It's Only Natural: Out and About with Wisconsin's Own

77 MIN

Come hang out with us while we explore the great outdoors. Each of the nine films in this Wisconsin's Own shorts program deals with nature and our relationship with it. From the exquisite winter spectacle of the Upper Peninsula in Pictured Rocks, to the way light reflects off of speeding train cars in Todd, to an examination of the lives we've built for ourselves along the banks of a majestic body of water in Life on the Mississippi, these shorts capture the world around us and they beg to be seen on the big screen.

The Sequence of Years

experimental • English • 2018 • Digital • USA • 9 MIN

First-person camerawork, ambient music, and poetic verse interweave in this at once serene and kaleidoscopic journey through landscape and memory. (ZZ)

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Traces of Memory

dance, experimental • 2018 • USA • 6 MIN

A gorgeously photographed and choreographed dance; a meditation on memory and the passing of time, filmed in Madison's own Olin Park. (BR)

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Pictured Rocks

documentary, experimental • 2018 • Digital • USA • 9 MIN

With a perspective at once granular and cosmic, this gorgeously shot, immersive tone poem captures the ebb and flow of seasons along Michigan's Upper Peninsula lakeshore. (ZZ)

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Todd

experimental • 2019 • Digital • 6 MIN

Framed tight against a white background, cargo train cars speed by. Bedford's film transforms the everyday into an entrancing blur of color, speed, and sound. (ZZ)

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The Alligator Hunter

animation • English • 2017 • 4K Digital • USA • 4 MIN

A man loses his wife to a beast and seeks revenge in this beautifully animated short that tackles grief through a painted, hand-drawn aesthetic. (TI)

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Winter Cranes

documentary • English • 2018 • Digital • 4 MIN

In this loving ode to birds and bird-watching, flocks of sandhill cranes congregate in frigid Baraboo before migrating south for the winter. (ZZ)

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The Lifesaving Medal

documentary • 2018 • Digital • USA • 6 MIN

Do you think of Wisconsin as a seafaring state? This brisk, student-produced historical documentary will make sure that you do, focused as it is on tales of heroism along our shores. (ZZ)

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Die Leere (The Emptiness)

experimental • English • 2018 • Digital • USA • 5 MIN

A visual essay of small moments of life and death in the American West. Filmed over the course of a five-week bike trip between Montana and Ontario. (BR)

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Life On The Mississippi

documentary • English • 2018 • Super 16mm • USA • 28 MIN

Retracing Mark Twain's voyages along the Lower Mississippi River, this probing and haunting travelogue interrogates the myths of the American South. Brown's pristine 16mm cinematography and wry voiceover uncover how technology, money, and nature have impacted storied spots and customs from New Orleans to St. Louis. Winner of a 2019 Golden Badger award.. (ZZ)

section: Wisconsin's Own