The Painter Who Loved Chickens
By Administrator | July 17, 2008
We enjoy a good children’s book now and then. Stories free from cynicism. Often inspiring, expounding the merits of gentleness and kindness…and above all, tales that encourage the reader to follow her dreams. The Painter Who Loved Chickens, written and illustrated by Olivier Dunrea is such a book.
The story reminded us of S.V. Medaris, a real life artist who went out, got herself chickens and started painting them. Check out S.V.’s work on her website and watch for her stories and paintings in our Mad City Chickens documentary.
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Milwaukee Fall Festival & Sustainable Living Conference
By Administrator | July 8, 2008
The Mad City Chickens film has allowed us to connect with a wide range of people and organizations from numerous countries around the globe. This particular one is a little closer to home.
The Milwaukee-based Live Local Initiative in cooperation with the Urban Ecology Center will celebrate local resources, innovations and ways to live more sustainably at their Fall Festival (September 27th) & Sustainable Living Conference (September 28th).
Among other things, the Live Local Milwaukee group is hoping to follow Madison’s lead on legalizing chickens in the city.
For more information, contact:
Lance Weinhardt, Live Local Milwaukee, relocalize@milwpc.com
Jamie Ferschinger, Urban Ecology Center, jferschinger@urbanecologycenter.org
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Festival Submissions Continue
By Administrator | June 29, 2008
As the calls for entries continue to open up, the number of film festival submissions for Mad City Chickens keeps growing.
It’s good to get a film submitted early, the earlier the better, but again, it’s a hurry up and wait scenario. Months will pass before the final selection process is complete. The good news is that we have been submitting since spring, so it won’t be too much longer before we start to hear back from the first few festivals. Keeping fingers crossed.
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Over 100 members & 500 CHICKEN videos!
By Administrator | June 24, 2008
The Mad City Chickens youtube group is growing by leaps and bounds! Now with over 100 members and 500 videos, it has become the largest collection of short backyard chicken-related videos on the internet.
If you have (or want to see) short videos of chickens, coops, eggs, hens, roosters…city chickens, country flocks…animated chickens, muppet chickens, chariot racing chickens, even piano playing chickens.
See it all at:
http://www.youtube.com/group/madcitychickens
You don’t have to be a videomaker to be a part of the group. Come check it out and consider joining. The more members that join, the more prominent the chicken vids will be on youtube. Everything chicken…
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Ann Arbor the latest city to go Pro-Chicken
By Administrator | June 20, 2008
While the Mad City Chickens documentary is currently being submitted to festivals across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, there is a fascinating occurrence happening in these countries. The interest in backyard chickens is exploding! It’s an international phenomenon. From Seattle to New York, Vancouver to Toronto, and London to Sydney, urbanites are taking a keen interest in keeping backyard poultry.
We have been contacted by people in communities all across the US and Canada. Old zoning laws are falling by the wayside as cities become more chicken-friendly. Ann Arbor is the latest community to pass pro-chicken laws, allowing hens to be kept in backyards. Others municipalities like Fort Collins and Lawrence are currently in the heat of the battle. One thing is for sure, the city chicken isn’t going away.
Read an article by Judy McGovern from the Ann Arbor News written prior to their city council vote. Mad City Chickens gets a mention.
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International Chicken Stories
By Administrator | June 8, 2008
The chicken is a cultural universal. Practically every society keeps chickens. In one segment of the Mad City Chickens documentary, we hear poultry tales from Mexico, Gambia, France, and Sri Lanka…everyone has a chicken story.
Woven African tapestry from the Gambia depicting chickens as a form of wealth
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Wisconsin Public Television invites us to talk about Mad City Chickens
By Administrator | June 1, 2008
We have been invited by Mary Pokorney-Donelan, the producer of a new series at Wisconsin Public Television titled The Director’s Cut . The program will focus on Wisconsin films and filmmakers and will be a combination of running clips of the films and discussions with host Charles Monroe-Kane.
The Director’s Cut will air on WPT’s digital channel, The Wisconsin Channel, and Saturday nights on the analog channel. The episode where we discuss Mad City Chickens will be taped later this summer.
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Associated Press picks up on Mad City Chickens again
By Administrator | May 28, 2008
“Madison Alder Marcia Rummel, hopes to change Madison’s 4-year-old chicken ordinance to allow people living in multi-family dwellings to keep chickens. Currently, the law enables only people living in single-family residences to have the fowl.”
The reason given:
“Backyard chickens have become popular in Madison, boosted this year by a documentary on the phenomenon, Mad City Chickens, which debuted at the Madison Film Festival in March.”
This piece was authored by reporter Lynn Welch of the Capital Times, then picked up nationwide by the Associated Press. Read entire story here.
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Blog Melt
By Administrator | May 26, 2008
We were having some routine maintenance done to our blog site, when it experienced a meltdown. The result was a loss of all content from the last year! Luckily, 24 hours later, it has now mostly been recovered, although we are still without our blogroll and sidebar links. We hope to have them restored shortly.
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MCC Update: Film Festival Submissions Continue
By Administrator | May 25, 2008
There are over 80,000 film festivals worldwide. The top 15 or 20 are the most difficult to get into, but they of course offer the best exposure and chances of selling a film.
As the season progresses, more festivals are opening up their “call for entries”. We are continuing to submit Mad City Chickens to film fests across the U.S. and Canada, first to some of the major venues to be followed shortly by numerous others in well chosen cities. Unfortunately, it can take months to hear back as to whether a film has been accepted or not.
Hurry up and wait.
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