On today’s Mel & Floyd Summer Replacement Show, Mel and Mr. Smarty Pants celebrate the 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival, which kicked off last night and runs through next Thursday, April 10.

This year, the film fest boasts more than 100 film screenings at seven different locations — the Bartell Theater, Chazen Museum of Art, UW Cinematheque, Music Hall, Union South, Barrymore Theater and Flix Brewhouse. You can find the full schedule in the March edition of Isthmus newspaper or online.

Today on the show we’re joined by a dizzying array of guests involved with the festival.

Ben Reiser is the Operations Coordinator of the Wisconsin Film Festival. (Erik Schwertfeger / WORT News)

We speak with the Wisconsin Film Festival’s Ben Reiser, just before he’s set to introduce his first film. We’re happy to sustain him with a full box of Reece’s Pieces. Then Four Star Video Cooperative’s Lewis Peterson joins us by phone from the Bartell Theatre, ahead of a showing of Zodiac Killer Project. Lewis gives us some of his picks of the fest  — and you can read about more of his selections at Tone Madison here and here.

We also speak with filmmakers who have films showing at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival.

Douglas Rosenberg is Professor of Video/ Performance/ Installation at UW-Madison. (Erik Schwertfeger / WORT News)

Douglas Rosenberg is Professor in the UW-Madison Art Department, and the director and screenwriter behind The Sea, a black and white film screen dance staged against the landscape of the Baltic Sea. It makes its Midwest premiere this Sunday at 2pm at Music Hall. 

Grace Mitchell and Sofia Theodore-Pierce are the team behind Heart-Shaped, an epistolary short set in the various fantasy suites within the Don Q Inn in Dodgeville. It screens Friday at 6pm at the Chazen Museum as part of a series of a dozen or so experimental shorts.

Aidan Leary is a director, writer, and producer currently based in Los Angeles, CA. (Erik Schwertfeger / WORT News)

Aidan Leary is the director behind Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, a horror film that descends from the cheery world of puppets into a hellscape haunted by “The Freak.” It screens Friday at 8:30pm at the Marquee at Union South. Leary will be in attendance, along with the solo cast member Michael Gilio, producer Joe Swanberg, and several puppets. 

Sean Hanish is a film and commercial director, and heads up Cannonball Productions. (Erik Schwertfeger / WORT News)

Sean Hanish is the director behind Just a Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers, which screens Friday at 5:30 at Music Hall. Hanish is a  Brookfield native and UW-Madison alum.

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