‘Park People’ Will Satirize Madison’s Protest Culture

We can agree to disagree. But the joke behind Corey Holl’s political satire “The Park People” is that we can’t agree on how to disagree.

Holl is a 24-year-old Monona Grove High graduate who makes short business documentaries and music videos in Madison with his partner David Guenther through their company Cut the Deck Creative. He’s raising money to shoot “Park People” in Madison next summer, and has started a crowdfunding campaign and shot a “proof of concept” short film to show to production companies who want to get involved.

Sitting in the Tenney Park shelter near his home, Holl talked about finding the funny aspects of protest in unfunny political times:

Tell me about “The Park People.”

“The Park People” is a political satire. It's a love letter to Madison, but it's also a satire about Madison, and it's about protesting and about place and finding your people, and then obviously about nature and parks, because I'm a big park person myself. So I'm always in parks, and I feel like I found a lot of solace in it, especially in recent times.

This park shuts down in the corner of the city, and these neighbors, mostly these two hippies, protest its closure right away. And then there’s Katie, who's this listless young adult who's our protagonist. She’s like a lot of young people, kind of doomscrolling, not really sure what to do with this world. She gets involved with these hippies and tries to figure out how to stop this park [closure]. They figure out that, you know, there's a corrupt mayor and there's this big billionaire company that's just gobbling up land and building luxury apartments on it. Things get more and more drastic as they try to stop it.

There’s something about this that really reflects Madison. Different generations of people who may be aligned politically but have very different ideas about action.

I feel like the most politically active are either young or old, just because they're not busy raising a family, they just have more time to think about these things, which was really interesting. I think I've seen that a lot too in promoting this movie. It feels like the people who are the most interested in it are either older, or like, the same age as me, which has been really interesting. That's been kind of a fun parallel between the story and the real world.

How did the idea come about?

I've had a bunch of variations on this idea of nature bringing people together, just in my head for so long. I was trying to think about that. At the same time, it was this kind of concept where I was trying to figure out how to do something about protest as well. I thought, land is being ignored, and it’s something that isn’t so heavy that I could make fun of the concept of protesting without being insensitive about things that need to be protested. I thought I could have some fun with this and build this big satirical world around it.

Are you finding a good pool of talent in Madison in front of and behind the camera?

More than you'd think, just because everyone's in their own little niches and their own little bubbles. But things are coming together. Once you meet one person, they know this person, and then they know this person, and it’s really just all a web where everyone comes together. So you're able to find pretty much anyone you need in the city. They're all really talented and all very passionate. People just want to get things made and things that are fun made.