mars

(Grüsse vom Mars)

SAT, APRIL 5 • 3:15 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

Narrative • Germany • 2024 • German with English subtitles • 85 MIN

Director: Sarah Winkenstette • Cast: Theo Kretschmer, Lilli Lacher, Anton Noltensmeier, Eva Löbau, Hedi Kriegeskotte, Michael Wittenborn

Ten-year old Tom doesn’t like red things, loud situations or change.

Routine and predictability work best for him. When his mother, a journalist, has to go to China, he and his siblings, Elmar (13) and Nina (15) settle in for an extended stay with their grandparents in the countryside of Lunau. How will Tom cope with this major change, and with his free-spirited grandparents who rarely follow routine? His dream is to be an astronaut, the first person to land on Mars, and he has an uncanny talent for astronomical calculations. His mother gives Tom a logbook and suggests he consider his time in Lunau a training mission.

“If you can do Grandma and Grandpa,” his mother assures him, “you can definitely do Mars. Lanau does indeed seem like another world to Tom. He appoints phone-addicted ina as Communications cer and hyperactive lmar as First cer, and sets out to explore his “new planet” and its inhabitants. Along the way, he brings together two generations and pursues his mission with dedication and inventiveness.

“Our lives don’t always go according to plan, and that’s a good thing, because we grow from it. Thomas Möller and Sebastian Grusnick have managed to tell this complex topic in a warm and funny family story. With characters that go to the heart and are anything but normal.” - Director

Sarah Winkenstette (TK)

Presented with support from Arts for All Wisconsin

Happy Holidays

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1:15 PM

MUSIC HALL

THU, APRIL 10 • 12 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • Palestine, Germany, France, Italy • 2024 • Arabic with English subtitles • 123 MIN

Director: Scandar Copti • Cast: Manar Shehab, Wafaa Aoun, Merav Mamorsky

Interpersonal relationships between Israelis and Palestinians are put to the test in this tense and engaging drama that tells several interrelated stories centered around a Muslim family living in Israel. Fifi gets into a minor car accident that in turn threatens to reveal secrets about her lifestyle to her family. Her brother, ami, finds out that his Jewish girlfriend, Shirley, no longer wants to abort an unplanned pregnancy, while ami and Fifi’s parents face a financial crisis that might mean having to sell their home or call o another daughter’s wedding. With enough moral dilemmas to fill four Asghar Farhadi movies, Happy Holidays presents a wide-ranging picture of a patriarchal society and the pressures and con icts that arise, exacerbated by rising tensions in the region. Thoughtful and compelling throughout, featuring bravura naturalistic performances by a large cast of non-actors, and a complicated but engaging narrative structure, Happy Holidays premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay. “Happy Holidays is a piercing, realistic family drama, the in ection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity” (Variety). (BR)

Presented with support from UW Madison Middle East Studies Program

Happyend

SUN, APRIL 6 • 4 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

MON, APRIL 7 • 2:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • USA, Japan • 2024 • Japanese with English subtitles • 113 MIN

Director: Neo Sora • Cast: Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi

Tokyo, the not-so-distant future. In a city constantly bracing for a devastating earthquake, best friends Yuta and Kou navigate adolescence under an increasingly oppressive surveillance system installed after a rebellious (and funny) prank on their school principal. While Yuta remains carefree, Kou grows frustrated with the city’s tightening grip on its citizens, finding inspiration in another fellow student who is a passionate activist. As Kou’s political awareness deepens, he distances himself from Yuta, assuming his friend would never understand his growing disillusionment. Their once unshakable bond is tested as they confront their diverging worldviews amidst a backdrop of student protests, secret parties, and acts of defiance. isually striking yet told with a loose, humanistic quality that recalls American filmmakers like Hal Ashby and Jonathan Demme, Happyend is over owing with a ection and empathy for its young protagonists. Director Neo Sora, who made the fabulous documentary Ryuchi Sakamoto Opus (WFF 2024), makes his narrative debut here. Sora captures the restless and melancholic spirit of youth resisting a dystopian, fascistic future that feels inescapable. (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for East Asian Studies

It Came From Outer Space 3-D

THU, APRIL 10 • 6 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 1

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: BOB FURMANEK, JACK THEAKSTON, GREG KINTZ

Hypnotic Hick 3-D

Narrative • USA • 1953 • 6 MIN Director: Don Patterson

Woody Woodpecker is a summons process server on roller skates...in 3-D! Restoration by the 3-D Film Archive.

It Came From Outer Space 3-D

NARRATIVE • USA • 1953 • 80 MIN Director: Jack Arnold • Cast: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush

A group of visitors from beyond our galaxy crash land their spaceship in the American Southwest. In order to proceed undetected while making repairs to their damaged craft, the aliens assume the identities of several Arizona civilians. It’s up to a local stargazer (Richard Carlson) and his school teacher girlfriend ( arbara ush) to figure out the inter-galactic shenanigans and stop “it” before more people are taken over. Released during the early years of the Cold War, It Came from Outer Space plays directly to audience anxieties about the “other,” but the story has a few surprising twists up its sleeve, courtesy of co-scenarist Ray Bradbury. Universal Pictures genre specialist Jack Arnold (whose Creature from the Black Lagoon delighted audiences at WFF 2019) directs in his typically expressive but economical fashion. It is the first of four features Arnold shot in 3-D. This digital restoration from the knowledgeable folks at the 3-D Film Archive corrects some vertical alignment issues and the - e ects look better now than when It Came from Outer Spaces was first released in 1953! (JH)

Sponsored by Kristin Thompson

Just a Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers

FRI, APRIL 4 • 5:30 PM MUSIC HALL

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: SEAN HANISH, KELLY KAHL

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 120 MIN Director: Sean Hanish

WISCONSIN

Just a Bit Outside charts the ups and downs of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers’ march toward an American League pennant and the franchise’s only appearance in a World Series, packing in enough subplots for a half-dozen other Hollywood sports films. It also captures the special bond of a team and its fans as the Brewers’ success buoyed spirits in a city reeling from economic hardships. Interviews with former players and Brewers broadcaster Bob ecker add poignancy thanks to their nostalgic re ections on the team’s almost dream season. Indeed, more than other sports films, Just a Bit Outside is a bracing reminder that disappointment is a fact of life in sports. The film opens with an epigram from late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti: “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” For most players and fans, the question each year is not if but when heartbreak will come. Sometimes the best you can do is to keep hope alive until the last out of the very last game of the season. (JS)

Presented with support from Kelly Kahl

LIFERS

SUN, APRIL 6 • 7:30 PM

MUSIC HALL

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: SCOTT LUCAS FOR A PRE-SCREENING ACOUSTIC SET AND POST-SCREENING Q&A

Documentary, Narrative • USA • 2024 • 82 MIN

Director: Scott Lucas

Concert movies get a bad rap, but Scott Lucas, singer and guitarist for the rock duo, Local H, uses his big screen debut as writer and director to o er a corrective, lifting the genre’s reputation up several notches with a forceful display of energetic and creative filmmaking that mirrors what he brings to the table as one of our great rock frontmen. Filmed live over the course of a single Local H concert at The Metro, in Chicago, LIFERS takes a page from Led eppelin’s The Song Remains The Same by interrupting the concert from time to time with narrative excursions, but instead of fantasy sequences of obert lant rescuing a maiden while dressed as a knight, we get more of a ichard Linklater’s Slacker vibe, with scenes of Local H road manager Gabe odriguez selling merch in between stage appearances where he sings backup and plays tambourine. rgent and immersive, LIFERS makes the case for Local H as one of the essential live acts still out there touring, as well as making the case for the concert movie as a genre whose limits are still being explored and tested. Scott Lucas will be on hand to perform a short acoustic set before the screening and answer questions afterwards. (BR)

The Long and the Short of It

SUN, APRIL 6 • 11:30 AM THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

66 MIN Ages 8 and up.

Strikingly animated longer short films explore new worlds and ways of being.

Ana Morphose

Animation • Portugal • 2023 • 10 MIN

Director: João Rodrigues

When a young girl reads herself to sleep, she enters the reality of her book and has to find her own space in a new world. eautifully animated, the film draws on both traditional animation and stop-motion techniques, and incorporates folding paper sculptures in the style of Li Hongbo and the sculpted books of rian ettmer. Filmmaker João Rodrigues suggests, “Reality, at the end of the day, is simple. It’s our representation of it that is complicated. (TK)

Lola and the Sound Piano

(Lola et le Piano à Bruits)

Animation • France, Poland • 2024 • French with English subtitles • 26 MIN

Director: Augusto Zanovello • Cast: Zélie Chalvignac, Sacha Théotiste, Tom Guingand, Marie Schoenbock, Raphaël Scheer Lola’s five year old brother Simon, lives in a world of his own, but has the perfect pitch for hidden sounds. etermined to strike the right chord, Lola and her friend Rolith build a sound piano’ to see if they can communicate better with Simon. Augusto anovello’s sensitive stop-motion short hit all the right notes, winning a Jury Award at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. (KK)

Presented with support from Arts for All Wisconsin

Love, Links, Archives: Gems from the Wendy Clarke Collection

WED, APRIL 9 • 8:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: WENDY CLARKE

77 MIN

Wendy Clarke presents a vibrant program of her groundbreaking video art, curated from her collection at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater esearch. Clarke’s participatory videos re ect a massive range of human experience and feeling, from tear-jerking re ections on modern romance, to teenagers video chatting in the dawn of the internet age, and a friendship documented through video correspondence in One on One With rarely seen tapes recorded at locations including the World Trade Center, Los Angeles high schools, and a men’s prison in Chino, California, Clarke’s projects intimately document diverse perspectives on American life and culture from the 0s through the 0s. (MH)

The Love Tapes

Documentary • USA • 1980 • 13 MIN

Director: Wendy Clarke

Love Tapes is an ongoing project giving people from all walks of life three minutes to share their thoughts and feelings about love. Selections include examples recorded in ew ork City between0 and at a suburban mall in the late 0s. (MH)

Remembrance

The Drifting Guitar

(Une Guitare à la Mer)

Animation • France • 2025 • French, Spanish • 30 MIN

Director: Sophie Roze • Cast: François Morel, Roseline Guinet, Omar Hasan Jalil, Emiliano Hasan Jalil, Philippe Spiteri, Pascal Casanova, Laurette Gauthron, Manon Gauthron, Gautier David, Raquel Esteve Mora, Loïc Bürkardt, Morgan Strauss, Marie Caudry

A weasel who sells neckties, a generous hedgehog, and a guitar found oating in the sea find a home together in this whimsical, beautifully animated film. When the weasel and hedgehog encounter the mysterious monster of the forest, they discover that, despite language barriers (they speak French and he speaks Spanish), they understand one another and can make soulful music. sing stop-motion and puppets, this adventurous story of companions lost and found is told with striking visuals and the joyful music that only friends can make together. (TK)

One-on-One: Arnold and Ahneva

Documentary • USA • 1991 • 46 MIN

Director: Wendy Clarke

Created while Clarke was an artist-in-residence at the California Institute for Men in Chino, California in 1991, inmates communicated with people in Crenshaw and Santa Monica via videotaped letters. (MH)

Presented with support from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Meet the Parents

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: GREG GLIENNA

Narrative • USA • 1992 • 73 MIN

Documentary • USA • 1996 • 4 MIN

Director: Wendy Clarke

The emembrance project was an installation allowing people to share how HI and AI S had a ected their personal lives. This selection was recorded at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis . (MH)

Growing Up Gay: The Out Tapes

Documentary • USA • 1995 • 4 MIN

Director: Wendy Clarke

Similar to the Love Tapes, The Out Tapes provided gay men, lesbians, and their loved ones an opportunity to share their coming out experiences in . (MH)

L.A. Link

Documentary • USA • 1996 • 10 MIN

Director: Wendy Clarke

The L.A. Link project created a video peer support network for young people from diverse backgrounds in the Crenshaw and Santa Monica neighborhoods in the mid- 0s. (MH)

Director: Greg Glienna • Cast: Greg Glienna, Jacqueline Cahill, Mary Ruth Clarke, Dick Galloway, Carol Whelan, Emo Philips ou might think that the original Meet the Parents is the big-budget studio comedy starring en Stiller and obert e iro released in 2000 that later spawned two sequels. erhaps you didn’t know that that multi-million-dollar franchise was inspired by a hilarious 2 independent movie that was filmed in Chicago on mm and a shoestring budget In the true original, as in the remake, meeting the in-laws turns into chaos when Greg (played by co-writer and director Greg Glienna), an unsuspecting groom-tobe, plunges into a disastrous weekend with his fianc e’s family. very one of Greg’s well-meaning actions and gestures results in catastrophe from ooding the bathroom to ruining dinner. The escalating, but still very funny, nightmare leads to Greg blinding his future mother-inlaw and doing even worse to ingo, the family dog. The relentless series of misfortunes is laced with biting satire on suburban life, religious hypocrisy, and family expectations. Glienna and his co-writer, Mary uth Clarke (sidesplitting as the d McMahon-obsessed sister of the bride), have an unwavering commitment to bleak, worst-case-scenario comedy that is missing from the farce-driven remake and its sequels. The low-budget, indie aesthetic adds to its raw, almost claustrophobic feel, while Glienna’s deadpan performance enhances the absurdity. Featuring a cameo appearance by comic mo hilips, who also wrote the title theme song, the authentic, original Meet the Parents is a unique, cringe-comedy experience. Greg Glienna will join us in person for this rare screening! (JH)

Middletown

THU, APRIL 10 • 8:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

THU, APRIL 10 • 8:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOSUE CINEMA 7

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 113 MIN

Director: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

The kids are alright in this fabulously inspiring and entertaining documentary, which will get you caught up in one of the unlikeliest avid and Goliath stories you’ve ever heard. It’s in upstate ew ork, and cool teacher Fred Isseks has been tasked with teaching high school video production for a new elective with the incredible title of lectronic nglish. Amid the cheapo music videos and goofy

horror shorts that you might expect teenagers to produce, a larger, very di erent project emerged an inquiry into the illegal dumping of hazardous chemicals at the local landfill. Suddenly, these high school screwballs were producing the kind of rigorous reporting that their local papers were not perhaps because, as they uncovered, the press was in cahoots with the politicians and the mob. Weaving miles of charming archival HS with insightful contemporary interviews, co-directors Jesse Moss and Amanda Mc aine (Boy’s State, WFF 2020) deftly make the case for the essential value of journalism while simultaneously capturing the righteous joy of being a teenager with a microphone, calling out the adults on their lies. Middletown is magnificent, as uplifting as it is engaging, as thrilling to look back upon for those who lived through it as it is for those of us vicariously learning about these events years on. It’s a film that reminds you why you love documentaries (POV). itch perfect it’s Erin Brockovich meets The Breakfast Club (Collider). 202 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

Milk Punch

SAT, APRIL 5 • 6:45 PM MUSIC HALL

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR

Florence

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 31 MIN Director: Aaron Greer

Chronicles through interviews and live performances, the writing, performing, and afterlife of the hit song Florence by Milwaukee band Little lue Crunchy Things. (MJ)

Milk Punch

Narrative • USA • 2000 • 90 MIN

Director: Erik Gunneson • Cast: John Sarris, Kris Hansen, Liz Avery, Martin Schmidt, Kevin Croak

Flash back to the Madison of the 0s with this vintage indie. When uddy and Carl’s prized automobile a mint 2 elta that somehow catches every yellow light is stolen by a couple of slackers taking it for a joyride, they take o in ice-cold pursuit. As the two duos circle the Madison streets casually playing cat-and-mouse and shooting the breeze, this consummate hangout movie becomes a veritable catalog of local lore. Get misty-eyed at glimpses of long-gone local favorites like ’Cayz Corral, and take comfort in the places that appear to have not changed a single thing in the intervening decades, like the immortal Le Tigre Lounge. And when was the last time you hit up Milty Wilty’s drive-in restaurant in Wautoma All these amiable misadventures are set to a wall-to-wall soundtrack of underground bangers including a track by Madison legends illdozer, a live concert by the lue Meanies, and a countrified cover of a Shellac deep cut. Filmed on beautiful mm, this very analog winner is looking fresh as the day it was shot in a new, cleaned-up 4 scan now it’s time for someone to press the soundtrack on vinyl. (MK)

Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:30 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: AIDAN LEARY, MICHAEL GILIO, JOE SWANBERG

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 91 MIN

Director: Aidan Leary • Cast: Michael Gilio

This terrifically creepy, funny, and imaginative experiment in psychological horror is presented as a seemingly regular episode of a beloved children’s show. James Jensen is the gentle and charismatic host of Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, but not long into his regular soothing, musical routine, James’ troubled, buried past begins to resurface. Soon, the usually cheerful world of puppets and playful songs gives way to disturbing ashbacks and visions, forcing James to question whether he can trust his layground als. It’s a not so beautiful day in the neighborhood as the innocent fa ade cracks and the eerie presence of The Freak looms. With his sanity and possibly his life at stake, James must confront his hidden secrets before they consume him entirely. Cleverly spinning o Late Night with the Devil’s concept of live T run amuck, Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round is the first completed feature for Terror Town, a series of modestly budgeted horror movies from roducer and Wisconsin Film Festival veteran Joe Swanberg. Making his feature directorial debut, Aidan Leary finds numerous ways to sustain the tension, while examining what is real in a deliberately unreal world. The whole movie is anchored by a committed and astonishingly physical performance by Michael Gilio as James Jensen. An accomplished screenwriter of movies like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Dark Harvest, Gilio’s return to acting after two decades is a certifiable tour de force. Swanberg, Leary, and Gilio are all scheduled to appear for this .S. remiere screening. (JH)

Motel Destino

MON, APRIL 7 • 5:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

TUE, APRIL 8 • 12:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Narrative • Brazil, France, Germany • 2024 • Portuguese with English subtitles • 112 MIN

Director: Karim Aïnouz • Cast: Iago Xavier, Nataly Rocha, Fábio Assunção

This tropical neo-noir burns hot under the blazing blue skies of coastal razil. n the run from the mob after a botched crime, 2 -year-old lowlife Heraldo takes cover at the Motel estino, the sleaziest and

The New Year That Never Came

SUN, APRIL 6 • 11 AM

MUSIC HALL

WED, APRIL 9 • 11:30 AM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2 Narrative

Director: Bogdan Mureșanu • Cast: Adrian Văncică, Nicoleta Hâncu, Emilia Dobrin

neonest roadside sex motel you can imagine. oing odd jobs while hiding out, Heraldo becomes entangled with the seedy couple who run the joint, in the time-honored manner of classic noirs like The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. Thrillingly lurid in both content and form, Motel Destino envisions a world where seemingly every interaction is charged with lust and suspicion. Shot on ultra-saturated mm, the film itself positively drips with atmosphere, as director arim A nouz (Invisible Life, WFF 2020) and acclaimed cinematographer H l ne Louvart conjure a microcosm to get lost in. A dream setting for one of the most sweat-drenched neo-noirs or neon-noirs, in this case, given its eye-scorching tropical palette to hit the screen since athleen Turner and William Hurt soaked through their shirts in Body Heat (Variety). 2024 Cannes Film Festival. (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Latin

As omania nears the overthrowing of dictator icolae Ceau escu n ecember , secret policeman Ionu monitors dissent while struggling to relocate his aging mother from a condemned home. At the totalitarian state’s lone television station, director tefan scrambles to reshoot a ew ear’s special after its star defects, while actress Florina desperately seeks news of her imprisoned lover. Factory worker Gelu, tasked with assembling a rally sign, unknowingly aids a dissident’s escape and panics when his son mails an innocent letter to Santa Claus wishing for Ceau escu’s death. Meanwhile, tefan’s son Lauren iu prepares to ee across the anube, his fate unexpectedly colliding with others in a city on the brink. As paranoia and small acts of defiance ripple through their lives, the impending revolution looms, waiting for a single spark to ignite the collapse of a regime. In writer director ogdan Mure anu’s wonderful feature debut, the increasing suspense and intersecting lives of the characters suggest a omanian version of aul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia Mure anu successfully mines his material for dark, absurdist humor, never losing sight of the ironic situation of the protagonists their potentially devastating con icts will all be irrelevant before ew ear’s ve. Winner of the enice Horizons rize at the 2024 enice Film Festival, and the ew oices ew isions prize at the 202 alm Springs Film Festival, The New Year That Never Came is a symphonic work that earns its sustained, unsubtle use of Maurice avel’s ol ro throughout its rousing climax (Guy Lodge, Variety). (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia

No Packers, No Life

SUN, APRIL 6 • 4:30 PM BARRYMORE THEATRE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: CRAIG BENZINE

Documentary

Director: Craig Benzine

Do you consider yourself a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan? Do you see every game? Do you have a collection of jerseys, beer coozies, and posters? Have you tailgated at Lambeau? Yeah? Well, Craig Benzine’s engaging and energetic documentary will introduce you to some sti competition. Say hello to a group of Japanese men and women living in Tokyo and obsessing over the Wisconsin-based football team. We meet the entire Japanese ackers Cheering Team: Cheppo, who has been watching The Pack since 1992, greets everyone with a loud “Go, Pack, go!” and is frequently reduced to tears while watching or discussing the games Suh, whose favorite acker will always be Mason Crosby; Omi and Ayaka, whose infant daughter already sports a green and gold onesie, and Ryuta aka “fatdragon08” who briefly lived in Milwaukee in 1990, studying English, where he was teased for wearing a San Fancisco 4 ers jacket, and subsequently converted to the ack Life. enzine’s film lets us spend quality time with these super fans, and then follows them as they make plans to cross the sea to see their beloved Packers in-person at Lambeau! As director Benzine says, “No Packers, No Life is a story about a sports team and their fans, but more than that it illustrates how people from all over the world can come together and unite over a common passion. Also, the Japanese fans arrive in Green ay and get to ride the ippin ippin and party a lot. It’s a very good time. (BR)

Stopping the Show

One Hour With You

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM

Animation, Narrative • USA • 1932 • 8 MIN Director: Dave Fleischer At the theatre, a ‘Paramouse Noose Reel’ and a Bimbo and Koko cartoon are followed by Betty Boop’s stage performance; she sings and does imitations of Helen ane, Fanny rice, and Maurice Chevalier.

One Hour With You

Narrative • USA • 1932 • 78 MIN

One to One: John & Yoko

FRI, APRIL 4 • 6 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Documentary, Centerpiece

Director: Kevin Macdonald

John Lennon and oko no’s whirlwind first year in ew ork City is brought to immediate, vivid life in this rollicking documentary by the Oscar-winning director of Touching the Void. It’s 2, and America may be on the brink, but John and Yoko embrace their new home, diving into the counterculture and organizing benefits for progressive causes. In a nod to the bed-in couple’s admitted fascination with American TV, documentarian evin Macdonald conjures the era through channel- ipping montages, revealing the pulse of the nation in all its contradictions. ut you’re here for the music, and for good reason: One to One boasts newly remastered performances from Lennon’s final full concert at Madison Square Garden, the sound now crystalline and the set list still stacked with classic songs. “Revelatory… lures us into John Lennon’s life, and the entire period, in an uncanny way. The rare rock doc that’s a must-see (Variety). Fun, fierce, and full-blooded. Catches Lennon like a butter y at arguably his most interesting period… radioactive with charisma, tilting at windmills and kicking out sparks” (The Guardian). tterly electrifying, and deserves to be seen in a cinema with the best sound system you can find. A terrific documentary from start to finish, beautifully structured and by turns bracingly political, informative and inspiring” (NME). 202 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

Director: Ernst Lubitsch • Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Genevieve Tobin Ernst Lubitsch’s One Hour with You delivers a delectable slice of uncensored, pre-code Hollywood froth, where the boundaries of fidelity are stretched by the central characters as far as they can go. Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald star as Andre and Colette, a married couple whose blissful devotion to one another begins to unravel after Colette’s sly and seductive friend, Mitzi (Genevieve Tobin), sets her sights on Andre. Lubitsch, who took over the direction from George Cukor, delivers a sharp, but lighthearted look at the unspoken rules of marriage, filled with saucy humor and sly digs at the sanctity of wedded bliss. Lubitsch’s trademark wit shines through when the irrepressibly charming Chevalier, as Andre, frequently breaks the fourth wall, o ering cheeky commentary and literally irting with the audience. Screenwriter Samson aphael, who collaborated with Lubitsch on Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and other films, contributes dialogue that is sometimes in rhyming couplets and often loaded with double-entendres. The lively songs, including the title tune, and “Oh! That Mitzi” add to the fun, scandalous, and high society feel to this classic. Lubitsch’s last musical at Paramount Pictures was originally released with special color tinting that has been beautifully restored in the marvelous looking 4 C . (JH)

Special thanks to NBCUniversal’s Jen Hashida and Cassandra Moore.

Opening Night Reception

THURS APRIL 3 5:30 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Join us on opening night for a kicko celebration in the arrymore Lobby. Admission includes food, drink, and a ticket to our Golden Badger award presentation and Opening ight Film, Friendship immediately following.

The Other Way Around

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:15 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

TUE, APRIL 8 • 2:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • Spain, France • 2024 • Spanish with English subtitles • 113 MIN

Director: Jonás Trueba • Cast: Itsaso Arana, Vito Sanz, Fernando Trueba

After years together, popular couple Ale and Alex agree it’s finally time to get all their friends together for a big party in honor of their relationship. There’s just one catch they’re breaking up. It’s like a wedding, but “the other way around,” as they find themselves cheerily explaining to their ba ed loved ones. It’s surprising precisely because Ale and Alex get along so well in fact,

they’re just about the only ones who think this breakup party is a good idea. Coming from the same team behind The Girls Are Alright (WFF 2024), this fresh and endearing twist on classic Hollywood “comedies of remarriage” a la The Awful Truth is a “witty, chatty, loopy non-rom-com. A funny little valentine, shot through by a bright, sharp arrow of feeling” (Variety). Smarter than virtually any American studio romantic comedy of recent years. Like The Worst Person in The World, The Other Way Around is an important reminder that there is a better way” (Indiewire). est uropean Film, 2024 Cannes Film Festival. (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program and UW Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Madison Department of Communication Arts

Pavements

MON, APRIL 7 • 8 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 128 MIN

Director: Alex Ross Perry • Cast: Joe Keery, Stephen Malkmus, Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker

The essential slacker band of the 90s is treated to a multifaceted tribute that honors and winkingly in ates their legacy. ecognizing that a typical cut-and-paste rock doc would be at cross purposes with Pavement’s shambling style, director Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel, WFF 2011, Her Smell, WFF 2019) instead mounts several surreal projects at once. There’s loads of incredible vintage footage and interviews, of course, but also Range Life, an awards-bait biopic a la Walk the Line starring a wonderfully game and hilarious Joe Keery (Stranger Things) as frontman Stephen Malkmus. Then there’s the o - roadway musical Slanted! Enchanted!, which gives classic tracks the song-and-dance treatment, and really was staged—likewise the gallery exhibition at the Whitney Museum, though many of those artifacts are faked. What’s amazing is these harebrained conceits actually illuminate the music far more interestingly than a factual timeline—besides, there’s Wikipedia for that. You can never quarantine the past, and this freewheeling, “print the legend”-style celebration of the group it ironically (?) dubs “The World’s Most Important and In uential and knows better than to try. (MK) Presented with support from Strictly Discs

“You’ve been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life.”

Predators

FRI, APRIL 4 • 3:45 PM BARTELL THEATRE

TUE, APRIL 8 • 12:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 96 MIN

Director: David Osit

This revelatory documentary takes a hard, overdue look at one of defining—and most disturbing—shows of the 2000s reality TV boom. The formula for To Catch a Predator was fiendishly simple through online sting operations, child predators were lured to a house, only to be confronted and arrested on camera. The car-crash spectacle of witnessing a person’s life instantaneously

Premium Rush

FRI, APRIL 4 • 6 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: DAVID KOEPP

35MM • Narrative • USA • 2012 • 91 MIN

Director: David Koepp • Cast: Joseph GordonLevitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez

A Road at Night

SUN, APRIL 6 • 7 PM BARRYMORE THEATRE

Mendota: Symphony of a Lake

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 10 MIN Director: Levon Blackburn

This live action postcard takes us through a year on Lake Mendota via spectacular images of Madisonians interacting with the iconic body of water. A delight. (BR)

A Road at Night

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 73 MIN Director: John Roach

crumble captured the zeitgeist and turned the show into a phenomenon after all, these creeps definitely deserved it, right? Director David Osit examines every aspect of the show with forensic detail, including multiscreen overviews of the original raw footage and contemporary interviews with the “decoy” actors who posed as the bait. But even more alarming are the copycat YouTubers who have taken the show’s brand of vigilante justice into their own hands, in pursuit of clicks. But should criminal justice and entertainment ever overlap? In pursuit of the answer, Osit has crafted one of the most morally complex films in recent memory. Many viewers likely considered To Catch a Predator the supreme guilty pleasure—this unshakable documentary makes it clear there’s more than enough guilt to go around. 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

Premium Rush is a high-energy, fast-paced thriller that unfolds within the heart-pounding world of Manhattan’s bike messengers. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Wilee, a fearless bike courier who races against time to deliver a mysterious envelope—pursued by a relentless cop named Monday (an unforgettable Michael Shannon) and caught in a web of personal and professional con icts. The movie’s innovative structure mirrors Wilee’s chaotic day, revealing di erent layers of the story through ashbacks as we rush with Wilee from Columbia University at 116th St down to Chinatown. Each ashback reveals key motivations and hidden connections, heightening the suspense as the deadline looms. The narrative cleverly intertwines Wilee’s romantic troubles with the seriously ripped courier Vanessa (Dania Ramirez), his rivalry with the equally shredded bike messenger Manny (Wolé Parks), the threat of a criminal underworld, and his fraught relationship with the crazed and corrupt Monday. Director and co-writer David Koepp’s skillful handling of the material ensures that even amidst the whirlwind of crashes, near-misses, and bike-chases, the story remains coherent and thrilling. Originally released in 2012, the movie was a personal favorite of the late, great Professor of Film David Bordwell, who wrote, “If Truffaut is right that cinema gives us beautiful people who always find a parking space, Premium Rush is pure cinema.” Filmmaker and Wisconsin native David Koepp will join us in person for this special screening of an original 35mm release print of Premium Rush (JH)

Sponsored by Kristin Thompson in memory of David Bordwell

Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that’s one person every 39 minutes. And that doesn’t take into account all of those whose lives are forever altered, by the loss of loved ones, and by serious injuries that occur from these crashes. Somehow, though, these statistics never really sink in until something happens close to home. A Road at Night tells the story of former UW Badgers basketball player and assistant coach Howard Moore. Moore was a player on the Wisconsin Badgers basketball team from 1990 to 1995 appearing in 47 games, 21 of them as a senior. He returned to Wisconsin as an assistant coach first in 200 through 20 0 and then again in 2015 through 2019. Moore was beloved as a teammate and coach. A Road at Night chronicles the 2019 car crash (a drunk driver heading the wrong way crashed into the Moore family car) that killed Moore’s wife Jennifer and nine year old daughter Jaiden as well as injuring his son, Jerrell, and severely injuring Moore himself. The heartbreak and tragedy doesn’t end there though, Moore’s life, recovery and further setbacks are chronicled with emotion and clarity through interviews with many former players and coaching sta . The telling of Moore’s story is su used with countless testimonies about Moore’s joyful spirit and unstoppable zest for life, making A Road At Night an extremely personal, powerful, and poignant story that is against all odds, uplifting, and a cathartic must-see for any and all Badger basketball fans. (CK)

Presented with support from George Hamel and UW Madison Athletics

Rocketship

FRI, APRIL 4 • 3:30 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: JONATHON QUAM

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 90 MIN Director: Jonathon Quam

Rocket Morgan is the owner of “the rocketship” an abandoned industrial building in Wichita Falls, Texas. With his dog (Black) Ops by his side, Rocket spends his days fiddling around, renovating, altering, and trying to clean up the rocketship. Directed by WFF alum Jonathon Quam (Blood Brothers, WFF 2013), Rocketship presents a charming and quirky perspective on a charming and quirky outsider living his best, extremely singular life. A persistently engaging portrait of life on the margins, filled with sharp details and heartfelt monologues, Rocketship is an immersive and unforgettable ride in someone else’s shoes. (CK)

Rosaura at 10 O’Clock

FRI, APRIL 4 • 3:30 PM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

WED, APRIL 9 • 8 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • Argentina • 1958 • Spanish with English subtitles • 98 MIN

Director: Mario So ci • Cast: Juan Verdaguer, Susana Campos, María Luisa Robledo

If you smartly book a ticket for Rosaura at 10 O’Clock at this year’s Festival, you are likely to be stunned that this gripping, gothic Argentine masterpiece from has been so rarely screened before in the .S. Set in 0s uenos Aires, the movie’s story centers on Camilo, a timid, middle-aged painter who lives in a boarding house run by an overbearing and nosey matron and her daughters. Camilo’s monotonous life takes a mysterious turn when he begins receiving perfumed love letters from osaura, a woman he claims to have met while painting her portrait at a wealthy client’s home. ut when osaura unexpectedly appears at the boarding house one night at exactly 0 00 p.m., her enigmatic presence

shatters the illusion, revealing a far more complicated and sordid truth. As jealousy, hidden motives, and haunting pasts converge, a murder forces the characters to question every version of reality they’ve been given. ecause Rosaura is told through a labyrinth of ashbacks and con icting testimonies of several unreliable narrators, you in the audience will be forced to question everything too. ne of veteran director Mario So ci’s biggest triumphs is adopting the modernist narrative structure of movies like Citizen Kane and Rashomon, but presenting it in a non-insistent way that sneaks up on you. As the story devolves from a light comic melodrama to a social allegory with all of the tension and sleaze of classic film noir, So ci’s imagery, rendered in beautiful black and white CinemaScope, becomes increasingly delirious. Like it was for audiences watching last year’s Cannes Classics selections and this year’s To Save and roject series at ’s Museum of Modern Art, Rosaura at 10 O’Clock is the movie to discover at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival. Restored in 4K from the original camera negatives by Cubic Restauration in collaboration with the Society for Audiovisual Heritage, coordinated by Fernando Madedo and supervised by Luis Alberto Scalella. (JH)

Presented with support from UW Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese and UW Madison Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program

Savages

SUN, APRIL 6 • 1:45 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Animation, Narrative • Switzerland • 2024 • French with English subtitles • 87 MIN

Director: Claude Barras • Cast: Babette De Coster, Martin Verset, Laetitia Dosch, Benoît Poelvoorde, Pierre-Isaïe Duc azzlingly beautiful and adventurous in spirit, this stop-motion wonder is director Claude arras’s anticipated followup to his scar-nominated My Life as a Zucchini (WFF 20 ). An adorable orphaned rangutan is rescued and named shi by ria, a young girl living on a plantation in orneo. Little shi leads ria and her young cousin Sela on a journey through the jungle to an Indigenous village where ria discovers her own origins and the ongoing struggle to protect their lands from corporate greed. The

Scratchmen, Elvis, and You: The Films of Heather McAdams

SUN, APRIL 6 • 11 AM UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: HEATHER MCADAMS | 74 MIN Artist, collector, and beloved fixture of Chicago’s music scene Heather McAdams presents a collection of her funny and funky short films. anging from prankish goofs to insightful documentary portraits, these hand-crafted delights have a tactile magic all their own. The first four films in our program see McAdams bringing a cartoonist’s wit to her playful scrambling of found footage, followed by two longer selections that shine an a ectionate light on colorful outsiders. The films of Heather McAdams... combine the collage finesse of a ruce Conner with the crude campiness of the uchar rothers ( . uby ich, Chicago Reader). And don’t miss Chris and Heather’s 16mm Big Screen Blowout!, a vintage-clip mashup drawn from McAdams and partner Chris Ligon’s personal collection, screening Saturday night. (MK)

The Scratchman

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1980 • 3 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

A sti talking head gets defaced. The perfect film for anyone who’s ever used a ball point pen to draw all over a magazine advertisement. (MK)

Scratchman II

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1982 • 3 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

A rare sequel that’s as good as the original. (MK)

Meet...Bradley Harrison Picklesimer

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1988 • 32 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

ne of the most unforgettable characters in this or any year’s festival, radley icklesimer presided over Club LM , a drag bar and nightclub in 0s Lexington, entucky. As the very entertaining and very opinionated icklesimer holds forth on the state of drag, McAdams’s portrait becomes a fascinating window into a previous generation’s experience of queer life in the American south. (MK)

Jay Elvis

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1991 • 25 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

This rarely-screened experimental documentary depicts a Chicago-area lvis impersonator, as well as American culture’s long-running fascination with resley. (MK)

The Sea, The Silence, and the ‘Smiths

SUN, APRIL 6 • 2 PM

MUSIC HALL

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR 76 MIN

With Fire & Breath: A Dying Art

Documentary • USA • 2024 • Malayalam with English subtitles • 8 MIN

Director: Sam Maria Viji & Samia Shalabi • Cast: BalaKrishnan Gv, Pankajashi Nk, Bhaskaran Gv

The complex and delicate process of Indian goldsmiths creating jewelry using traditional methods is examined in this intimate and fascinating short documentary. (CK) in silence is the o ering presented

Screen Dance • USA

Director: Li Chiao-Ping • Cast: Li ChiaoPing and Jacob Li Dai-Loong Rosenberg Mother and son dance together in this terrifically cinematic screen dance from W professor Li Chiaoing (BR)

The Sea

Screen

natives are outnumbered and faced with the power of a multinational corporation bent on wringing all it can from their homeland through the deforestation of the rainforest. In contrast, ria discovers a community dedicated to tradition, solidarity, self-su ciency and respect for the land and one another. How can these clever and undervalued people defend their rights and the land from the savages of the corporation arras explores the impact of colonialism and environmental devastation in this sumptuously animated, poetic and heartfelt film. arras does not condescend to or patronize his youngest audience members. Savages… is uncompromising in its messaging, deceptively spare in its instruction and absolutely gorgeous to look at (The Hollywood Reporter). 2024 Cannes, Annecy Animation Festivals. (TK)

You

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1983 • 4 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

Set to the classic rian no track ing’s Lead Hat, this rapid-fire montage plays as if a mm trim bin was struck by lightning and came to life. (MK)

Holiday Magic

16MM • Experimental • USA • 1985 • 7 MIN

Director: Heather McAdams

Why should I waste my time each day trying to make myself more beautiful Find out in this hilarious mockery of vintage beauty product advertisements. A deft send-up of the ways in which women in the ’ 0s and ’ 0s were made to feel that they must at all times and at all costs maintain an aura of artificial glamour ( evin Thomas, Los Angeles Times). (MK)

Meet ... Bradley Harrison Picklesimer preserved by Chicago Film Society through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The Scratchman, Scratchman #2, You, and Holiday Magic preserved by Chicago Film Society with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Director: Douglas Rosenberg • Cast: Benno Voorham, David Dorfman, Douglas Rosenberg ouglas osenberg’s film, The Sea, shot in breathtaking black and white, using a cast of compelling, committed non-professionals, is an exploration of male intimacy, community, ritual, and art. Shot on the island of F r , this 0 minute screen dance invokes Ingmar ergman with its showcase of performance and staging against the landscape of the altic Sea. The Sea observes ten men as they break bread and form a temporary community together. The men provide a display at times both graceful and powerful, other times questioning and timid, as they move, thrashing against time, towards the freedom of the water. (MJ) Presented with support from the UW Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic and Arts for All Wisconsin

FILM GUIDE AT A GLANCE

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

NEAR EAST SIDE

MONDAY, APRIL 7

Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 2 Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 7

Brewhouse, Cinema 8

TUESDAY, APRIL 8

Cinema 2

Brewhouse, Cinema 7

Cinema 8

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9

THURSDAY, APRIL 10

Cinema 1

Cinema 2

Brewhouse, Cinema 7

Brewhouse, Cinema 8

The Searchers

THU, APRIL 10 • 2:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • USA • 1956 • 119 MIN

Director: John Ford • Cast: John Wayne, Je rey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood

In a fascinating, multi-layered performance, John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards in director John Ford’s breathtaking, equally complex classic. Returning home to Texas years after the end of the Civil War, the wandering Ethan is welcomed back into his brother’s family, only to see the family massacred and his nieces kidnapped by Comanches shortly after his homecoming. For five years, Ethan and his part-Cherokee nephew Marty (Je rey Hunter) search for the surviving Debbie (Natalie Wood), captive of the Comanche Chief Scar (Henry randon), with di erent motives. The vengeful, haunted Ethan is driven by hateful notions of racial impurity, while Marty wants to ensure that Debbie stays alive if they ever find her. Ford’s depiction of Ethan’s odyssey towards the cleansing of his soul is filled with numerous memorable and thrilling sequences. The story is aided immeasurably by Winston C. Hoch’s emotionally stirring cinematography, shot partially on location in Ford’s beloved Monument Valley, that is brilliantly showcased in the new 4K DCP that will be screened. (JH)

Second Chance

SAT, APRIL 5 • 4 PM

MUSIC HALL

MON, APRIL 7 • 12 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Narrative • India • 2024 • Hindi with English subtitles • 104 MIN

Director: Subhadra Mahajan • Cast: Dheera Johnson, Thakri Devi, Kanav Thakur

High in the Himalayas, 2 year-old city girl Nia has retreated to her family’s summer home for some alone time after experiencing the first real trauma of her young life. It’s the o season, so her only company is a septuagenarian mountain woman and a mischievous 8 yearold—the family of the property’s

caretaker. Though stando sh at first, this odd trio unexpectedly warms to one another, helped in no small part by an adorable kitten the young boy is trying to hide in his room. As the mountaintop freezes over, Nia begins to return to her old self, though her past has a way of catching up with her. Writer/ director Subhadra Mahajan’s wise and wondrous debut feature is full of life, mixing notes of humor with its poignant poetry. The story may be beautifully intimate, but its breathtaking locale and stunning black-and-white cinematography make it a must for the big screen. “Gorgeously restorative… a soothing mantra of Himalayan hope and healing.” (Variety). A feel-good film in the best sense of the term in a location so icily beautiful that the region may well experience a surge of tourism” (The Hollywood Reporter). (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for South Asia

Shanghai Blues

MON, APRIL 7 • 6 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

THU, APRIL 10 • 6:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • Hong Kong • 1984 • Cantonese with English subtitles • 103 MIN

Director: Tsui Hark • Cast: Kenny Bee, Sylvia Chang, Sally Yeh

Under a blood-red sky streaked with Japanese bombers, Tung (Kenny ee) and Shu-Shu (Sylvia Chang) meet by a bridge in Shanghai. There, despite barely discerning the other’s face through all the smoke, they fall in love and vow to reunite once the war is over. Ten years later, Tung returns to postwar Shanghai, hoping to find the woman he never even saw in the full light of day. He just so happens to move in down the hall from Shu-Shu, who has reinvented herself as a glamorous nightclub performer, and wide-eyed naif Stool (Sally eh), who quickly becomes infatuated with her new neighbor. This timeless premise—dousing a star-crossed love triangle in dramatic irony—anchors some of the 0s’ most inspired and breathlessly paced comedic filmmaking. Long billed in the West, however reductively, as Hong ong’s Spielberg, director Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China) shares with Steven a facility with genre and a preternatural ability to stage dynamic, graceful action. You could sync your heartbeat with the visual gags in Shanghai Blues the film’s central set piece, involving a string of characters appearing then hiding from each other in the same cramped apartment, is

known to bring down the house. The female leads are especially phenomenal, between Yeh’s outrageously expressive face and Chang’s blend of physical dexterity and plaintive yearning. The hurtling sense of speed keeps up to the very end, which lands straight in the heart. Long unavailable on U.S. home video, Shanghai Blues looks radiant in this 4K restoration, which features a new Shanghainese audio track supervised by Tsui. 2024 Cannes Classics. (ZZ)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for East Asian Studies

Shelf Life

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 76 MIN

Director: Ian Cheney

A must-see for cheese heads, Shelf Life is a quirky, globe-trotting documentary that explores the art of aging—both in cheese and in life itself. Director Ian Cheney takes viewers on a visually rich journey from Japan to Tbilisi that demands viewing on the big screen. Cheney introduces us to eccentric cheesemakers, mongers, and librarians who re ect on decay, time, and perfection. As these artisans carefully nurture their cheeses, some of them o er unexpected insights into the human experience of growing old, blending humor, philosophy, and culinary craft. eautifully shot and infused with darkly comedic ourishes that recall the work of rrol Morris, the film invites audiences to savor both the sensory delights of cheese and the deeper questions of mortality. Shelf Life is an evocative and thought-provoking meditation on food and transformation. (JH)

Shirley Clarke: Thinking in Motion

WED, APRIL 9 • 5:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: KAREN PEARLMAN, WENDY CLARKE 86 MIN

This rare screening of eight short films is a whirlwind tour through the early career of maverick New ork filmmaker Shirley Clarke, a dancer and a filmmaker who ran away to bohemia, hung out with the eats and held to her own vision in triumph and defeat” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times). Clarke’s creative smashing of the boundaries of film form, and her signature kinetic editing have their origins in these vibrant shorts that traverse, and sometimes mix, dance, documentary, drama, horror and even musical comedy. ( ) Curated and introduced by Karen Pearlman, author of Shirley Clarke, Thinking through Movement, copies of which will be for sale at the screening. Followed by a conversation with Pearlman and Wendy Clarke.

Dance in the Sun

Experimental • USA • 1953 • 7 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke • Cast: Daniel Nagrin, Sylvia Marshall

In Dance in the Sun, Shirley Clarke’s editing moves Daniel Nagrin’s bravado dancing across impossible chasms of time and space from the rehearsal studio to the sunlit beach. About this adventurous and dynamic cutting Clarke says: “All the kinds of things I discovered about the choreography of editing and the choreography of space/time came from making that very first film. (KP)

In Paris Parks

Experimental • USA • 1954 • 14 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke • Cast: Wendy Clarke Made almost by accident when plans for a di erent film fell through, In Paris Parks explores the liveliness of children’s play, puppets, and people going about their lives in Paris in the early 0s, as though the pedestrian gestures and actions are all parts of a lively, spontaneous, rhythmically unfolding dance. (KP)

A Moment in Love

Experimental • USA • 1956 • 9 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke • Cast: Carmela Gutierrez, Paul Sanasardo

In this dance film choreographed by the iconic Anna Sokolow, Clarke creates visually gorgeous overlays of shots to make cinematic dance images that convey feeling way beyond words. (KP)

A Visual Diary

Experimental • USA • 1980 • 6 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke

2 years after her first dance film, Clarke returns to her practice of working with choreographers, in this case creative provocateur and performer londell Cummings. nce again, camera, cutting, and visual e ects create a layered image in motion, but this time with the possibilities of video being activated to make an interior world visible and felt. (KP)

Butterfly

Experimental • USA • 1967 • 4 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke, Wendy Clarke

A rarely seen film protesting the Vietnam war, Butterfly contrasts the destructiveness of violence with the creative possibilities of a playful relationship of mother and daughterShirley and Wendy Clarke. (KP)

A Scary Time

Experimental • USA • 1960 • 16 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke

Clarke’s characteristic uid montage takes a darker turn in this short made for and then rejected by UNICEF. A Scary Time starts out seeming to document a playful Halloween, but becomes an un inching nightmare when Clarke contrasts American suburban abundance with starvation around the world. (KP)

Brussels Loops

Experimental • USA • 1958 • 8 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke

Made for the World’s Fair in russels, this collection of short montages creates a rhythmic portrait of America as a poetic, multi-racial, multi-ethnic kaleidoscope filled with possibilities. Clarke was barred from using Jazz music in the films so instead she makes visual jazz with her edits. (KP)

Skyscraper

Experimental • USA • 1959 • 22 MIN

Director: Shirley Clarke

The Academy Award nominated Skyscraper is a documentary in the form of a musical comedy. In it, the multiple phases of construction of th Avenue in ew ork are seen as a rhythmic coordination of aspirations and plans, managers and workers, bulldozers, cranes and steel girders, all coming together to create a monumental building. (KP)

Presented with support from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Short and Sweet

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

79 MIN . Ages 8 -11

The search to belong, the search for that special place, takes many forms in these beautiful live-action and animated stories.

The Ones Who Never

See the Moonlight

(Ceux pour qui la Lune ne Brille pas)

Animation • France • 2024 • 7 MIN

Director: Solène Marché, Lou Thoby, Tom Saurel, Evelyne Philippart, Marie Fantini, Amélie Soto

Left on the moon, a dog makes an unexpected new friend. (TK)

Moustache

Narrative • Netherlands • 2024 • Dutch with English subtitles • 20 MIN

Director: Idriss Nabil • Cast: Benjamin Mukadi Kanda van de Kamp, Kee Wouters, Bram Gerrits Eleven-year-old Dalou doesn’t have a father. He needs a parent to attend the parent-child sports event and his mother can’t make it. But his best friend Coco knows what to do; find a surrogate father (TK)

Yellow Light

Animation • Israel • 2023 • 2 MIN

Director: Tal Kantor

Children playing Red Light, Green Light a ect the walk of a girl and her dog as they head to their destination: a peaceful Fall forest, immersed in golden lights. (KK)

The Mistletoe Dart

Animation • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Crestwood Elementary 4th and 5th Graders • Cast: Leah W, Ollie D, Lyn V, Moussa D, Ger’Karia T Crestwood Elementary fourth and fifth graders playfully retell a orse myth about the goddess Frigg’s attempt to protect her son from the trickster god, Loki. Stop-motion animation using wood cuts and music composed and performed by the students. (TK)

Mû

Animation, • Germany • 2023 • 6 MIN

Director: Malin Neumann

A child and her otter friend endeavor to end a water crisis in this beautiful, calm, elegantly animated tale. (TK)

On a Sunday at Eleven

Narrative • Canada • 2024 • 9 MIN

Director: Alicia K. Harris • Cast: Zoë Peak, Amia Ogieva, Darius Zee, Valérie Carrier, Eletha Sandra Cooke

A lack ballet student is at first uncomfortable with her natural hair in a class full of blonde girls in buns. When she starts to dance, however, she is transported to a space where a group of Elder women help her see her own beauty. A thoughtful re ection on communities that undermine or uplift us. (KH)

Desert Critter

(Wüstentier)

Animation • Germany • 2023 • 8 MIN

Director: Lina Walde • Cast: Ani Samperi, Lou Watson, Finja Malone

Why is the desert critter’s shadow the shape of a palm tree? Can he swap it for a truer shadow? A poetic exploration of the search for identity and friendship that transcends species. (TK)

Reven

Animation • France • 2024 • French with English subtitles • 7 MIN

Director: Hugo Babey, Victor Barreau, Line Bossard, Chloé HURARD, Coralie Monnier, Mathilde Morin, Lèna Ripoche, Tanguy Salaun • Cast: Sarah Brun Schumacher, Audry Bourgeois, Stefo Linard, Nicolas Eon, Agathe Schumacher

Reven is a good friend and student, who was born a bit di erent. With class picture day on the horizon, she tries to appear like her peers. But when picture day comes she finds there are many di erent ways to fit in. (KH)

The Night Tunnel (Le Tunnel de la Nuit)

Animation • Belgium • 2024 • 9 MIN

Director: Annechien Strouven • Cast: Eppo Van Elslande, Siel Van Elslande, Zoe Vanlu elen, Maarten Vanlu elen ids from di erent sides of the world find each other by digging a tunnel at the beach. Together they find magical ways to travel and return home. (TK)

Shorter and Sweeter

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

66 MIN . Ages 4 - 8.

So many problems to solve; so many friends to meet. Full of color and music, these tales will make you think, wonder and laugh

Shellfish

(Coquille)

Animation • France • 2023 • 6 MIN

Director: Justine Aubert, Cassandra Bouton, Grégoire Calllies, Maud Chesneau, Anna Danton, Loic Girault, Gatien Peyrude, Justine Raux

A hermit crab must find a new shell and meets an inventive friend with a similar problem. Together they survive the perils of the beach and find partnership and shelter. (TK)

Mr. Chicken Goes to Mars

Animation • Australia • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: Katrina Mathers, Leigh Hobbs • Mr. Chicken loves to travel and meet new people. But he has never been to Mars His journey is full of wild adventure. (TK)

Hoofs on Skates

(Kanopos ir pačiūžos)

Animation • Lithuania • 2024 • 10 MIN

Director: Ignas Meilūnas • Cast: Julius Grigelionis, Ignas Meilūnas

Friends Pig and Cow are having a blast ice skating—until something from beneath gives them a scare. A heartwarming, stop-motion tale of friendship, both above and below the ice, from WFF alum Ignas Meil nas. ew ork ICFF Audience Award 2024. (KK)

Tuu-Tuu-Til

Animation • Germany • 2024 • German, English with English subtitles • 5 MIN

Director: Veronica Solomon • Cast: Gil Webster

A figure of whimsy, the Tuu-TuuTil o ers small children magical adventures and quiet comfort. A tale about the wonder and uncertainty of early childhood told with a reverence for the imaginative mind of a child. This riotous fantasy evokes the irreverent fun of Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein. (KH)

Forever Seven

(Für Immer Sieben)

Animation • Germany • 2023 • German with English subtitles • 10 MIN

Director: Antje Heyn, Alexander Isert • Cast: Helge Heynold, Alexis Krüger

Is a box just a simple box r is it a matter of perspective? Oh, the possibilities this plain wooden crate seems to hold ur seven friends have found a treasure. A beautifully crafted short film about recycling and community. Based on the book by SaBine Büchner (KK)

Battery Daddy

Animation • Korea • 2022 • 6 MIN

Director: Jeon Seung-bae

Battery Daddy works hard all day powering his users’ everyday needs. When a father and son are stranded in a storm, his work is more important than ever. At the end of the day will Battery Daddy get the rest he’s been seeking? Or something even better? (KH)

Animanimusical

Germany • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: Julia Ocker • Cast: Martin Lickleder, Christian Heck, Andreas Hykade, Claudia Kaiser, Axel Koch, Cornelius Koch, Coletta Lickleder

The Animanimals work together to perform a big musical number, but ird upstages everyone (TK)

In Between

(Entre Eux Deux)

Animation • France • 2024 • 7 MIN

Director: Nour El Achkar, Roxane David, Morgane Chauvet, Flora Rouvel, Lucie Perales, Cindy Fanchonna, Sacha Moreau

When ora’s parents split, so does the arth ow she has to navigate between the two hemispheres with her backpack, and it is getting heavier and heavier (TK)

Alone

Animation • Australia • 2024 • 7 MIN

Director: Alex Weight

A lone robot aboard a spaceship is responsible for the lives of many. But he yearns for a friend. When he finds one, he is faced with di cult choices between friendship and obligation. This heartwarming short considers the nature of friendship and finding a way toward happiness even when we appear hopelessly alone. (KH)

Filante

Animation • Germany • 2024 • 8 MIN

Director: Marion Jamault

A girl wishes upon a glittery shooting star, hoping for the return of her beloved lost pet rat. When nothing happens she decides to take a closer look at the apparent celestial body. A colorful and sparkling paper cutout fairytale by Marion Jamault. (KK)

The Shrouds

SUN, APRIL 6 • 11 AM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Narrative • Canada, France • 2024 • 119 MIN

Director: David Cronenberg • Cast: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt

One of contemporary cinema’s most visionary artists, David Cronenberg delivers a haunting and invigoratingly original new movie in The Shrouds. Karsh (Vincent Cassel) is a wealthy entrepreneur who invents high-tech burial shrouds that allow the living to watch their loved ones decompose. When his late wife’s grave is mysteriously desecrated, the already grieving Karsh spirals into a harrowing web of obsessive paranoia and sets out to find the perpetrators. Blending the surreal cinematic metaphors of Videodrome and Existenz with a classic detective/ spy story, Cronenberg tinges the whole narrative with dark humor and raw, deeply felt emotion. Cassel, styled and costumed to resemble the director, is joined in the cast by Guy Pearce as Karsh’s ex-brother-in-law and Diane Kruger as both Karsh’s late wife and her lookalike sister. A drolly uid inspection of classic Cronenberg themes—the deterioration of the esh, the instability of the image, the paranoia-inducing incursions of technology into every aspect of life—but imbued with a nakedly personal dimension” (Justin Chang, The New Yorker). 2024 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. (JH)

Sliding to 70

SUN, APRIL 6 • 11 AM

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR:

MARC KORNBLATT

Documentary • USA • 2024 • English and Hebrew with English subtitles • 79 MIN

Director: Marc Kornblatt

Director Marc Kornblatt moonwalks back to the Wisconsin Film Festival with Sliding to 70, a documentary that begins with a plan to get his friends to dance with him for his 0th birthday and evolves into a deeper and more di cult look at the world and life as the Israel-Hamas war and Marc’s own health struggles threaten to break apart the project. Kornblatt’s lighthearted dance practice and friendly cajoling of his friends is shattered as the October 7th invasion upends life in Tel Aviv. Sliding to 70 becomes a war journal as Kornblatt struggles with the realities of his aging body, his role as a citizen even as he disapproves of the government of his adopted country, and the damage the war causes to the relationships in his life, including with his daughter in New York. (MJ)

Presented with support from UW Madison Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies

Souleymane’s Story

FRI, APRIL 4 • 1:15 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

WED, APRIL 9 • 8:45 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Narrative • France • 2024 • English, French, Fulah with English subtitles • 92 MIN

The Sparrow in the Chimney

TUE, APRIL 8 • 8:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

THU, APRIL 10 • 3 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

Narrative • Switzerland • 2024 • German with English subtitles • 117 MIN

Director: Ramon Zürcher • Cast: Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Luise Heyer

Starship Troopers

SUN, APRIL 6 • 6:30 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: JON DAVISON, ED NEUMEIER

35MM • Narrative • USA • 1997 • 129 MIN

Karen and Markus are living the opposite of domestic bliss. Trapped in a house haunted by the ghostly specter of Karen’s mother, and dealing with three children who are in various states of angst and dysfunction, things are about to get a lot worse. It is Markus’s birthday, and to cel-

ebrate, Karen’s sister is arriving with her husband, their daughter and their newborn. Also on the scene is Liz: dogwalker, nanny, and Markus’s lover. Familial tensions abound right from the getgo and only escalate through 24 hours of increased strain as long simmering resentments bubble to the surface threatening to destroy everything. Stylistically assured with bravura performances from all involved, and with an air of surreal dread that only occasionally threatens to make way for grace, re-birth and triumph. The third feature from Ramon Zürcher (The Girl and the Spider, WFF 2022), is a strikingly intense psychological drama tracing one family’s long journey into night and back out into the light. “While (Zurcher) maintains the strong sense of everyday relationships and realism from his previous films, his more ambitious approach pays o to deliver an emotionally volatile portrait of a family in ux, complete with ambiguous motives and unexpected transformations” (Screen Daily). (BR) Presented with support from Institute for Regional and International Studies National Resource Center

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1:15 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: DORIS NOMATHANDÉ DIXON, NATIKI HOPE PRESSLEY

35MM • Narrative • USA • 1973 • 102 MIN

Director: Ivan Dixon • Cast: Lawrence Cook, Janet League, Paula Kelly

Director: Paul Verhoeven • Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside, Jake Busey, Rue McClanahan, Clancy Brown Starship Troopers starts as a high school drama, set in an unrecognizable “Buenos Aires” of the future. The story introduces us to Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) and his pals as they navigate love triangles and big games before enlisting in the Federal Service. What begins as a glossy teen romp quickly morphs into a hyper-violent war film, with Rico and his fellow grunts battling hordes of giant alien “bugs” in gruesome, blood-soaked combat. Director Paul Verhoeven infuses the action with biting satire, packing the film with winking nods to fascist propaganda, from jingoistic recruitment ads to wartime broadcasts that eerily resemble today’s news coverage. The film’s militaristic world, adapted from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel, presents a chillingly authoritarian society where citizenship must be earned through service and violence is the ultimate authority. Verhoeven, reunited here with his Robocop cohorts, screenwriter Ed Neumeier and producer Jon Davison, o ers a sharp critique of war, media manipulation, and nationalism. Packed with gory spectacle and sly humor, Starship Troopers is a darkly relevant and subversive sci-fi epic that revels in its own over-thetop machismo. Veteran writer Ed Neumeier and Jon Davison, whose production credits also include movies by Sam Fuller, Joe ante, on Howard, and Wisconsin’s Own Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, will join us in person for this screening of Starship Troopers on an archival 35mm print! (JH)

Director: Boris Lojkine • Cast: Abou Sangare, Nina Meurisse, Alpha Oumar Sow Set over two urgent days in Paris, Souleymane’s Story follows an undocumented Guinean immigrant navigating the city’s streets as a bike courier while preparing for his highstakes asylum interview. Part of an underground economy of couriers renting verified accounts, Souleymane pedals from dawn to nightfall, racing against both delivery deadlines and the strict curfew of his shelter. His life is a delicate balancing act—juggling exhausting work, collecting paperwork and payment for his immigration broker, and memorizing the details of a revised asylum narrative that could determine his future. Despite the relentless pressure, moments of warmth and humanity shine through: a shared joke with fellow couriers, an act of kindness for an elderly customer, a eeting connection with a kebab vendor. Director Boris Lojkine presents Paris from a radically unfamiliar perspective, capturing the city not as a picturesque metropolis but as a landscape of obstacles and invisible boundaries for those who remain unseen. Like Ken Loach or the Brothers Dardennes, Lojkine portrays Souleymane’s world with un inching realism. First-time actor Abou Sangare delivers a deeply empathetic performance as the title character, culminating in a raw, gut-wrenching interview scene that lays bare his struggle. Souleymane’s is a quietly powerful film that forces us to see Paris—and its hidden labor force—through the eyes of those fighting to belong. 2024 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals.

Presented with support from Institute for Regional and International Studies National Resource Center

Presented with support from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

The Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on Sam Greenlee’s incendiary novel and directed by Ivan Dixon, is a thrilling, cinematic battle cry, a radical statement on resistance and revolution. Greenlee, a UW-Madison alum and former Foreign Services cer with the .S. Information Agency, co-wrote the screenplay with Melvin Clay, ensuring that his bold and uncompromising message remained intact. His protagonist, an Freeman, the first lack CIA agent, undermines the very system that trained him, transforming the tools of oppression into instruments of liberation. The faithful film adaptation was the second feature directed by Ivan Dixon, a pioneering actor renowned for his leading performance in the classic film Nothing But a Man. As one of the first lack directors of Hollywood films and television, Dixon leveraged his deep industry knowledge to complete The Spook Who Sat by the Door through guerrilla filmmaking tactics. He and Greenlee secured initial fund-

ing through the Black community. e ecting on the project, ixon declared, “The Spook said everything I ever wanted to say about race in a film. Initially suppressed and nearly lost to history, this landmark film is a collaboration of two visionary artists who pushed the boundaries of Black storytelling, earning a place in the ational Film egistry in 20 2. It is a positively revolutionary movie that refuses to be silenced. This special screening will feature a restored 35mm print from the Library of Congress. It will be followed by a discussion with Doris Nomathandé Dixon, daughter of Ivan Dixon, and Natiki Hope Pressley, daughter of Sam Greenlee, who will share insights about their father’s legacy in a post-screening discussion. Restored by The Library of Congress and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Presented with support from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

The Surfer

FRI, APRIL 4 • 6:15 PM

THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

Narrative • Australia, Ireland

• 2024 • 99 MIN

Director: Lorcan Finnegan • Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Justin Rosniak icolas Cage faces o against a psychotic surf gang in this delirious trip. eturning to the remote, pristine Australian beach of his youth, a burnt-out finance guy can’t wait to catch some huge waves with his teenage son. rivately, he’s also hoping to purchase his childhood home overlooking the ocean, and get his life back on track. Given that this never-named man is played by Cage, you can probably guess things won’t be that simple. For starters, his lawyer can’t seem to close the real estate deal, but the much bigger problem is that the area has been overtaken by a menacing band of locals who threaten any outsiders who dare set foot on the beach. etreating to the scorching parking lot to plan his next move, the man resolves to stay put a decision that will lead to his total undoing. nduring desperate days and endless humiliation in the blistering heat, our hero loses his grip on reality, and The Surfer becomes a psychedelic descent to z hell in the tradition of Wake in Fright. Gloriously demented. The picture crash-landed at the Cannes Film Festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk (The Guardian). 2024 Cannes, 202 S SW Film Festivals. (MK)

Tex

SAT, APRIL 5 • 4 PM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: TIM HUNTER

Returning to Earth

Narrative • 2024 • USA • 23 MIN

Director: Tim Hunter • Cast: Helena Howard, James Ferrari, Amber Rose Mason

In a new, short drama from the director of Tex and River’s Edge, a father reunites with his estranged daughter to scatter the ashes of a loved one. Their journey to a Montana river presents an opportunity to overcome the pain of the past. (JH)

Tex

35MM • Narrative • USA

1982

103 MIN

Director: Tim Hunter • Cast: Matt Dillon, Jim Metzler, Meg Tilly, Emilio Estevez, Ben Johnson, Bill McKinney

-year-old Tex McCormick (Matt illon) and his older high school basketball star brother Mason (Jim Metzler) live alone in a rundown house outside a rural suburb of Tulsa, klahoma. Their father, an ex-convict rodeo cowboy, is absent for long stretches and neglects to send money, forcing the more responsible Mason to sell Tex’s beloved horse to make ends meet.

Thank You for Banking with Us!

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM

MUSIC HALL

MON, APRIL 7 • 3 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Narrative • Palestine, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt • 2024 • Arabic with English subtitles • 92 MIN

The Threesome

SAT, APRIL 5 • 6 PM BARRYMORE THEATRE

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: ETHAN OGILBY

Narrative • USA • 2025 • 111 MIN

Director: Chad Hartigan • Cast: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White

Feeling betrayed, an angry and emotionally vulnerable Tex is driven to participate in increasingly risky behavior. Meanwhile, Tex and Mason find themselves repeatedly confronted by their stern, wealthy neighbor, Cole Collins ( en Johnson), father to both Tex’s best pal Johnny ( milio stevez), and Lily (Meg Tilly), the girl Tex is in love with.At its heart, this moving and memorable teen drama is the story of two brothers, each at a critical coming-of-age moment and learning to navigate their di cult lives together. rofoundly decent in its own modest way, Tex was the first of best-selling teen novelist S. . Hinton’s books to be produced and released, beating Francis Coppola’s films of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish to the big screen by several months in 2. All three Hinton adaptations starred Matt illon and Tex’s screenplay was written by Tim Hunter and Charlie Haas, the team who wrote illon’s first movie, the cult classic Over the Edge. Hunter, who would later contribute to the great teen film canon with River’s Edge, marked his feature directorial debut with Tex, and he will join us in person for this screening of an archival mm print. (JH)

Presented

Director: Laila Abbas • Cast: Clara Khoury, Yasmine Al Massri, Kamel El Basha ver one eventful night in amallah, two sisters conspire to claim their father’s inheritance before their long-absent brother snatches it out from under them. Frazzled mom Mariam and family black sheep oura may not agree on much, but after spending the past several years splitting caretaking duties for their aging father, they feel they’ve earned the surprising sum he’s left behind. Certainly more so than their brother, who, despite splitting for America long ago, is entitled to the bulk of the money under Sharia law. So they hold o on reporting the death until they can find a way to cash out his account not an easy task for two women in alestine. Their time and options dwindle as they hatch failed schemes and are let down by prospective male accomplices, and the sisters’ race for personal justice takes on a beat-theclock urgency. Writer director Laila Abbas’s well-crafted debut fiction feature fuses elements of the heist caper, dark comedy, and familial drama to enlightening e ect. est Arab Film, 2024 l Gouna Film Festival. est irector, 2024 Thessaloniki Film Festival. (MK)

This top-notch romantic comedy places a trio of up-and-coming stars in a love triangle with a twist or three. ice guy Connor’s been crushing on charismatic wild card livia ( oey eutch) for as long as he can remember, and one night he finally gets his chance. The only catch (if you can call it that) is that livia invites Jenny ( uby Cruz), an innocent-seeming stranger, to join in for the night. ot your everyday meet-cute, but good enough for Connor and livia, who quickly fall into the committed relationship Connor’s always pined for. That is, until Jenny shows back up. It may have a saucy hook, but The Threesome is almost classical in its masterful delivery of a form that has become unaccountably rare in contemporary cinema a true-blue big screen romcom, loaded front to back with laugh out loud jokes born of genuine feeling. In her first film since Bottoms, co-lead uby Cruz is a revelation, and the sterling supporting cast includes comedian Jaboukie oung-White and an always welcome obert Longstreet, very funny as an intimidating authority figure. legantly directed by Chad Hartigan (This is Martin Bonner, WFF 20 , Morris From America, WFF 20 ) this the exactly kind of movie one laments they don’t make anymore. Writer than gilby will join us for a discussion of the story’s many satisfying surprises, unrevealed here. 202 S SW Film Festival. (MK)

Times Square

TUE, APRIL 8 • 8:45 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: JONATHAN HERTZBERG

Narrative • USA • 1980 • 111 MIN

Director: Allan Moyle • Cast: Tim Curry, Trini Alvarado, Robin Johnson

In late seventies C, two teenage girls from opposite sides of the subway tracks meet cute in a mental hospital and do what comes naturally fall in love and start a punk rock band called The Sleaze Sisters. Trini Alvarado is charmingly sincere as the poor little rich girl half of the duo, amela earl, daughter of an ambitious city commissioner, and tired of being exploited by her father for political ends. obin Johnson, from ark Slope, rooklyn, is nothing short of a revelation as icky Marotta, the talented, tough, frontwoman of the duo, a hair trigger punk with a heart of gold. Meanwhile, the marvelously hammy and top-billed Tim Curry helps amplify the girls’ voices

as sympathetic radio J, Johnny LaGuardia. Times Square endured a few compromises on its way to the big screen, from the removal of all of the overt lesbian content, to producer obert Stigwood, hoping for another Saturday Night Fever-type success, insisting on a tie-in double album featuring lots of songs that director Allan Moyle (Pump Up the Volume, Empire Records) considered inappropriate to the film’s scru y, punk vibe. evertheless, what remains on screen is fun, vital, and captivatingly energetic. Saddled with an indi erent reception on initial release, the film has since gone on to acquire a legitimate cult following that includes the Welsh rockers Manic Street reachers who covered The Sleaze Sisters’ signature tune, amn og on their debut album. A newly created 4 C of Times Square will be screened rior to the feature, a short reel of vintage trailers from C-filmed movies from the late 0s early 0s, introduced by Fun City ditions Founder Jonathan Hertzberg. (BR)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1:15 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

Narrative • USA • 1992 • 135 MIN

Director: David Lynch • Cast: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick, Moira Kelly, Dana Ashbrook, Kyle MacLachlan, David Lynch, David Bowie, Miguel Ferrer, Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other

MON, APRIL 7 • 8:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

WED, APRIL 9 • 3 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Documentary • UK, Denmark, USA • 2024 • 100 MIN

Director: Jacob Perlmutter, Manon Ouimet It was love at first sight for Maggie and Joel, though they got a late start both were middle aged at the time. Thirty years on in Tuscany, their romantic life is still a model of devotion and a ection, but the stark di erence in their artistic careers gnaws at Maggie. Widely recognized as an important photographer with forty books to his name, Joel Meyerowitz is regularly feted at world-

class museums and galas none of Maggie’s novels have ever been published. When Maggie breaks her leg and Joel becomes her caretaker, their love story is put to the test. This astonishingly intimate and beautifully crafted documentary gets to the core of the interpersonal dynamics of long-term relationships the web of overlapping emotions and shared history that binds two individuals together. The film’s remarkable degree of candor and insight may be attributable to the fact that co-directors Jacob erlmutter and Manon uimet are a couple themselves, and lived with Maggie and Joel during production. The connection between these two fascinating people and the insights into their eventful, fully-lived lives is unexpectedly moving (Screen Daily). (MK)

Presented in accompaniment with the Chazen Museum of Art’s Collections Viewing of prints David Lynch created at UW-Madison’s Tandem Press. April 5, 4-6:30 pm Free and open to all Registration recommended | For more information, visit chazen.wisc.edu/events

Two Women

SUN, APRIL 6 • 7 PM THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH THU, APRIL 10 • 5:45 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • Canada • 2025 • French with English subtitles • 100 MIN

Director: Chloé Robichaud

Cast: Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Laurence Leboeuf, Felix Moati, Mani Soleymanou ext door neighbors Florence and iolette are both feeling stuck in monotonous marriages. And since neither of their husbands seem terribly invested in spicing up their routines, they decide to take matters into their own hands. They embark on a whirlwind series of a airs, summoning all manner of handymen and delivery men to their Montreal apartment complex for quickies, and find total rejuvenation. irector Chlo obichaud’s fabulously entertaining comedy cracks wise about every aspect of modern love and marriage, maintaining a jovial tone even or especially when some of its best jokes have teeth. Shot on widescreen mm, the film itself nearly pops o the screen with its bright colors and clever staging. A frothy, sexy, thoroughly hilarious comedy about that eternal seven-year itch (RogerEbert.com). Two Women ips the sex comedy script with hilarious, refreshing frankness. layful, raucous, and totally heartfelt feels plucked from Woody Allen’s finest work (The Film Stage). Acclaimed playwright Catherine L ger’s witty adaptation of the 0 French comedy Two Women in Gold won a Special Jury Award for Writing at the 202 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

David Lynch viewing prints at UW-Madison’s Tandem Press.

Viktor

SAT, APRIL 5 • 11 AM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

SUN, APRIL 6 • 3:45 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

Documentary • Ukraine, Denmark, France, USA • 2024 • Russian, Ukrainian with English subtitles • 89 MIN

Director: Olivier Sarbil

This spectacularly cinematic documentary captures one man’s experience of the invasion of Ukraine. As a young, samurai-obsessed man in a town near the ussian border, iktor wants nothing more than to join the fight to defend his country. But Viktor is Deaf, and so despite being a crack shot, he is not permitted to serve in the army, and instead heads to the frontlines as a volunteer field photographer. irector livier Sarbil plunges us into Viktor’s headspace through a highly subjective sound design by the scar-winning team behind Sound of Metal, utilizing innovative techniques such as placing microphones on stethoscopes and in hearing aids. (A veteran war cinematographer, Sarbil lost his hearing in one ear after enduring a shrapnel attack on a previous project). Shot, like iktor’s photographs, in stunning black-and-white, featuring a score by It Follows composer Disasterpiece and poetic narration penned by the subject himself, Viktor is a uniquely immersive documentary experience. “Extraordinary. Grade: A” (Indiewire). oth highly specific and grand at the same time, a true triumph of non-fiction filmmaking (POV). “A truly singular experience worthy of its adulation” (RogerEbert.com). (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia and Arts for All Wisconsin

The Village Next to Paradise

SUN, APRIL 6 • 4:30 PM

MUSIC HALL

THU, APRIL 10 • 1:30 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 2

Narrative • Somalia, Austria, France, Germany • 2024 • Somali with English subtitles • 133 MIN

Director: Mo Harawe

Cast: Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Mohamoud Salleban

In a small village in the heart of the sun-baked Somali desert, a makeshift family is trying to find their footing. Marmagade takes whatever odd jobs he can—legal or

Vixen!

MON, APRIL 7 • 8:45 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 7

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: KATIE TRAINOR

Wrecked a Bunch of Cars, Had a Good Time

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 12 MIN • Director: Matt Ferrin, James P. Gannon

In their documentary about four highly memorable participants in a demolition derby, directors James P. Gannon and Matt Ferrin (Deerwoods Deathtrap, WFF 2022) justly celebrate the transcendent and communal pleasures to be found in smashing stu into other stu .

Vixen!

Narrative • USA • 1968 • 71 MIN Director: Russ Meyer

Cast: Erica Gavin, Garth Pillsbury, Harrison Page

otherwise—to support his young son, a bright kid whose teachers think should go to a private boarding school. Meanwhile, his sister Araweelo has moved in after leaving her husband, who wanted to take a second wife. Her aspirations to open her own store hit a dead end when she can’t get a bank loan, forcing Araweelo to take matters into her own hands. Mo Harawe’s expertly crafted debut feature was the first Somali film ever selected for the Cannes Film Festival. “Rich and singular… just as Mamargade gazes adoringly at his son through the school gates, the film looks upon him and Araweelo with equal tenderness, with exquisite composition and color in the shots and framing them with the care of precious works of art” (Indiewire). “Masterful… nourished by a cinema lover’s imagination ranging from melodrama and its shimmering hues to Hayao Miyazaki’s serene, enveloping portrayal of domestic life, zu’s gentle interiors and lucid, mischievous little boys, and Italian neo-realism” (Les Inrockuptibles). (MK)

Presented with support from UW African Cultural Studies

In a wild-eyed, fully committed, and completely revealing performance, Erica Gavin stars as one title character who truly earns the exclamation point after her name. Vixen (!) is the insatiable, always-on-the-prowl wife of a naive bush pilot in ritish Columbia. The standard stag-film storyline, or so it seems at first, follows our heroine as she makes conquests of a vacationing man and his wife. Later, Vixen sets her sights on her own biker brother, Judd A sexually liberated woman to say the least, ixen’s fatal aw is her foul racism, and she soon goes too far when insulting Judd’s Black pal, the draft-evading Niles (the marvelous Harrison Page). The stage is set for a surprising, politically-charged finale. Vixen! was an enormously successful breakthrough film for cowriter producer editor cinematographer director Russ Meyer, aka “King of the Nudies.” Despite legal and censorship battles that led to at least two 35mm prints seized from one Cincinnati venue, Vixen! broke the house records for attendance at theaters all over the country. ne Aurora, IL drive-in played the movie for 4 straight weeks, selling a number of admissions that was, according to Meyer, higher than the town’s population! Meyer traded in on some of his Vixen! success by signing a contract to make big budgeted studio movies at 20th Century Fox, bringing along film critic oger bert to co-write Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Ebert got Meyer’s attention when he wrote in his original review of Vixen! that the movie was “a celebration of zestful direction and photography, and a lot of the time it’s very funny. In a field filled with cheap, dreary productions, Meyer is the best craftsman and the only artist. ow, in a new 4 restoration from the Museum of Modern Art, Vixen! looks better than it ever did. MoMA’s Film Collections Manager Katie Trainor will be with us to introduce this screening. (JH)

The Wedding Banquet

WED, APRIL 9 • 5:15 PM

FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • USA • 2025 • Mandarin, English, Korean with English subtitles • 102 MIN

Director: Andrew Ahn • Cast: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran

Two couples conspire to help each other out of jams in this breezy romcom. Lesbian couple Lee and Angela (Lily Gladstone) can’t a ord another round of fertilization treatment meanwhile rich kid Min needs a green card but his boyfriend Chris ( owen ang) won’t commit. So they all agree to a sham marriage that should work out to everyone’s benefit that is, until Min’s grandmother shows up from Korea, and demands a traditional wedding. Director Andrew Ahn reimagines Ang Lee’s 1993 indie classic (working with the original’s co-writer, James Schamus) for the age of IVF and gay marriage, with a supporting cast including Joan Chen and Minari’s Youn uh-jung. Ingenious and very funny don’t be surprised to see Ahn’s film pop up in the awards conversation this time next year (Deadline). “Feels like the best example of a resurgence of the romantic comedy. The Wedding Banquet may be the feel-good movie of the year, but that’s not to call it a frivolity. It’s a film that, once again, demonstrates how all of us, no matter from what background, can relate to each other, and in the era we’re currently su ering through, that’s a message we could all use more of (/Film). 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Asian American Studies Program and UW Madison Gender and Sexuality Center

When Fall Is Coming

SAT, APRIL 5 • 3:30 PM

BARRYMORE THEATRE

Narrative • France • 2024 • French with English subtitles • 104 MIN

Director: François Ozon • Cast: Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko, Ludivine Sagnier

The picturesque French countryside serves as the deceptively tranquil stage for this devilish treat from WFF/UW Cinematheque mainstay Fran ois zon. In a quaint urgundy village, Michelle anxiously awaits the highlight of her fall a week with her grandson. ut the visit is cut o the moment it begins when the boy’s bratty mother is rushed to the hospital after eating poisonous mushrooms that Michelle served. They ee back to aris, leaving Michelle to defend herself to the police, explaining that it was just an accident. eally. When her best friend’s wayward son returns home from prison, he takes a special interest in Michelle’s situation. ecause, you know. Accidents happen. elicious, sinister and deadly funny. erfectly calibrated to inspire post-screening debates over whether character X or Y is guilty, When Fall Is Coming dispenses clues and red herrings masterfully” (The Hollywood Reporter). “Some people are better o dead. That’s the ultimate conclusion of When Fall is Coming, but delivered with such sly delicacy, such slippery grace — no, actually, such sweetness — that there is simply no arguing with it” (Deadline). est Screenplay, est Supporting Actor, 2024 San Sebasti n Film Festival. (MK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Department of French and Italian

When the Light Breaks

FRI, APRIL 4 • 1:30 PM

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

SUN, APRIL 6 • 1:30 PM

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

Narrative • Iceland, Netherlands, Croatia, France • 2024 • Icelandic with English subtitles • 82 MIN

Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson

Cast: Elí n Hall, Mikael Kaaber, Katla Njálsdóttir

Unfolding over a fateful 24 hours in Iceland, this poignant drama has the thoughtful precision of a short story. Young and freshly in love, art students Una and Diddi are lounging on the beach at sunset, daydreaming about their future. The only obstacle on their horizon is that their coupling is, for now, a secret—Diddi still needs to break up with lara, his long-term girlfriend, which he promises to finally do on his trip back home in the morning. He never makes it. As Diddi’s friends gather to mourn their friend’s sudden passing, Una is forced to hide their private relationship and suppress the depths of her grief, especially once Klara arrives. Quietly devastating where lesser films might be histrionic, When the Light Breaks is all the more moving for the understated elegance of its filmmaking. Director Rúnar Rúnarsson (Sparrows, WFF 2016) underscores his young protagonists’ sorrow by placing it amongst so much beauty: the natural light along the Icelandic coast, captured on 16mm; the music of famed composer J hann J hannsson and especially l n Hall’s captivating lead performance. 2024 Cannes Film Festival. est Nordic Film, 2025 Göteborg Film Festival. (MK)

The Wind

SUN, APRIL 6 • 1:30 PM

UW CINEMATHEQUE

Narrative • USA • 1928 • 72 MIN

Director: Victor Sjöström

Cast: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: KATIE TRAINOR

In one of a series of powerful performances that made her the most renowned American actress of the silent era, Lillian Gish plays Letty, a young Virginian who, after traveling west to stay with relatives, is thrust into a harsh and unwanted marriage. Struggling against the relentless, desolate winds and a series of escalating personal tragedies, Letty finds herself caught in a vortex of madness, violence, and desolation. The Wind masterfully transitions from a subdued, naturalistic study set in the Texas desert into a fulledged melodrama, driven by the psychological and emotional pressures placed on Letty. Director Victor Sjöström’s attention to the interplay between the vast, barren landscape and his characters’ internal struggles imbues the film with an otherworldly quality. The film’s climactic sandstorm sequence provides for spectacular visuals, yet The Wind is remarkable for its emotional depth, its erotic tension, and its exploration of the human psyche. Like Letty, Sjöström was a stranger in a strange land himself; the director had been celebrated in the silent era for The Phantom Carriage (1921), which was made in his native Sweden before Sjöström emigrated to Hollywood and directed eight features for MGM. The second-to-last of these, The Wind was filmed on location in the Mojave Desert under extreme conditions. Today, it remains a cinematic triumph, its beauty and ambition feel astonishingly modern decades after its release, especially in this beautiful new restoration from the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA’s Film Collections Manager, Katie Trainor, will be on hand to introduce this screening, presented with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin. Restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Lillian Gish Trust for Film Preservation. (JH)

Wisconsin’s Own Experimental Shorts

FRI, APRIL 4 • 6 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR | 92 MIN

Take a trip with us o the beaten path as we open our minds and explore the possibilities of cinema with these thirteen short works of experimental art by Wisconsin filmmakers.

Wavelength / Abstracted

Experimental • USA • 2025 • 5 MIN

Director: Bill Bedford

Swirling lines of various colors, beams of light dancing in the darkness to the tune of ambient noise = Bill Bedford’s particular brand of cinematic magic. (BR)

A Home Movie

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: Renato Umali • Cast: Bruno Umali, Sarah Burgundy

This short essay film, shot on mm film, is a charming re ection on the concept of “home movies.” (BR)

Half Halt

Experimental • USA • 2025 • 11 MIN

Director: Sofi a Theodore-Pierce • Cast: Grace Mitchell Rosie Stockton Sam Ta el Julianne Lee

Interruptions, breaks, skips, unifications and poetry are showcased in Sofia Theodore- ierce’s short. (MJ)

Incubating Home

Experimental • USA • 2024 • Korean with English subtitles • 3 MIN

Director: Soyeon Jung

Shimmering, squiggly dissolves and an immersive soundtrack color this examination of traditional Korean cultural values transplanted to the USA.

First Love / Late Spring

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: Brian Lu • Cast: Rae

Looking back, post-graduation. Mixed emotions from the backseat of a car. (BR)

Full Out

Experimental • USA • 2025 • French with English subtitles • 14 MIN

Director: Sarah Ballard

Filled with haunting imagery and exploring the idea of mass hysteria, Full Out expresses the idea of the body being both a vulnerable and powerful thing. (CK)

Hydroelectricity

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: j. june • Cast: alter hajek

Inky, pixelated black and white 8mm footage is layered to eerie e ect in this examination of the power of water. (BR)

Wisconsin’s Own Fire, Water, Stickball and Dinosaurs

Hey Jude!

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 3 MIN

Director: Jamison-Jupiter Clauer and Egg Goyette • Cast: Jude (paper puppet)

With a unique blend of stop motion and other styles of animation Hey Jude! forms a beautiful collage. ulling from the children’s book, Chrysanthemum, this experimental short explores themes of identity and belonging. (CK)

The Year

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 10 MIN

Director: Grace Mitchell • Cast: Grace Mitchell, Eric Risser, Vaughan Larsen, Sam Ta el, Michael Lagerman

Scenes of an alley in all seasons interspersed with other evocative images comprise Grace Mitchell’s meditation on time and change over the course of a year. (MJ)

fall light

Experimental • USA • 2024 • 8 MIN

Director: Alex Jacobs

Another hypnotic digital dreamscape from local artist, Alex Jacobs (Snow Light, WFF 2024) (BR)

Heart Shaped

Experimental • USA • 2025 • 13 MIN

Director: Grace Mitchell & Sofi a TheodorePierce • Cast: Sally Lawton, Britney Gunderson, Zachary Ochoa, Dan Raskin, Laini Szostkowski, Sue Mitchell

Interludes, erotic and otherwise, are explored through intimate correspondence and scenes from the Don Q Inn. (BR)

Despite

Animation • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Kate Raney

Despite depicts the unique trials and tribulations that came from pregnancy and motherhood during the Covid pandemic. Combining beautiful animation with a raw and honest voiceover narration, Despite illustrates both the inherent beauty and the isolation of pregnancy and motherhood. (CK)

Yin Yang Popcorn

Experimental • USA • 2025 • 5 MIN

Director: Bill Bedford

A popcorn themed visual and audio magic trick from Bill Bedford. (BR)

SUN, APRIL 6 • 5:45 PM

CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR

76 MIN

Five short documentaries focusing on nature, the environment, and the the state of our state.

A Wilderness Act

Documentary • USA • 2025 • 13 MIN

Director: Tom Deschenes & Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano • Cast: Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano & Evan Larson

This short documentary delves into the environmental impacts of the Wilderness Act of 1964. A Wilderness Act not only explores the impact of the act on the environment itself but also hones in on the important relationship between people and the environment and the need for interaction between the two for a sustainable and long lasting environment. (CK)

Return to Spur Lake: Bringing back the food that grows on water

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Finn Ryan • Cast: Tina L. Van Zile, Robert Van Zile Jr., Je Ackley Sr., Peter David, Nathan Podany, Carly Lapin

Return to Spur Lake chronicles the e orts of Indigenous tribes and conservation partners to bring back wild rice, an environmental and cultural cornerstone, to Spur Lake in Oneida County. (MJ)

Something in the Water

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 12 MIN

Director: Nateya Taylor • Cast: Richard Diaz, Shyquetta McElroy, Katie Doss, Connie Pigott, Joe Fitzgerald

Lead abatement in Milwaukee’s water supply has been long and slow in coming, especially in Milwaukee’s poorest, disproportionately Black neighborhoods. This devastating short documentary spends time with those a ected and with the water justice advocates devoting their time and energy to right this wrong.(BR)

Gigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang (We are healed by stickball)

Documentary • 2024 • English, Ojibwe with English subtitles • 11 MIN

Director: Finn Ryan • Cast: Biidaasige, Minwaanimad, Naawakwe, Dr. Arne Vainio, Devon DeVerney

Ojibwe youth and adults embrace a version of lacrosse/stickball lost to previous generations and now found again. Winner of a 2025 Golden Badger Award (BR)

What’s in a Name?

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 29 MIN

Director: Ethan C. Parrish • Cast: Reba Teran, Dr. Dave Lovelace, Mark Roy, Crystal Reynolds

The process of naming newly discovered dinosaur species is explored as Dr. David Lovelace from the UW Geology Museum collaborates with Shoshone and Ojibwe tribespeople in Wyoming on coming up with appropriate names for these ancient but new-to-us creatures. (CK)

Presented with support from UW Madison American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program

Wisconsin’s Own Gone Wild

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:30 PM

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR

Bump

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Kyle Kasabian • Cast: Marc Amadin, Tony Rodriguez & Artemis Pebdani

Wisconsin’s Own Portraits

SAT, APRIL 5 • 4 PM CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR 74 MIN

81 MIN

An S&M themed music video. The charming tale of a young woman with a strap-on. The world’s broiest juice cleanse. These are just three of the shorts that make up what is perhaps the wildest edition of Wisconsin’s Own Gone Wild ever!

Nerve

Animation • USA • 2024 • 2 MIN

A mortuary driver begins to suspect that the body in the back of the van may not be dead. Hijinks ensue. (BR)

Once A Mormon

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Ryan Allsop • Cast: Richard Karn, Chase Pollock, Sammy Ketcham

Two young Mormon Elders go door to door on their mission to spread the Book of Mormon, but when a routine house call takes a dark turn, their faith will be called into question. (CK)

Loving fathers, inspiring activists, singular artists, and eccentric charmers. Get ready to meet six people you won’t soon forget.

Choose the Pond

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 14 MIN

Director: Susan Borri • Cast: Cindy Bentley

An endearing portrait of the amazing Cindy Bentley, who chronicles her life and work as a disability advocate. (CK)

Presented with support from Arts for All Wisconsin Mercedes

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 12 MIN

Director: Justine Nagan • Cast: Mercedes Weatherford

Director: Eric Nelson

Eric Nelson’s music video really sets the tone for this edition of Gone Wild. Come for the S&M illustrations and stay for the dancing stick figures and funky beat. (BR)

Day with a Dick

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 12 MIN

Director: Kimberly Spohn • Cast: Kimberly Spohn, John Zoitos, Kimberly Singh, Bryant Jager Olive wears a strap-on for a day to see if it gives her the confidence she’s been looking for, and she ends up finding more than she expected. (MJ)

Mandatory Bathroom Break

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Alyssa Sue • Cast: Brandon Rowe

An employee works tirelessly out of the back of a (moving) moving van. His unique work life takes a surprising turn when he discovers what he wants to do in life. Mandatory Bathroom Break takes the workaholic lifestyle to the extreme. (CK)

SHE DEVIL

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 15 MIN

Director: Allie Perison • Cast: Paula Andrea Placido, Taylor Owen, Phoebe Voss, Jackie Gonzalez-Durruthy

Gemma attends a “breakup” party with her girlfriend Mae and Mae’s friends, but the party is a lot darker and more disturbing than anticipated. (BR)

Dolphin Boy

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 11 MIN

Director: Arielle Bordow and Tyler Zonies

• Cast: Arielle Bordow and Tyler Zonies

Two sea creatures meet on land and hook up. Anatomically disturbing hijinks ensue. (BR)

Juice Cleanse

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 8 MIN

Director: Will Reiland • Cast: Zac Krause, Sam Mohamed Elhindi, Will Reiland

Three housemates try a juice health cleanse to fix their blockages, both creative and otherwise. One of them finally makes a breakthrough. (MJ)

ALLAN

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 4 MIN

Director: Allan Schiefelbein • Cast: Allan Schiefelbein

Made with recovered film from his camera, this short remembers the director’s father, Allan Schiefelbein, exploring his life and character through clips and anecdotes. (MJ)

Peter The Painter

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 7 MIN

Director: Chris James Thompson • Cast: Peter Barrickman

Chris James Thompson’s engaging portrait of artist Peter Barrickman. (BR)

How do we end up doing what we do? Mercedes spends time with 70 year-old Mercedes Weatherford as she ruminates on her life and the jobs she’s had along the way. (MJ)

KIKO

Documentary • USA • 2024 • 16 MIN

Director: Aarón Peterson • Cast: Kiko Silvelet Meet Kiko, accordion player and BMX biker. (CK)

Why My Dad Loves

Documentary • USA • 2024 • Hmong with English subtitles • 21 MIN

Director: Nkaujoua Xiong • Cast: Tsu Lor Xiong, Mai Lee Vue, Jia Xiong, Xue Xiong, Txoo Ma Xiong Hmong Filmmaker Nkaujoua Xiong showcases her father, a Laotian refugee, at first reluctant to talk about his life, but eventually opening up to reveal a story of love and dedication. Winner of a 2025 Golden Badger Award (MJ)

Presented with support from UW Madison Hmong Studies Consortium and Isthmus.

Wisconsin’s Own Short Stories

SUN, APRIL 6 • 6:30 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

FILMMAKERS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR

90 MIN

We invite you to spend the evening with six short tales, exceedingly well told.

Buttress

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 13 MIN

Director: Emily Barber • Cast: Nancy Payne,Tom Simmermaker, Jazmin Robinson, Liz Payne, Gene Payne

Sam attempts to get help with her grandmother’s funeral even as everything that can go wrong, does. Buttress juxtaposes grief and the bizarre things that make us laugh, even in pain. (MJ)

Relationship to Patient

Narrative • USA • 2024 • 13 MIN

Director: Caroline Creaghead • Cast: Eleanore Pienta, H. Jon Benjamin, Bri Pruett, Kevin Avery

Quietly comic, this charming short follows Claudia as she arrives at a hospital to visit Adrian, a patient she claims to be dating, although after some awkward encounters she starts to wonder whether or not she belongs there. (MJ)

Maud et Luna

Narrative • USA • 2024 • English, French with English subtitles •

Director: Alec Huggins • Cast: Chloe Groussard, Lary Mulluer

Luna is finally ready to reveal the painting she has been working on, but Maud’s reaction is not what either of them were expecting. Alec Huggins ( Linda, WFF 2024) is back with another compelling short film.

Narrative • USA • 2024 •

Director: Sawyer Weidman • Cast: Emma Close, Angelika Giatras, Declan O’Connor, Bridget Colacchio

Iris mourns her brother’s death with the help of origami and the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky. a lovely and quiet short, filled with poignant and subtle explorations of love and loss.

Badger Award

The Space Pirate Ninja Cowboys

Narrative • USA • 2024 •

Director: Mike Pipkorn • Cast: Haley Street, David Rodrick, Hyunseo Jang, Eliza Rabe

In this quick-witted and fun short, space pirate ninja cowboys follow Jojo on her quest to become part of the crew.

Tales of Harsh Gruder

Narrative • USA • 2024 •

Director: J.Paul Preseault & John Otterbacher

• Cast: Bobby Ra erty, J.Paul Preseault

Two old pals reconnect, get high, and write another chapter in their continuing tales of Harsh Gruder in this well- acted, tragedy-tinged narrative short.

Wishing on a Star

FRI, APRIL 4

APRIL 6

This enjoyably o beat documentary stars an Italian astrologer with a very original method. o matter who walks into the enetian castle where Luciana keeps her o ce, no matter their problems, her prescription remains the same you need to take a trip on your birthday. It’s the location that matters, and finding the right one will allow you to be reborn under a new sky. Triangulating her clients’ personal issues and astral projections with map coordinates and ight deals, this astrologer-cum-travel agent just needs to nail down the perfect spot. The array of people looking for (literal) direction include a pair of identical twins with an unusual plan to become pregnant and a funeral director looking for love. The film tags along to wherever Luciana sends them, be it Taipei or Lebanon, a beach or the frozen north, and lets us see how it works out. irector eter erekes (107 Mothers, WFF 2022) blends narrative style into his documentary, using precise compositions that are perfectly tailored to this slightly fanciful take on reality. (MK)

A Woman is a Woman

FRI, APRIL 4 • 8:30 PM UW CINEMATHEQUE

THU, APRIL 10 • 12:15 PM FLIX BREWHOUSE, CINEMA 8

Narrative • France • 1961 • French with English subtitles • 83 MIN

Director: Jean-Luc Godard • Cast: Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo

Writer director Jean-Luc Godard’s first foray into color and widescreen tells of a whirlwind 24 hours in the lives of three arisians Angela (Anna arina), a spirited stripper with dreams of motherhood, her reluctant boyfriend mile (Jean-Claude rialy), and his best friend, Alfred (Jean- aul elmondo), who is smitten with Angela. Angela wants a baby now, but mile isn’t ready so she cheekily threatens to find another donor, creating a farcical situation where doors slam, shutters open and close, and love is tested with cinematic wit. Featuring a score by Michel Legrand, composer for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Godard originally conceived his feature film follow-up to Breathless as a neo-realist musical, but, according to the director, the film is not a musical. It’s the idea of a musical. I hesitated a long time about doing real musical scenes. Finally, I decided to convey through the use of music the idea that the characters are singing although they are speaking normally. In any case, the musical is dead...This is nostalgia for the musical. A new 4 restoration of A Woman is a Woman will be screened. (JH)

Yasmeen’s Element

SUN, APRIL 6 • 4:15 PM THE MARQUEE AT UNION SOUTH

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR: AMMAN ABBASI

A Short Film About Kids

Narrative • Palestine, State of • 2023 • Arabic • 13 MIN

Director: Ibrahim Handal • Cast: Majd Al-Khatib, Omar Al Kurd, Ayham Qaraqe, Omar Qaraqe

Four young friends from the refugee camp in Bethlehem decide to visit the sea for the first time in their life. Their resilience in the face of adversity is admirable and refreshing. Handal’s film beautifully illustrates how simply holding on to one’s own childhood can be courageous. specially when you come from a refugee camp in alestine. (LA Elements) (TK)

Yasmeen’s Element

Narrative • Pakistan, USA • 2024 • Urdu with English subtitles • 76 MIN

Director: Amman Abbasi • Cast: Eshal Fatima, Nazir Ahmed Bulbul, Abeera Rubab, Naveed Hassan Yasmeen, a young Pakistani schoolgirl, is an eager student, curious, joyful and determined. When she loses her homework assignment in the winding hills on her way home, she sets out to find her professor and discover which of the elements in the periodic table she is to research. She discovers that when atoms collide, they make both beautiful and destructive combinations. So do the villagers she encounters in her search. Abbasi shot the film with one camera and a cast of locals who invite the audience into Yasmeen’s world and the magnificent landscape she inhabits. Set in the disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, a remote, mountainous land claimed by

Pakistan, India, and China, we are introduced to a subsistence farming community. nlike other rural places where conservative forces repress women and girls, in Yasmeen’s village women work alongside men, and all have a commitment to equality and education. They are not always supported by the authorities, however. eminiscent of Abbas iarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House in both plot and perspective,Yasmeen’s determined search along rural roads and through village streets is full of both literal and figurative twists, and is revelatory for both Yasmeen and the audience. The film was initially conceived as an adaptation of The Last Thousand by co-screenwriter Je rey . Stern, about a co-educational school near abul, but shifted direction when the Taliban re-established control in Afghanistan after .S. forces left. What remains of that idea doesn’t wear its themes on its sleeve but instead advocates for girls’ rights and access to education in depicting the joy it brings Yasmeen and her classmates — and the daunting reality outside it (IndieWire). irector Amman Abbasi will join us for a post-screening discussion. (TK)

Presented with support from UW Madison Institute for Regional and International Studies National Resource Center

Zodiac Killer Project

FRI, APRIL 4 • 1:30 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

SAT, APRIL 5 • 1:30 PM

BARTELL THEATRE

Documentary • UK, USA • 2025 • 92 MIN

Director: Charlie Shackleton

At a California rest stop in , highway patrolman Lyndon La erty came face to face with the odiac iller. r at least someone who looked a lot like the police sketch of the notorious murderer. La erty devoted years to chasing down his unshakable hunch, his life becoming a twisty true-crime saga which contemporary filmmaker Charlie Shackleton sought to adapt for the screen. ut just as production was about to begin, he lost the rights to La erty’s memoir. And so Zodiac Killer Project became a meta true crime movie, as Shackleton unspools the whole yarn in a casual, witty voiceover, describing in vivid detail the film he would have made. Armed with clips from the deluge of true crime shows saturating streamers, Shackleton humorously exposes the genre’s inner workings the one-size-fits-all storytelling beats and cliches that render all these horrific crimes eerily digestible while simultaneously using them to his advantage. Hypnotic, funny, and haunting, Zodiac Killer Project will change the way you watch television. Sharp, hilarious, self-aware a documentary masterpiece (The Daily Beast). ot just one of the most fascinating achievements of the form in recent memory, but a work that has the potential to rewire our very brains (The Wrap). 202 Sundance, S SW Film Festivals. (MK)

Short Film Index

Adagio 27

Allan 26

Alone 19

Ana Morphose 11

Animanimusical 19

Archipelago of Earthen Bones 07

Battery Daddy 19

Being John Smith 06

Brussels Loops 19

Bump 26

Butterfly 19

Buttress 27

By Kevin Thomas 06

Choose the Pond 27

Cleopatra Follies 09

The Critic 06

Dance in the Sun 19

Day with a Dick 26

Desert Critter 19

Despite 25

Dolphin Boy 26

The Drifting Guitar 11 fall light 25

Filante 19 First Love/Late Spring 25 Florence 12 Forever Seven 19 Full Out 25 Gigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang 25

Growing Up Gay 11 Half Halt 25 Heart Shaped 25

Hey Jude! 25

Holiday Magic 15 A Home Movie 25

Hoofs on Skates 19

Hydroelectricity 25

Hypnotic Hick 3-D 10

In Between 19

In Paris Parks 18 in silence is the... 15

Incubating Home 25

It’s Not Me 06

Jay Elvis 15

Juice Cleanse 26

Kiko 26

L.A. Link 11

Lola and the Sound Piano11

Love Tapes 11

Golden Badger Awards

JURY STATEMENT

As members of the Golden Badger Jury, we had the pleasure of screening dozens of films with Wisconsin connections, spanning multiple genres, formats, and styles. From experimental shorts and student films produced right here in Wisconsin to a breakup-party-horror film made in LA and a documentary about Japanese Packers obsessives, we saw again and again that Wisconsin’s filmmaking talent is making a mark in our backyard and all around the world. Ultimately we narrowed this year’s exceptional Wisconsin’s Own program down to three winnersGigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang (We Are Healed by Stickball), Adagio, and Why My Dad Loves. We were interested in not only the power of the stories or the subjects covered but the challenges the filmmakers took in achieving

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Choose the Pond

In a year full of impressive portrait documentaries, the jury was deeply moved by Susan Borri’s documentary short about Cindy Bentley. The executive director of People First Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Bentley shares her inspiring journey of advocating for herself and other people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Juice Cleanse

When a couple of bros pressure their friend into the newest health craze, you’ll quickly see why Juice Cleanse left the jury laughing more than any other film this year. Made by a sketch group of three UW-Madison grads, this raucous comedy ends the Wisconsin’s Own Gone Wild block with a perfect dose of energetic absurdity.

Maud et Luna

Luna reveals a new painting to her girlfriend, Maud, causing an unexpected spiral of suspicion and accusation. In just ten minutes, Alec Huggins’s short reminds us that you don’t need a lengthy runtime to produce a gripping drama.

Something in the Water Focused on lead poisoning in Milwaukee’s water supply, Nateya Taylor’s documentary short is a searing, insightful study of a problem that is disproportionately affecting Black communities and the leaders pushing to fix it.

The Year

This tight, experimental short by Grace Mitchell breaks down the rhythms of a year into fractured moments, distorted and out of order and not afraid to confront the abject, the grotesque, and the viscerally mundane.

JURY :

Nathan Deming is a filmmaker originally from Tomah, Wisconsin, now based in Los Angeles. He is the writer/director of Speaking in Tongues (2020) and the ongoing Year Project series - JANUARY (WFF ‘22) and the Golden Badger winning, FEBRUARY (WFF ‘24).

Wendy Schneider is a filmmaker and musician based in Madison. Her documentary, Smart Studios Story screened to raucous applause at the 2016 Wisconsin Film Festival, and her third documentary film, Angels Of Dirt premiered at WFF in 2024 and was awarded the Audience Choice Award.

Matt St. John is an archivist at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. He completed his PhD in Film at UW-Madison in 2023, and he was a Wisconsin’s Own programmer in 2017 and 2018.

WINNERS:

Gigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang (We Are Healed by Stickball)

Screens with Wisconsin’s Own Fire, Water, Stickball... Chazen • 4/6 5:45 pm Finn Ryan’s Gigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang (We Are Healed by Stickball) is the stirring story of a tribe reclaiming part of its culture, as Ojibwe people gather to play Baaga’adowewin (stickball). After forced assimilation all but erased the game from its important historical role as a cultural practice, a new generation worked to bring stickball back in defiant response to the community’s traumatic past. With vibrant footage of games and moving interviews that span generations of players, including Tom Howes from the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe as he produces new sticks by hand, this short documentary expertly profiles the deep meaning that the sport holds for the community.

Adagio

Screens with Wisconsin’s Own Short Stories • Bartell Theatre • 4/6 6:30pm

Narrative filmmaking is a fusion of multiple artistic disciplines - from cinematography and production design to acting, writing, and direction. This synthesis is perhaps best exemplified in one of the simplest yet most powerful tools of cinematic grammar: the close-up. Often taken for granted or assumed to be simple, the closeup is, in fact, a masterful convergence of these disciplines, as beautifully demonstrated in Adagio At the core of Adagio (a musical term for “performed slowly”) is a grieving sister, Iris (Emma Close), whose

face feels destined for the screen - expressive, captivating, and profoundly empathetic. But her presence alone wouldn’t carry the same weight without Evan Thompson’s delicate lighting or director Sawyer Wiedman’s Bressonian staging, which allows for quiet, lyrical moments of observationlike Iris watching passing car lights dance across the ceiling, or overhearing a practicing musician in a school gymnasium - that linger with haunting beauty. Did we mention these are all students who achieved this? The story of Adagio is simple, and the budget small, but it is full of strong choices and su used with quiet grief and emotion and told in exactly the right way.

Why My Dad Loves

Screens with Wisconsin’s Own Portraits • Chazen • 4/5 4pm Director Nkaujoua Xiong’s personal documentary focuses on the rarely discussed past of her father, a Hmong refugee and immigrant who started a family in Wisconsin. From his experience leaving Laos at thirteen years old to his current dreams, Xiong’s film explores all of the questions that she and her siblings have always shared as they grew up with their loving parents. With a ecting home video footage, intimate interviews with the Xiong family, and expressive animation used to illustrate aspects of an intense story, Why My Dad Loves is a deeply moving portrayal of one man’s life and impact, made by a daughter whose respect and admiration are felt in every frame.

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Campus Partners African Cultural Studies Program American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program

Art History Department

Asian American Studies Program Center for East Asian Studies Center for Healthy Minds Center for the Humanities Center for South Asia

Department of French and Italian Departments of Genetics and Medical Genetics

Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic Department of Physics

Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia

Gender & Sexuality Campus Center

Hmong Studies Consortium

Institute for Regional and International Studies

National Resource Center

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Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program

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Middle East Studies Program

Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies

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