Mills Folly Microcinema presents Project Projection Fall 2025, a program of locally produced film and video, Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 7:00pm. Free admission, donations encouraged.
Join us for an evening of experimental films, short documentaries, music videos, and animation produced by filmmakers who reside in Madison and Dane County. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Program running time: approximately 80 minutes. A Q&A session with the filmmakers in attendance will follow the screening.
Screening order will be provided at the screening.
Crumples | Peter Berryman | 2021 | 3:30 minutes
Crumples hints at the difficulty of creativity represented by recurring appearances of crumpled paper in various otherwise unrelated scenarios. The video is set to a song poem appropriate to each scenario. Peter Berryman started experimenting with 8mm films in 1966 and on into the 70s, with some 16mm experience in 1974. Went on to a songwriting and performing career, dabbling eventually in digital video.
Cyberphilia | Samuel Knopes | 2024 | 8:00 minutes
After being dumped by his girlfriend, Julian is comforted by the affectionate voice of his personal computer. What begins as a relatively benign habit devolves into depravity as Julian loses touch with reality. Told as a visual poem, Cyberphilia oscillates between Julian's loss of control and the real history of the technology we've all become a bit too comfortable with.
My work so far tends to focus on the relationship between people and technology (I am a computer programmer professionally) and makes indulgent use of expressive lighting. A short film of mine, Computer Sciences, B.S. was featured in the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2024.
Sweet and Smear | Claudia Krogmeier | 2025 | 3:50 minutes
The cake is beautiful and sweet and too sweet and much, much too sweet to eat. You start to feel strange. You eat more cake and wonder if you've ever been real. You’re not the only one. An unreleased music video for a local band, featuring a painting by Chase Bisson. Claudia Krogmeier explores the veil between the physical and the psychological. She experiments with ambiguity and disintegration of social interactions and language, and invites viewers to interpret open-ended narratives in their own way.
The Nelken Line–3 Seasons in Madison | Erica Pinigis | 2021-2024
autumn: 3:30 minutes
winter: 3:30 minutes
spring: 3:30 minutes
The Nelken Line, originally choreographed by the dance-theater legend, Pina Bausch, was opened up to the public to participate in during the pandemic. Pina's company invited the world to create their own Nelken lines, sharing in a global celebration of our humanity and our place within the cyclical nature of life. Just four simple movements, each representing a season (spring - low grass and seed, summer - high grass and sun, autumn - falling leaves, and winter - a big shiver), take on increasing meaning when marched in unison across landscapes. I choreograph like I cook; The ingredients are the inspiration. Without a recipe in mind, I allow the work to reveal itself like it’s been there the whole time, or form itself as its demands and desires make themselves apparent. My work enjoys a complex flavor profile, layering bitter with sweet, all the better to connect with and emphasize conditions of our humanity.
Setting Up | Gretta Wing Miller | 2025 | 7:00 minutes
My daughter sent me fast-motion clips of her 'setting up' her kindergarten room. Then, I filmed the Iceboat Foundation crew 'setting up' an historic, 100 year old iceboat for the first time. I couldn't possibly NOT combine them. I have been a documentary filmmaker and editor since the late '70s. Since moving to Madison from NYC, I have focused on local and regional docs.
Sulfur Picnic | Gregg Williard | 6:00 minutes
I'm a writer and visual artist. My work is often about experience refracted through history and memory, art and literature, movies and dreams. Images and language pair off and dance in the slant, or go on to solo spins.
Summer Steward Lama 2018 | Tim Geurkink | 2018 | 5:30 minutes
This video highlights a summer I spent at The Lama Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. It is a brief day in the life as a volunteer on the grounds. I used the second half of the video for my Masters Thesis presentation which I ended up doing on Interspirituality at Naropa University. My videos are mostly documents of my life and put to music that I enjoy with the intent to remember and share my life experiences as I see it through my eyes.
The Art of Issa Benyamin | Al Rasho, Obie Yadgar | 2002 | 5:00 minutes
Iranian born Assyrian Issa Benyamin, devoted his life to the art of Assyrian calligraphy. Assyrian is an ancient language, a modern day Aramaic, spoken in the time of Jesus Christ. I retired as an independent filmmaker in Chicago in 2013. Moved to Madison and now am the music booking manager at North Street Cabaret.
Don't You Want to Live Forever? | Spenser Wise | 2015 | 2:30 minutes
Don't You Wanna Live Forever? is a video art piece I created towards the beginning of my multimedia journey. Through use of makeup and improvised performance, I explore the character of an artist who yearns for his "body of work" to carry on, knowing his own limited form is fading fast... Spenser Wise is a writer and multimedia artist from the bayous of Louisiana. Blending storytelling, performance, and technology, Wise explores themes such as perception, vulnerability, and people's secret, inner lives.
Godzilla Visits Minneapolis! | Steve Chappell | 2025 | 5:30 minutes
Everyone has heard of the famous city of Minneapolis. Godzilla decides to go there and find out firsthand what all the talk is all about. Pay close attention and you just might notice what is the true color of Mary Tyler Moore’s beret. And no, not raspberry. Steve Chappell is an illustrator, musician, sculptor, and filmmaker. He has made many films and won awards for Trilogy of Tear! (Best Animated Short at Midwest Weirdfest 2020), and Ed Gein Interview (Best Animated Film at MLC Awards 2021).
Janus Effect | Debra Zarne | 2025 | 10:30 minutes
An impressionistic exploration of the journey towards end of life. Through a visual collage, the film depicts different stages of the transition and various approaches to coping with it, immersing the viewer in a powerful, provocative experience. The film is constructed around experimental music composed by Yehuda Yannay and Joshua Schmidt. Debra Zarne, currently living in Mequon, Wisconsin, has made over 40 films, mainly shorts, including music videos, promotional videos, comedies, dramas, documentaries, experimental films, children's films, theatrical musicals and concerts. Lately she's been creating experimental films using stock footage. Debra received an M.F.A. in Cinema/Television (Film Production Division) at the University of Southern California.
Niu Niu's Story | Mariel McEwan, Ja Wu | 2007 | 6:20 minutes
Dance, animation, and humor reveal the training and career of a young Chinese girl who was "born to dance." Mariel McEwan is a freelance writer, director, and editor specializing in dance choreographed for the camera, Her dance camera videos have been screened in national and international Dance Camera Festivals including the Lincoln Center in New York and venues in Europe, South America and Asia.
Descendants of Tamar / თამარ-ები | Vivienne Timchenko | 2024 | 2:00 minutes
თამარ-ები was created using found footage, squaring parallels and interest in an animated television series (Arcane) that gained popularity at the same time that protests in the Republic of Georgia gained a quondam level of violence. Dedicated to Qartvelians, and people in all pockets of the world, who have been wrongfully arrested, imprisoned, beaten, and killed in the continuous fight for freedom. აჯანყდი! Vivienne Timchenko is a Qartveli-American, Queer, multidisciplinary artist. Within Timchenko’s work, she shapes and synthesizes themes of purpose, peculiarity, and protest.
eARTh | Martin Saunders | 2025 | 10:00 minutes
eARTh is a video collage of artworks and original travel footage that I have compiled over the years. The premise is that the lifeblood of the planet runs through the veins of creativity. Artists, musicians, and dancers from all over the world contribute to the overall themes of yearning, urban renewal and human communication through images and sound from different continents throughout the globe. I have a background in fine arts and photography, and I have been making travel videos and documentaries for about ten years. Previous documentaries X-An Artful Life about the artist Christopher Burant, and A Hidden Gem documenting the making of a neighborhood mural.
Moonlite Karaoke – Across the Universe | Michael Doyle Olson | 2025 | 2:30 minutes
A real karaoke performance in an imagined venue – a partial rendition of a 60s classic... but someone has spilled ginger beer on the karaoke machine and the video equipment. Michael Doyle Olson got his formal start in video at WYOU – Madison's bygone public access channel. Since then, he has deployed his prowess to stick it to the man, get noticed by the man, collect a paycheck from the man, become the man and, ultimately, start the cycle anew. Michael has worked professionally as an editor, animator, cinematographer, title designer, box truck driver, production assistant, craft services angel, hand model & much more.
ABOUT MILLS FOLLY MICROCINEMA
Mills Folly Microcinema showcases nationally recognized experimental film and video art from the festival and microcinema circuit. We network with regional filmmakers and organizations to bring filmmakers and guest programmers to Madison for screenings. And we incubate local experimental filmmaking by providing screen time at Project Projection events.
