Recap: Wis-Kino's Fall Kabaret
Crafty films, made in just 48 hours
The bizarre anime-styled finale of Craig Knitt and Tony Mayer's "Change Your Order."
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The annual Wis-Kino Fall Kabaret gets local filmmakers together to test their skills against almost impossible barriers of time (and for most, resources). Friday night, the organizers announced a “secret ingredient” that participants would have to work into their films, which had to be written, shot, and edited by Sunday night's screening. The special element, revealed in a clever little video provided by Air America’s Lee Rayburn, turned out to be “change.”
A group of about 50 regulars chanced a jovial, casual screening of some surprisingly entertaining short films Sunday night at Sundance Cinemas Madison.
RASH Films' “Clean Up” thrived on zany touches, for example, a father pouring change over his two sons from a beer pitcher. The second film, Justin and Kate Sprecher's "Richard P. Holt," veered sharply into artsy territory. A series of striking black-and-white shots told a simple, dialogue-free story of a man experiencing loss, and finally a new beginning. The use of vivid blue to illuminate an urn, along with the subtle use of sound to convey mood, made this piece satisfying.
“Man Vs. Wilderness,” hosted by “Maxx Experience,” was a hilarious, offbeat parody of nature-reality TV. Treating the city as an exotic unknown to be explored and explained, the script provided over-the-top gems of dialogue for explanations of travel (“A car—just like a camel but you ride on the inside”) and dating (“If you don’t play guitar, use an accent, chicks love that.”) Thanks to a moment of meta-reality in which “Maxx” runs into an acquaintance in the grocery store and breaks character briefly and some hilarious Tim And Eric-esque glitch editing, director Kathy Fischer turned in a winner. (What it had to do with “change” was anyone’s guess.)
Reserved for more “R-rated” material, the evening's second half featured a lot of surreal, subversive humor. In "RASH Notes: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde," a team of Kino regulars showcased a film version of the CliffsNotes version of Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, made for use as an educational tool in the classroom. The ridiculous premise was perfect for the weekend’s impossible timespan, reveling in the flaws inherent in slapdash filmmaking. In one sick moment of mirth, a man trampled a baby and then offered the mother a check for “3 pounds,” made out to “Dead Baby Mama.”
“Drill, Baby, Drill” featured director Rob Matsushita as a Senator running for mayor who promises more jobs and less crime—as long as the populace lets him “eat a baby” at the end of every month. Farcical and disturbing, this was another script that seemed too good to have been written so quickly. Sample lines: “Can they be Jewish babies?” “This is not about race, Nick!” “So these are Atheist babies?”
Perhaps the best film of the night, “Change Your Order” tackled the night’s theme through the medium of broccoli. The first scene centered on an old joke (punchline: “There ain’t no ‘fuck’ in broccoli!”), and when the ringers in the crowd jeered at filmmakers Craig Knitt and Tony Mayer, they switched to a hilarious Saw parody, followed in similar aplomb by broccoli-centered scenes in film-noir and (seriously) anime styles.
The next Wis-Kino screening, a 2008 retrospective, is slated for Jan. 24 at the Mercury Lounge, and it's free. Wis-Kino will also hold three Kabarets (March 20-22, July 16-19, and Nov. 20-22) next year at Sundance.
