On their Facebook page earlier this afternoon, Micro-Wave Cinema released their spring series in a digital pamphlet (and something has to be done about that last pull quote).
Now in its third semester splitting 4070 Vilas Hall with the Cinematheque, Micro-Wave is dedicated to providing Madison with pint-sized morsels of independent cinema and fostering a dialogue between audience and filmmaker. Size is often key here, too as you’re not likely to have read about Micro-Wave selections outside of IndieWIRE or NoBudge.
But that’s no indication of quality. Micro-Wave begins this Sunday, Feb 8 with a Josephine Decker double bill. Butter on the Latch is the one-time performance artist’s feature debut starring a young woman who ditches city life for a California music camp out in the wilderness. Her 2014 follow-up, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely is loosely based on East of Eden and features Robert Longstreet and mumblecore mascot Joe Swanberg.
Mike Ott’s Lake Los Angeles (Feb 15), the third in his purported “Antelope Valley” trilogy, finds a Cuban immigrant and a little girl using their imaginations to pass time in the hopeless desert. The Appalachian Valley documentary Big Moccasin plays on Mar 1 and Iva Radivojevic’s “visual essay about migrating populations” Evaporating Borders will screen on Mar 15.
The series gets really interesting when The A.V. Club critic and former At the Movies host Ignatiy Vishnevetsky presents Ellie Lumme, an anti-supernatural ghost story about a young woman who tries to fend off the advances of an unwanted man. Vishnavetsky will also appear in person to present another as-yet-unannounced project.
Uncertain Terms is Nathan Silver’s melodrama in which young mothers find their lives exploded apart in a group home (Apr 26) and the series wraps on May 3 with Frank Mosley’s Her Wilderness, about a young boy’s life in the aftermath of divorce.
As always, Brandon Colvin (yes, that Brandon Colvin) will follow each screening with a Q&A session with the respective filmmakers.
- All Micro-Wave Cinema screenings are FREE and open to the public