Extraneous forces

Mark Borchardt’s new documentary short explores UFO culture

Dear readers, it helps if you read this in a Mark Borchardt voice—a blue-collar Wisconsin drawl filled with the amused enthusiasm of a dude with whom you’re enjoying many beers. Think an optimistic Pickles the Drummer from “Metalocalypse.”

O’Shansky: “The Dundee Project” is the first project you’ve completed since “Coven,” am I right?

Borchardt: Well, not really, I do a lot of films and lot of writing. It’s like, as time goes by, yeah, it’s probably the first film I’ve done since “Coven,” but that’s not my life. I’m basically a writer.

O’Shansky: Tell me a little bit about “The Dundee Project.”

Borchardt: Sure. It’s a documentary about Dundee, Wisconsin. Each year they hold an annual event where UFO enthusiasts gather for one day to discuss UFOs and in the evening look to the skies. It’s a nice place on the lake and the central headquarters is a bar and restaurant, so it’s got this really great down-home atmosphere.

O’Shansky: It sounds different from what you’ve done in the past, in terms of it being a documentary.

Borchardt: No, no, no … Nah, you don’t have to make any radical assumptions (laughs). All I do—the camera and the lights—are an additional pen. I don’t set out to do this or that. I don’t get into small talk. If I’m going somewhere, and it seems appropriate, I’ll bring a camera and I don’t necessarily have to edit the film [in camera], but I shoot all this beautiful footage. It just so happened that I was filming year after year in Dundee, and then because of extraneous forces I put the film together, and now it’s on the festival circuit.

O’Shansky: You’ll be showing that and “Coven” as well? 

Borchardt: It seems likely. But you know what? I don’t get into any of this stuff, I just don’t. As soon as I’m done for the day I never think twice about it—I don’t get into it. If someone comes up to me and says, “Hey, you made a film,” I’d be like, “Wow!” I’d be surprised, like, “What do you mean?” It’s the last thing I think about because I’m already working on other screenplays and theater plays. I never give [my projects] a second thought.

O’Shansky: So once something is in the bag for you it’s out of sight, out of mind?

Borchardt: Yeah, exactly … whatever I’m doing, that’s what I’m thinking about.

O’Shansky: Are you writing any short stories, novellas, that sort of thing?

Borchardt: All of that stuff. I just had a play produced here in Milwaukee at a one-act festival, which was a great honor.

O’Shansky: What’s that called?

Borchardt: It’s called “The Painting.” It’s an absurdist piece. It moves along quickly. I was actually at one of the auditions. I’m not the director or anything—I’m the playwright—and it’s really great to hear professional actors work, and also that the play actually plays, that it keeps its momentum. That’s a great thing.

O’Shansky: You Tweeted not long ago about the possibility of “Coven II.”

Borchardt: Oh, yeah, that’s one of many projects, and it’s kind of like Pavlov’s dog—you say “Coven”; you get a reaction. Whenever I feel like writing, a page here and a page there, an inspiration there and inspiration here, maybe it’s geographical, maybe it’s character-wise, I begin to assemble a piece, you know? It will be a feature. 

Mark Borchardt films, Q&A, and signing
Fri., May 5, 8:45 p.m. – 9:45, Fly Loft, $15