Coming soon

Hey, maybe I can get this thing off the ground on Monday, February 24, 2025

Hello! I’m James Kreul, and I’ve been involved in Madison’s film culture off and on dating back to the 1990s.

I currently curate three film series in Madison. Mills Folly Microcinema is a monthly experimental film series at Arts + Literature Laboratory; MMoCA Cinema (including the Rooftop Cinema summer series) showcases recent independent films, international cinema, and documentary features at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; and Duck Soup Cinema screens classic silent cinema with live Barton Organ accompaniment in the Capitol Theater in the Overture Center.

This keeps me pretty busy. But I recently decided that I need to write about films more often, and engage the analytical part of my brain. This conclusion was prompted by having a great time teaching an online film appreciation class, Film Conversations, through Arts + Literature Laboratory this winter. Hopefully this Substack will play a role in the next time I teach the Film Conversations class.

I don’t always get a chance to discuss the films I’m curating before or after the public screenings. I also want to call attention to non-mainstream cinema that pops up at Madison’s alternative venues and commercial theaters. Moving Image Madison will be a happy place for me, where I hope to have fun writing about films that I think you should know about.

Moving Image Madison will not comprehensively cover everything playing in Madison. Instead, I’ll participate in the larger discussion about Madison’s film culture (including local filmmaking) led by Grant Phipps, editor of film coverage at Tone Madison; Rob Thomas at Madison Minutes and his Not That Rob Thomas substack, and Alex Lovendahl and his very helpful The Horizon Line Madison substack. I’ll be drawing heavily on Alex’s Screening Report every Wednesday at Horizon Line. Alex beat me to the punch, delivering something Madison really needed: a list of everything playing in Madison, assembled in one place.

For now, the free subscription to Moving Image Madison will deliver every Monday (hopefully!) a review from the weekend or a preview for that week. Previews for films that I’m curating will not be objective reviews (you already know I want you to see these films!) and more like in-depth program notes, sometimes in multiple installments as the screening dates approach. I may also write about films I have curated after their public screenings. This might seem counterproductive, but I’m writing to have fun and to engage with the films that intrigue me, not to meet publicity deadlines.

I’m currently attempting to attend one film screening each week, at commercial theaters or alternative venues. I’ll write about the films that move me to write about them.

I have some fun ideas for paid subscriptions to Moving Image Madison, but I think I should walk at a maintainable pace for a few months before I try to run. I’m also re-working my website, jameskreul.com (no need to link it, nothing is visible at the moment), and I will keep you up to date on progress there. So stay tuned!

[You will find future updates to this post on the About page.]

Images: Last moviegoing hurrahs at AMC Hilldale 6 and the Majestic Theater.