The trouble with casting chickens in a movie is they're just not very good at taking directions.

Until you offer them spaghetti, that is.

"Wiggle it like it's a worm and zoom, you've got that chicken going wherever you want," said Mount Horeb independent filmmaker Robert Lughai, revealing the hard-learned secret behind some of the chicken antics in "Mad City Chickens," a new feature-length documentary that premieres today at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

Lughai and his wife, Tashai Lovington, also a filmmaker, have spent the last 2? years poking their cameras into the often quirky world of Gallus domesticus — aka the common chicken — and the city dwellers who open their back yards to the friendly fowl.

"When we first went into this, we thought it was just people who were into organic gardening, who were interested in where their food came from, and who in some small way were taking back control over their food," Lughai said.

Certainly that is part of the appeal of raising chickens in the city, they learned, but many people also simply enjoy chickens as pets.

"They connect with these birds as if they were dogs or cats and really become part of the family," Lughai said.

It's only quite recently that residents could legally keep chickens in Madison. Until several years ago, city dwellers interested in raising poultry pretty much did so as an underground operation.

Now, four hens — but no roosters — are permitted per household. In 2005, the first year after backyard chickens became legit, 29 licenses were issued. So far this year, 46 chicken licenses have been issued, according to the city treasurer's office.

"For some reason, chickens are just fascinating to watch," said Lovington, who first raised hens about 10 years ago in Michigan. "They each have such different personalities."

Liz Perry, of Waterloo, one of those featured in "Mad City Chickens," became an owner and chicken fan almost by accident.

In May, while dropping off something at the dump, she discovered a bedraggled hen running around, an apparent survivor of a chicken factory's euthanasia.

"She barely had any feathers. She looked terrible," said Perry, who owns Nutzy Mutz & Crazy Catz pet supply store in Madison. "I'm sort of an animal rescue person anyway so she ran in front of the right person."

The rescued leghorn hen — dubbed Consuela — lives now with a sister hen, Cossette, with a "foster family" in east Madison because Waterloo doesn't allow chickens.

Even Perry, who went on to start the Urban Chicken Network to "connect peeps" in the area, is surprised at how fond she's become of her hens.

"Consuela is kind of sassy and truly rules the roost," she said. "Cossette is a fancy, larger chicken and she's more 'Whatever.' "

Chickens are serious

Chickens, it turns out, can be remarkably funny.

"Chickens can't do a lot of things, but what they do do, they do well," Lughai said. "And they're so very serious about it. I think that's why it's so humorous, because they take everything so serious — whether it's trying to figure out how to get around a fence or through a gate or go after a bug. It's goofy looking."

When they're not chasing chickens, Lughai and Lovington both have day jobs with cable access television stations in Madison and Fitchburg, respectively. For months, though, they've been working into the wee hours of the night on "Mad City Chickens."

For a brief time, there was concern that the whole project would be derailed in the wake of the avian flu scare. That panic may have largely passed, but as a lingering reminder, they said, chicken owners are still required to register with the Department of Homeland Security.

Some of the chickens in "Mad City Chickens" pose a threat of a different sort — albeit fictional.

The film is mostly a documentary, chronicling the experiences of city dwellers in Madison and elsewhere who decide to raise chickens, but Lughai and Lovington have woven another, more fanciful story into the mix as well.

"Our story is a little larger than life," Lughai said, by way of teaser.

Like any good promoter, however, he wouldn't reveal details except to say their tale involves something about a mad professor — and a giant chicken named T2 running amok on Madison streets.

Quick, pass the pasta.