In recent years the Wisconsin Film Festival has started to feel a little cramped. As the list of showings and attendees grew the day was bound to come when the fest would burst its britches. That year is apparently 2010 as the festival finally adds not only films on Wednesday night, but also films during the day on Friday. Yes, that’s right, you cinephiles had already been taking the Friday of the film festival off from work, but now you can totally justify it.

A few weeks ago we rounded up all of the film name drops that had come out of the Wisconsin Film Festival's twitter feed and with the guide coming out in March we thought we would revisit for some more updates.

This year is ramping up to have some amazing energy. In the roughly 24 hours after WFF put out a call for volunteers Festival Director Meg Hamel twittered that 178 people had already signed up. "Zoinks," indeed, Ms. Hamel.

Part of the anticipation surrounding the film festival has always been what design theme will tie the fest together. This year, Madison design firm Swink has been handling some of that work and at wifilmfest.org you can already take a peek at the fruits of their labor - or more specifically the moths and light bulbs of their labor. Expect that theme to be worked into buttons, shirts, and much more. Brittany Radocha is handling the animation of the moths and light bulbs and based solely on this video she seems like a solid fit for the job.

That's the nuts and bolts, but what about the films?

Who says we’re in fly-over country? Certainly not the Sundance Film Festival, which chose Madison as one of only eight cities in which it would expand its horizons from the usual screenings in Park City, Utah and show one of this year’s festival entries.

For us, it was the rock-and-roll biopic The Runaways, the story of one of the first all-girl rock bands to hit the scene in the 1970s. Helmed by first-time director Floria Sigismondi (her previous work had mostly involved music videos), the film is based on the book Neon Angel by former band front woman Cherie Currie and follows the meteoric rise and equally spectacular fall of arguably one of the most overlooked and greatest rock bands of the era.

The screening itself was quite the production; it sold out weeks ago, and the line to get in snaked down the hallways at Sundance Cinemas, a logjam produced by the lone, wand-wielding security officer guarding the door to the theatre. Once we’d all proved that we weren’t carrying cameras to grab an illegal copy of the film, everyone settled in, listened to a brief introduction from 77 Square’s Rob Thomas (who went to Park City to enjoy some of the festival proper), and sat back to enjoy a taste of the Sundance Film Festival.

If you’re not familiar with The Runaways, not only did they help pave the way for future female musicians, but it also acted as a sort of proving ground for several of its members. 

There's no way around this post coming off as somewhat self-serving, so I'll just say "Jesse made me do it" and move on, OK? (Ah, nepotism) Good. Now that that's out of the way, I'm very pleased to announce the official start of a new, monthly web series by local playwright and filmmaker Rob Matsushita and, yes, starring yours truly.

It's called "Chapel: The Series" and follows the trials and bizarre tribulations of Chapel, a young woman with a seriously messed up past who now makes her living as a drug dealer. Not a very good one, though. Mostly, she'd just like to make it through a day without having to borrow a gun.

Started as a few short films, each made in 48 hours for the Wis-Kino Kabaret, as well as that there book I wrote, I'm extremely excited to say that "Chapel" has now morphed into a proper episodic beast. And it's full of all the elements we've come to expect from a Matsushita production: ladies with guns, wry humor, creative camera work, and ass kickings.

Below the fold, check out Episode 1, "Audited" (technically our pilot), which just went live today. All videos are probably NSFW due to strong language and violence.