SLOW FOOD ON FILM: Mad City Chickens

Cost : $15 per person

Reception with Tapas and Wine (sold by the glass) to follow

Mad City Chickens is a story about chickens in the city, or more appropriately, a set of several stories. As close to universal as a food source can be, chickens and their eggs were once a regular element of many a family's lives in the U.S., and remain so throughout the world. That way of life largely disappeared in this country, though, due to the rise of industrial farming, but is slowly returning to many cities as people rediscover the experience of keeping the birds in their backyards.

Madison is a leader in this movement, starting with members of the self-described Chicken Underground who illegally raised the birds for years before a limited amount of chicken-keeping was authorized by the city back in 2004.

Thus was the stage set for the film, which deftly weaves multiple stories and contextual issues about urban chickens and their keepers in a non-linear fashion that one rarely sees in a documentary, particularly one so focused on introducing a novel concept. While Mad City Chickens is not a direct advocacy documentary, it does a great job of piquing one's interest in taking the poultry plunge, not to mention partaking in a big omelet or plate of grilled pollo.