Parkway Theater Hosts Homegrown Cinema

The Parkway Theater is hosting a series of double features of Minnesota-produced films on Monday nights over the next four weeks. Here’s the trailer.

The schedule includes:

• May 12 – Two Harbors & Bill’s Big Pumpkins
• May 19 – Snuff: A Documentary About Killing on Camera and Grown Men
• May 26 – It Came from Another World and Mondo Collecto
• June 2 – Seeking Wellness and Wargoon Flishe

Enjoy.

Cloquet Premiere Set for “Older than America”

After more than a year of waiting, residents of northern Minnesota will have an opportunity to see “Older Than America,” the independently-produced feature that was shot in and around Cloquet, Minnesota, and on the nearby Fond du Lac Reservation in late 2006. Three screening are planned on Thursday, April 3. Showings at 5 and 9 p.m. are open to the public and a 7 p.m. screening is reserved for invited guest, presumably locals who worked on the production.

Reservations are needed to attend one of the showings. Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling the Preniere Theaters at 218-879-8045.

The film has recently screened at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and at the Women With Vision Film Festival at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

More details are available in a Cloquet Pine Journal article at
www.cloquetmn.com/articles/index.cfm?id=13010&section=News

Shamrock Film Festivals Posts Call for Entries

The Rosemount Area Arts Council has posted a call for entries for the first annual Shamrock Film Festival. Rules, regulations and general information are available at www.rosemountaac.org/FilmFestival.html. The festival will feature short films, 12 minutes or less. Entry must be postmarked June 15 or earlier. Films will screen on July 18, beginning at 6:30 p.m., at the Rosemount Community Center Auditorium, 13885 S. Roberts Trail, Rosemount, MN 55068.

Contact inforaac@yahoo.com for more information.

“Older Than America” Screens at “Women With Vision”

Minnesotans will have an opportunity to see “Older than America,” the Minnesota-produced feature, when it opens the Women With Vision Film Festival this weekend. Shot in Cloquet, Minnesota, in November and December 2008, “Older” is being promoted as a suspenseful contemporary drama.

Director Georgina Lightning, producer Christine Walker and actress Tantoo Cardinal are scheduled to appear.

It screens Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Walker Art Center. Tickets and information are available by calling 612.375.7600 or visiting http://walkerart.org/tickets.

“Older Than America” at South By Southwest Film Festival

Minnesota-produced “Older Than America” will screen at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival (March 11-15). It will compete with eight other films in the Narrative Feature competition. The film was shot in and around Cloquet, Minnesota, and the on the nearby Fond du Lac Reservation in November and December of 2006.

Read my previous post about “Older than America” at https://frozenframes.wordpress.com/?s=Older+than+america.

Click here for festival screening times for “Older than America.”

College of St. Scholastica Screens Bergman Retrospective

The College of Saint Scholastica will screen a series of four films by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. The series will begin on Friday, November 30, with “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955). All films will be shown in the Science Building auditorium on Scholastica’s Duluth campus. They are free and open to the public.

Bergman died in July of this year. He was one of the most influential filmmakers in film history with a career that spanned six decades.

Film schedule:

• 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30 – “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955)
• 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 – “The Seventh Seal” (1957)
• 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7 – “Wild Strawberries” (1957)
• 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8 – “Autumn Sonata” (1978)

The film festival is sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica Library and the Department of Communication, Theatre and Art.

More information at: http://www.css.edu/x21788.xml.

Source: College of St. Scholastica Press Release

Independent Film Night Comes to Duluth, MN – November 16

IFP Minnesota will host a night of information and entertainment at the Play Ground Theater in Duluth on November 16, 2007. The event will include two workshops on “How to Apply” for the McKnight Filmmaking and Screenwriting Fellowships and a special edition of Cinema Lounge, the popular monthly film showcase that features locally-produced short films.

Schedule

Duluth Play Ground Theater

• 6-7 p.m. – Screenwriting Fellowship “How to Apply” workshop
• 7-8 p.m. – Filmmaking Fellowship “How to Apply” workshop
• 8-9:30 p.m. – Cinema Lounge, featuring…
  • 12 Moons On Gichigami by Mark Ryan (6 min.)  See it!
  • Cross Country with the Snakes by Hansi Johnson (13 min.)
  • Birds At Night (Might Fall) by Bridget Riversmith (3 min.)  See it!
  • Jesus Loves Me by Jason Page (2 min. excerpt from the upcoming feature, “God Rocks”)
  • Resonance by Paul Creager (10 min.)
  • Broc by Steve Ash (20 min.)

Pizza Luce’

• 9:30 p.m. – Party

Aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters are encouraged to attend this free event.

More information at:

• Cinema Lounge
• IFP Minnesota
• McKnight Foundation
• McKnight Filmmaking and Screenwriting Fellowships
• Play Ground Theater

Source: IFP press release and web site.

Film Series, Festival Featured in Regional Papers

Yesterday’s edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press featured an article about a children’s film series sponsored by the Minneapolis Public Library. The series, which is called Childish Films, starts at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 15, in the Downtown Minneapolis Public Library. Additional films will screen the third Saturday each month. Admission is free. The series will feature classic, foreign and independent films. Read “Innovative film series lets kids get in touch with their inner grown-up” at the Pioneer Press web site.

The Duluth News Tribune filed a report about a film festival held at the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation. That event focused on racism and stereotyping. Georgina Lightning, director of “Older than America,” an independent feature shot on the Fond du Lac Reservation last year, participated in the event. Read “Race in film: worth discussing at Fond du lac “ at the DNT’s site.

Ken Burns Documentary Premieres in Luverne, MN

Highlights of The War, a new documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, will have a special screening in Luverne, Minnesota, one of four American towns featured in the production.

The seven-part, 15-hour long PBS series is schedule to begin airing on public television stations on Sunday, September 23.

According to PBS publicity materials, the series uses the personal stories of citizens from four American towns to weave a dramatic portrait of the impact of World War II on the U.S. The towns, Sacramento, CA; Waterbury, CT; Mobile AL; and Luverne, MN, will all have local screenings of highlights of the series. Ken Burns is schedule to attend the screenings and lead a question and answer sessions.

The Luverne screening is scheduled at the Palace Theater at 8 p.m. on September 6. Followed by screenings in Mobile (9/8), Waterbury (9/10) and Sacramento (9/13).

More information at:

• http://www.pbs.org/thewar
• http://www.studentfilmmakers.com/news/article_1456.shtml

Added 8/29/07: Burns will also appear at Northrup Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on September 5. See the Minnesota Film and TV Board’s news site for details. The event is sponsored the U and Twin Cities Public Television.

Added 9/7/07: An extended preview of “The War” is now available via YouTube. And when they say extended, they’re not kidding. It runs 26 minutes.