LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — For nearly 12 continuous hours on Saturday, films paraded across the screen at Horticulture Hall here in this small, southern Wisconsin resort town. The Black Point Film Festival saw its final day of competition begin with a showing of “The Peter Sellers Story — As He Filmed It,” a mediocre British documentary about the famed comedic actor. The day would end on a less amusing note as “Deadline,” a documentary about Illinois’ death row, met its first audience since the Sundance Film Festival. And throughout the day, UW alumni would hold the festival together with several key cameos.

Probably the day’s best-received film, “Passing” mesmerized a packed house as it concluded an 88-minute program of eight short films. A story of three people whose lives all take strangely interwoven turns with the aid of a dog, the film is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s landmark “Slacker” as it happily bastardizes its fascinating array of characters in the interest of keeping attention focused squarely on a Chihuahua.

At night’s end, “Passing” took home honorable mention kudos for Best Dramatic Short. Eric Scherbarth and Matt Binetti, the filmmakers, are both graduates of the UW (class of ’01 and class of ’02, respectively) and were present for the audience’s magnanimous reception of their short film. “It feels pretty good,” remarked Scherbarth, as both he and Binetti reflected fondly on the cinematic education the Communication Arts major offered them. Each specifically noted Professor David Bordwell as a touchstone of the education that has led them to Lake Geneva with such a delightful product.

Also a former Madison undergraduate, Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Wilmington played emcee for much of the day as the festival’s special guest. “Film festivals in general are one of the great humanizing events people can go to,” the reviewer noted, stating that he was glad to see such a professionally assembled festival finally grace the “rather small village” that is his hometown.

Following the screening of “Deadline,” Wilmington held a question-and-answer session with Gary Gauger, a former Illinois death row inmate who was convicted of killing both of his parents, only to later thankfully see his conviction overturned and the real killers brought to justice.

Although “Deadline” proves to be an at-best mediocre film that drags through repetitive sagas and constructs the pro-death penalty movement as a straw man, Gauger is an incredibly charismatic, warm individual, and easily wowed the audience as he and Wilmington took the microphone.

Memorably, Wilmington related a rather frightening story from his days at the UW, when he was nearly beaten to death in Memorial Union. Between his tale of horror in the face of a want-to-be murderer, and Gauger’s tale of horror being treated as a murderer, the question-and-answer session proved easily more potent and meaningful than the film itself.

Still, the audience seemed overtaken by the overtly mawkish nature of “Deadline,” as the cloying picture took home the festival’s Audience Award and was also named Best Documentary Feature.

The winner of Best Documentary Short honors, however, is well deserving of any kudos that may wander its way. “The Hot 8” is a 38-minute documentary about a New Orleans brass band playing in a “shitty little bar” and living on poverty’s edge. With members ranging from ages 11 to 23, the group is one of the Big Easy’s finest, and is even the first New Orleans brass band to play Carnegie Hall. But instrumental talent comes at the expense of an education, and New Orleans’ old-timers openly worry about where members of The Hot 8 and similar groups will be when they are no longer young and cute. City elders also classically lament how New Orleans’ variety of jazz has changed over time, with one man likening so-called brass music to rap and dismissing both outright.

Greg Samata, the director of “The Hot 8,” also screened his much-shorter “Verite Nue” at the Black Point Film Festival. Second-for-second, this six-minute short film is the finest flick seen by this critic on the festival’s final day. A short documentary of the lives of six people, this movie offers concise and emotional tales of life-changing moments and presented entirely in the nude.

But these are just some of the festival’s highlights. In all, over 50 films were screened at this four-day festival — each still wanting for domestic distribution. Indeed, every movie presented represents the essence of independent cinema, making for a refreshingly art-house surprise in a town of just over 7,000 people.