As the line snaked around the Monona Terrace Thursday night, Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai, assisted by several friends – one of whom was dressed as a chicken in a sequined yellow top a red cockscomb headband – passed out packages of peeps marshmallows and chocolate eggs. The silly atmosphere and charming sense of humor spilled into the theatre as well as onto the screen. With a room full of chicken enthusiasts, festival Volunteer Coordinator Jess Main introduced the world premiere of Mad City Chickens.

The film is inspired by a 2004 legislation change that allows single-family homes to keep up to four hens in the yard. The motivations for chicken ownership are explored in the film and include food production awareness as well a simple love of the animal. Chock full of sight gags and clichéd musical jokes (the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey accompanies a dramatic opening involving an egg the size of Earth), Mad City Chickens sets a fast pace from the beginning and never slows down. Interview editing is quick and deft and creates the illusion that the individuals are having a conversation with each other, instead of with the camera. Lughai mentioned in the Q&A following the screening that “everybody has a chicken story,” and I was surprisingly moved by the first-hand stories included in the film. Chickens chase away a threatening rattlesnake, survive factory farm conditions (and mass euthanasia by gas) to be rescued by chance by compassionate animal lovers, and delight and educate a young family of four.

The film goes one step further and includes a fictional slapstick story about a mad scientist who creates a giant chicken that chases his lowly assistants and wreaks havoc in the streets of Downtown Madison. While the special effects were impressive and everyone got a good laugh, this is the one place where pacing suffered and I found myself wondering when we’d get back to the rest of the documentary.

Not only was the film a feel-good Madison story, but the experience of watching it with a roomful of city chicken owners and the man who helped pass the new legislation, Mayor Dave, proved to be one of the most enthusiastically community-focused experiences of this year’s film festival.