Mills Folly Microcinema presents Project Projection Summer 2026, a program of locally produced film and video, Wednesday, July 29, 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 100 minutes. A Q&A session with the filmmakers in attendance will follow the screening.
Rokker Rocks: A Story For the Heart | Jane Lowy | 2026 | 3:22
Rokker is a man who wears many hats. In addition to being the drummer in the band IronPlow, he oversees booking for Atwoodfest every summer. On top of all this, he showcases local music every night for the show Max Ink Radio on 92.7 FM WDMX. This film tells the story of Rokker's recovery journey after having sudden cardiac arrest on stage, and how he continues to advocate for AEDs in music venues.
Coffee and Cream | Steve Chappell | 2026 | 3:17
This film is a music video about coffee and cream (the perfect combination). It features Stark Plug who is the cartoon character from the graphic novel Stark Plug Book.
Art Party | Gretta Wing Miller | 2026 | 9:56
Art Party is a monthly get-together of working artists visualized in 2018 by Oscar Mireles and Samantha Crownover. As with Fight Club: if you don't know where this one is, you won't be able to find the next one…
How to Save a Baby from a Snake Attack | Christopher Bennett | 2023 | 1:05
A baby is saved from a snake attack by their caretaker.
Say their Names | Fatemeh Fani | 2025-26 | 16:55
Say their Names is a documentary film, where the personal becomes political, and where trauma is not narrated, but felt. It confronts the viewer with both intimacy and distance, with traces of life and its abrupt cessation. It invites mourning, but also witnessing. Pandmade papers, which I crafted and inscribed with calligraphy myself, are watermarked with the Farsi names of Iranian women killed in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. It honors and acknowledges each woman individually while referencing all Iranian women who have suffered under the Islamic regime and were killed over the past 47 years.
Bullfight in the Supermarket | Meggen Heuss | 2026 | 12:37
Bullfight in the Supermarket is a collaborative effort between filmmaker, Meggen Heuss, and Chicago poet, Westley Heine. Audio that splices Heine’s spoken poetry with shredding electric guitar and excerpts of old educational demonstrations is brought to screen by the filmmaker’s meticulous layering of self-created collage stills and manipulated found footage.
First One (A Quest to Become More Beautiful) | Ezra Ewen | 2021 | 9:55
Filmmaker Ezra Ewen is his own subject in this short experimental documentary that uses cigarette smoke to blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction. After a lifetime of fear, Ezra, age 29, documents himself as he finally works up the courage to smoke his first full cigarette. Watch in real time as his life becomes visibly more beautiful.
Appetite Movie Clip: The Boys vs. Nightmares | Keasion Griffin | 2025 | 8:54
Appetite is a horror film directed by Keasion Griffin that follows a group of friends—Cameron, Jackson, David, Brian and Shane—whose lives are upended after they discover a missing girl named Daphne in the woods. (Excerpt)
tree light | Alex Jacobs | 2026 | 6:32
This is my fourth film about a street lamp. Music by borpis.
Iss es | Emmy Hannibal | 2026 | 1:13
This short film explores the whimsy of a German girl who is visited by a spirit and tasked with finding an object in the woods. Iss es asks the viewer to enter a world that is both otherworldly and extremely mundane, using references to other films and magical realism in its denouement. Ultimately, this short piece is meant to create a visceral reaction for the audience at the character's journey and transformation.
Candlelight | Heidi E. Johnson | 2026 | 4:48
Candlelight is an experimental documentary vignette capturing impressionistic snippets from a Wisconsin vigil organized by Voces de la Frontera in early January. The film explores the feelings of collective grief, the disparities of public outrage, and community defense against state violence.
Safety in Numbers | Litza Bixler, Aaron Granat | 2026 | 13:39
Proof of concept for meta sci-fi series using verbatim theatre techniques and AI to tell a fictional story using real people’s interviews and inspired by real characters.
Save As | Emmalee Pearson | 2026 | 3:22
An exploration with physical media - from decades before! Creation through iteration, and what we can discover when not opposed to trying new things (even with old film).
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.
