A short film rooted in New Glarus, Swiss tradition and the power of community is headed to one of the state’s biggest film showcases. Appenzellertag, a six-minute documentary by local filmmaker Steve Donovan, will screen Saturday, April 11, at 1:45 p.m. at The Marquee at Union South in Madison as part of the 2026 Wisconsin Film Festival’s “Mixed Bag: Wisconsin’s Own Short Films” program.

The film captures a community gathering in New Glarus organized by Matt Streiff around a giant bottle of Appenzeller Alpenbitter, a Swiss herbal liquor with cultural ties to the village. But Donovan said what he saw that day was about much more than what was being poured into the glasses.