ON THE TOWN: John Perry III’s short...

ON THE TOWN: John Perry III’s short film, “The Nightmare,” has been slumming for the past few weeks. Normally, the live-action/animated collage travels strictly in cinematic high society--screening at places like the Whitney Museum and the British Film Institute. These days--thanks to Madonna--it’s enjoying a broader audience, playing on video screens during the “Papa Don’t Preach” segment of Madonna’s summer tour (including her Anaheim Stadium gig last weekend). Made six years ago for less than $5,000, the film is loaded with surreal, rapid-fire images that Perry says “trace America’s genocidal tendencies toward the Indians and other Third World people.”

How’d the NYC film maker get close enough to Madonna to show her the film? “I was on a job interview in L.A. when I heard music coming out of a nearby rehearsal studio,” he explained. “I snuck in and discovered it was Madonna. So I stuck around. When her bodyguards asked who I was, I told them I was the new sound-track technician. After the rehearsal, I gave her my card--which has a still from the movie--and that intrigued her enough so that she asked to see the movie. She picked out about two minutes worth of footage, which they show as part of a dream sequence during ‘Papa Don’t Preach.’ ”

Perry first saw the film with an audience during Madonna’s recent AIDS benefit at Madison Square Garden. The reviews were good, at least according to Perry’s roommate, a cab driver who picked up several fans after the concert.