The UW-Madison Division of the Arts awarded two Creative Arts Awards to members of the Communication Arts community this spring. Aaron Greer, a filmmaker and Associate Professor in Communication Arts, was recognized for his upcoming narrative film project, Morning Moon. Additionally, Kristyn Dallmann, a student filmmaker who is graduating this spring, was honored with an award for her 2024 narrative short, The Forest of Dreams.
The Creative Arts Award program allows the Division of the Arts to support research and outreach in various creative art areas at UW-Madison while crafting community and celebrating a wide range of creative projects.
Professor Greer plans to utilize the funds from this award during production of his upcoming film, Morning Moon–a dramatic, neorealist coming-of-age story following a recently orphaned college graduate who befriends a middle-aged couple in her quest to find her biological father. In the process, the three unearth secrets from the past that cause each to question their lives and develop a quasi-family relationship with each other. The project will go into production in the summer of 2026 and will be set and filmed in Madison.
“There are not a lot of narrative feature films shot in Wisconsin,” Greer said when discussing his motivations to set this story in Madison. “The last narrative feature I made was in Chicago because that’s where the resources were. For this project, I felt like it was important to try to make a substantive narrative film in Wisconsin.”
Greer is also excited to make this project with a small cast and crew, getting back to his roots of simplified film production while utilizing the skills he’s polished over the last 25 years. Keeping production simple, shooting on location, and having access to professional film equipment through Communication Arts will allow Greer to minimize the cost of making a movie and instead utilize this Creative Arts Award to pay actors and crew members.
“There are students and faculty in this department who are making creative work, so I think we should get into the regular habit of applying for these types of awards, being a part of creative arts conversations, and embracing the ‘arts’ part of ‘Communication Arts,’” Greer said.
To hold true to this commitment, Professor Greer nominated Kristyn Dallmann for the Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Undergraduate Student Award in the Creative Arts. Dallmann’s 2024 film, The Forest of Dreams, was created in a single semester and premiered at the Communication Arts Showcase last December.
The story takes a fantasy spin on the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” and follows a young woman who leaves home and has numerous magical experiences in a forest but ultimately finds them unfulfilling. Through love, acceptance, and encouragement from her mom, the young woman works to find fulfillment on her journey home.
Completing a short film in a single semester is a massive undertaking, and Dallmann highlighted how the experience developed her leadership and communication skills. “When you’re working closely with others, it can be hard to find the balance of what you want and what other people want, but I felt like [this production] was a good experience of learning how to work with others and collaborate while still having the main ideas I wanted to come through, come through,” she said.
Amy Gilman, the Senior Director for the Arts and Media and the Director of the Chazen Museum of Art expressed excitement for this year’s award winners. “We had an outstanding pool of deserving artists this year,” she said. “Through their research, teaching, and community building, they serve as beacons of light in the arts community, whether they be professors or students. Sharing these artists’ passions with the state – and the world truly inspires people to connect, converse, and collaborate. It’s a perfect example of the Wisconsin Idea in practice.”
Communication Arts is honored to celebrate the work and awards of Greer and Dallmann as they share their art with the community and state at large.