Zebra
Without a Doubt
SEE: World of Tomorrow: New Animated
Shorts
Wombo
SEE: Big Screens, Little Folks: Short
and Sweet & Big Screens, Little Folks: Shorter and Sweeter
World of Tomorrow
• Driving DIRECTOR NATE THEIS SCHEDULED TO ATTEND. WISCONSIN PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2014, color, HD projection • 4 MIN DIRECTOR: NATE THEIS
Animator: Nate Theis
World of Tomorrow
Tensions build to an explosive breaking point for a group of automobile drivers in the big city in this quirky animated short. (AM)
Shorts
• It’s the Cat
SEE: World of Tomorrow: New Animated
World of Tomorrow: New Animated Shorts SUN, APR 12 • 3:00 PM Capitol Theater
WISCONSIN FILM FESTIFAL · MADISON · APRIL 9-16, 2015 · WIFILMFEST.ORG · 877.963.FILM
72 MIN
Join us for an eclectic selection of animation that celebrates the medium’s many forms. Traditional hand-drawn, stop-motion, and computer animation are all on display in this program that journeys from the mundane highways of contemporary existence to sometimes troubling, sometimes hysterically funny visions of humankind’s future. The program includes three exceptional shorts from Wisconsin’s Own animators, and is anchored by new works from veterans like Oscar-nominee Don Hertzfeldt (Rejected) and the team of Mark Kausler and Greg Ford. Plus, a holiday-themed sequel to the WFF 2010 hit, A Town Called Panic! While some of the shorts in this program might be more kid-friendly than others, none could be considered inappropriate for children.
• The Crossing DIRECTOR JOHN MAY SCHEDULED TO ATTEND. WORLD PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2014, color, HD projection • 12 MIN DIRECTOR: JOHN A. MAY
Associate producer: Nelle Burke
A mechanism wandering through a post-apocalyptic terrain discovers an abandoned dwelling filled with evocative remnants of a previous occupant 34 and clues to that occupant’s fate. (BR)
WISCONSIN PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2004, color, DCP • 4 MIN DIRECTOR: MARK KAUSLER
Producer: Greg Ford
A throwback to the Golden Age of Animation from veteran Mark Kausler, It’s the Cat stars a hep, dynamic hero who travels along the fences of suburbia and finds himself propelled to the moon, action perfectly synched to the classic 1920s tune by Gus Kahn and Isham Jones. (JH)
• Some Other Cat
WISCONSIN PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2013, color, DCP • 3 MIN DIRECTOR: MARK KAUSLER
Producer: Greg Ford
Kausler’s cat returns, this time to a Southwestern desert landscape where our hero finds his gal is being romanced by the title character. (JH)
• A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log (La Bûche de Noël) WISCONSIN PREMIERE • animation • France, Belgium, 2014, color, DCP • 26 MIN DIRECTOR: STÉPHANE AUBIER, VINCENT PATAR
Writer: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar; editor: Anne-Laure Guégan; animation: Ben Tesseur, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar; producer: Vinvent Tavier, Nicolas Schmerkin, Ben Tesseur; cast: Bruce Ellison, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
The herky-jerky, helium-voiced gang from WFF 2010 favorite A Town Called Panic is back for a holiday special! Horsing around on Christmas Eve, Cowboy and Indian accidentally destroy the Yule Log. As punishment, Horse calls Santa and cancels their presents. Oh no!
Young Bodies Heal Quickly Cowboy and Indian scramble to make things right…but somehow only make things worse. Just as much of a haywire delight as the original, this welcome victory lap won animators Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar the Short Film Grand Prize at the 2014 New York Children’s Film Festival. (MK)
• Without a Doubt DIRECTOR GERALD GUTHRIE SCHEDULED TO ATTEND. MIDWEST PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2014, color, HD projection • 6 MIN DIRECTOR: GERALD GUTHRIE
Writer: Gerald Guthrie; animation: Gerald Guthrie; music: John Chase
Descartes and digital animation dovetail delightfully in Gerald Guthrie’s transfixing, imaginative short. (BR)
• World of Tomorrow
MIDWEST PREMIERE • animation • USA, 2015, color, DCP • 17 MIN DIRECTOR: DON HERTZFELDT
Writer: Don Hertzfeldt
In the latest masterwork from independent animator Don Hertzfeldt, subject of a WFF 2012 retrospective, a visitor from the future brings a message to one of her ancestors. Awe-inspiring, mindbending, guffaw-inducing, and, ultimately, terribly moving, World of Tomorrow was one of the most acclaimed films shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. (JH)
Young Bodies Heal Quickly SAT, APR 11 • 11:30 AM UW Cinematheque
SUN, APR 12 • 6:00 PM Sundance Cinema 5
DIRECTOR ANDREW T. BETZER SCHEDULED TO ATTEND. WISCONSIN PREMIERE • narrative • USA, 2014, color, DCP • 102 MIN + 30 MIN POSTFILM Q&A DIRECTOR: ANDREW T. BETZER
Writer: Andrew T. Betzer; cinematographer: Sean Price Williams; editor: Andrew T. Betzer; executive producers: Pamela Koffler, Balazs Nyari, Christine Vachon; producer: Andrew T. Betzer; cast: Hale Lytle, Gabriel Croft, Daniel P. Jones, Sandy Hale, Judson Rosebush, Julie Sokolowski, Alexandre Marouani, Kate Lyn Shiel, Josephine Decker
Zouzou SECTION: FUTURES: DEBUT FILMS FROM THE VANGUARD
One of the most original American independent films of recent years, Andrew Betzer’s debut feature is a bracing, utterly unpredictable vision of two brothers on the lam. The older is twenty, just out of prison, and clearly a bad influence on the younger, who is ten. When they are involved in the accidental killing of a young girl, their mother helps them flee in a beat-up car. Searching for a safehouse, their fugitive journey morphs into an episodic road trip as they bounce between estranged family members, get entwined in jealous love triangles, and are drafted into Vietnam War reenactments. Shot on gloriously grainy 16mm, this rough-hewn adventure achieves rare tone that is at once primal and mythic. Adding to the film’s uncanny atmosphere is Betzer’s amazing cast, several of whom are appearing in only their second film after making indelible debuts: Julie Sokolowski and Daniel P. Jones each gave singularly commanding lead performances in art cinema (Bruno Dumont’s Hadewijch and Australian WFF 2013 selection Hail, respectively), and star Gabriel Croft’s sole prior screen appearance was as himself in the amateur wrestling documentary Fake it So Real. (MK)
Zebra
SEE: Big Screens, Little Folks: Shorter
and Sweeter
Zouzou
FRI, APR 10 • 11:00 AM Sundance Cinema 6
SUN, APR 12 • 8:45 PM UW Union South Marquee
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE • narrative •
France, 2014, color, DCP • 80 MIN
DIRECTOR: BLANDINE LENOIR
Writer: Jean-Luc Gaget, Blandine Lenoir; cinematographer: Kika Ungaro; editor: Stéphanie Araud; producer: Nicolas Brevière; cast: Jeanne Ferron, Florence Muller, Laure Calamy, Sarah Grappin IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES SECTION: FILMS DE FEMMES: EMERGING FRENCH WOMEN DIRECTORS • NEW INTERNATIONAL CINEMA
An effervescent comedy of female desire, Zouzou takes place at a family get-together in which three generations of women learn a bit more than they would like about each other’s libidos. Solange welcomes her three adult daughters Agathe, Marie, and Lucie back home for a few days, with the hidden agenda of introducing them to her new amour. The kids have trouble reconciling their sixtyish mother being intimate with the hopelessly square fuddy-duddy she presents to them…but that’s nothing when they discover Agathe’s 14 yearold daughter Zouzou getting busy with her boyfriend in an upstairs bedroom. When the teens flee the scene, the family frantically searches for them, recruiting new and exboyfriends to pitch in. As the hunt stretches into the night, the sisters begin to reconsider their own romantic relationships. Director Blandine Lenoir’s affectionately bawdy treat has won Audience Awards at several French film festivals. (MK)