(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we're gonna see some film clips from the Fargo Film Festival.

But first, joining me now, is Sean Volk, the Fargo Theater development and engagement manager.

And of course, you're here to talk about the Fargo Film Festival.

Sean, welcome.

- Well, thank you very much for having me.

- Yeah, as we always start, tell folks a little bit about yourself, maybe where you're originally from, your background.

- Yeah, I grew up in Valley City, North Dakota, and I got my undergrad at Concordia.

And when I started working, when I started studying there, I began working at the Fargo Theater as a concession worker, and then, when I graduated from Concordia, I was promoted and became the operations manager.

So I worked there for a couple of years.

And then, I stepped away and pursued my master's degree in film studies.

And I moved to Canada, went to Western University in London, Ontario, just outside of Toronto, and got a film studies masters.

And then, came back to the US and based regionally here, looking for opportunities to work with the arts, work with cinema, work with Film Festivals.

And I got really lucky.

I worked for the Nashville Film Festival and Mountain Film in Telluride, Colorado, and Woods Hole in Massachusetts.

And, the Fargo Film Festival's always been home for me and the Fargo Theater has been as well.

It's been a big part of my story for 13 years.

And they created a role back in 2020, and I applied and was fortunate enough to get it.

So I got to come back home, in a way, and join the staff full time again in 2020.

- Right, so, okay.

And so, after back-to-back years, and of course, with no festival in March of 2020, and then having to be virtual in March of 2021, is it gonna be in person in March of 2022?

And talk about that.

- It absolutely will.

We are so excited to be back in person at the Fargo Theater in March this year.

It was wild doing two virtual festivals because it's essentially taking everything that you do in a festival, but then making almost like a streaming platform for it.

But the thing that I think we're most excited about is just being back in person.

I think there's nothing more magical than going to a movie with an audience on the big screen, and what better place than to do that at the Fargo Theater?

So we are so grateful to be back with audiences, with filmmakers, celebrating independent and international cinema.

- Well, of course, with the theater actually being open, and Omicron starting to peak, and maybe going down, did it make the decision easier to do it in person?

- I would say it did make it a little bit easier because after that initial wave in the pandemic, there were 13 and a half months that the Fargo Theater was closed.

And we had a lot of time that we were able to evaluate how do we reopen safely for our audiences, for the community, for our staff.

So we've been back for nearly a year now, which is so wonderful, but, we've definitely been watching trends and communication with people to make sure that the event we're gonna put on, one is able to happen and two, and most importantly, that we're able to do it safely for our community.

- Now it sounds like you followed the film "Festival Circuit" pretty closely.

Are other festivals in-person and will Fargo be one of the first to do it?

- It's been such a mixed experience, kind of across the Film Festival world because this year, Sundance, very famously in January, they said that they were going full speed ahead.

And that was the same time that Omicron really began peaking.

And then just before the event, they had to cancel their in-person portion and just do virtual.

But then we've also seen really successful festivals like TIFF and Tribeca in New York, going hybrid and doing in-person screenings and that virtual component as well.

But, the big thing for us at the Fargo Film Festival, is we're all about the Fargo Theater, we're all about our audiences and we're all about coming together to celebrate movies together.

So we are so glad to be back in person, but there have been kind of staggered in-person screenings throughout the country.

- Are you doing any kind of hybrid situation this year?

- This year we're focused completely on our in person.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- It sounds like a few filmmakers and actors, actresses are planning on attending, can you talk about that?

And who might be coming?

(Sean chuckles) - Yeah, we're really excited.

And like I said, being at the Fargo Theater, we have a lot of opportunity to space people out.

It's a 900, almost 900-person seat theater.

So there's a lot of room to kind of play around with there, but we're so excited.

Our winner of best narrative feature in the festival is a film called "We Burn Like This."

And the right writer and director of the film, Alana Waksman, is coming to the theater and she is going to be having her film showcased on Friday night at seven o'clock.

And I just gotta tell you, it is a beautiful story.

It's about a young woman living in Montana and she it's difficult because she begins to see this rise of hate speech and actions throughout her community.

And as a young Jewish woman, she's trying to figure out what is her place in this community?

How does she protect herself, protect her family?

Because she's the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

So it's this story of kind of persevering against hate knowing who you are and understanding your legacy and living with that with pride.

It's a very autobiographical piece for Alana.

It's a narrative feature, so it's a fictionalized take, but she is coming and we're gonna do a Q & A with her live on stage at the Fargo Theater.

- Wow.

Well, how about, can you talk about some other films that maybe you're proud of, that are screening or of one jury or category awards?

- Well, I would definitely wanna spotlight there's a documentary short called "When We Were Bullies."

So it's really fascinating about a director named J Rosenblatt looks back on an incident when he was in elementary school, where he realizes that he was engaged in really horrible bullying activity.

And now all of these decades later, he starts approaching people in his class to say like, "Hey, what do you remember?"

And he goes to his teacher and he tries to get in contact with the person that was bullied.

And it's this fascinating story about how do we view our own lives?

And how do we kind of remember things and do people remember things in the same way?

That won Best Documentary Short, and it's excellent.

It's played a lot of festivals.

And then there is a narrative short.

I also really wanna spotlight.

It's a comedy and it's called "Shark".

And it is about a newly married couple and they're obsessed with pranking each other.

And it's stars, Rose Byrne, who is just a fantastic actress.

She's been in damages on TV and bridesmaids in movies, but she plays this woman who is really dedicated to upping the ante in each of the pranks that she does with her husband.

And they get subsequently more and more outlandish.

And you just have to watch to see why a shark might be pertinent to that.

(Sean chuckles) - Can you talk about some of the categories of films you offer that maybe the general audience didn't even realize like experimental and student?

- Absolutely.

Well, it's really exciting because at the Fargo Film Festival, you're gonna come and you're gonna see things that wouldn't necessarily play at a multiplex.

You're gonna see things that are only playing in our region because they're playing in the Fargo Film Festival and the student category, the experimental category are two awesome examples of that.

There are a couple of student films this year that I really also wanna highlight.

There's one called "The Dress", about a woman who works in a hotel as a maid.

And she is kind of in this kind of rut and funk in her life.

And she meets someone who's staying in the motel, and she begins to feel this kind of sense of hope and interest in maybe finding love.

And it's a very complicated, complex story, but it's made by a student in Poland and it's on the Academy Award short list for best narrative short.

So that's really exciting.

We're seeing world class filmmaking by even young filmmakers.

And then the experimental category, it's wild.

You're gonna see things that are kinda like the cinematic equivalent going to an art gallery, where people are maybe experimenting with film form or structure, or how stories are told, and the technique of filmmaking.

And you get to see them on a big screen with an audience, it's really cool.

- Well, can you talk about the volunteers and what they mean for the festival?

- It's huge.

The volunteer core of the Fargo Film Festival is 70 people.

And it's people from all walks of life throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area.

And even, in our region because some people are able to zoom in now with some of the advances we have in technology, it's really inspiring to see how involved people are just year round, dedicated to the theater, dedicated to the Fargo Film Festival and wanting to make sure that we're putting on the best event we possibly can for people.

The Fargo Theater is a full-time staff of four administrative people.

So we really rely on that core group to help us find and select movies, to execute the actual event, whether it's helping to set up or sell merchandise or setting up a party or something like that, we're dependent upon them.

And we're just so grateful for all of that support.

- Let's go back to kind of the categories and the jury process.

And of course, what does that mean?

Take us through that.

- Oh, for sure.

So films that play in the Fargo Film Festival go through a very selective competitive jurying process where groups between 10 to 13 people will get together.

And in some categories they might have 25 or 30 short films to watch, and others they can have up to 70.

So it's a big time commitment.

That's a lot of different movies to watch.

And they will watch all of the films separately and then come together and have a jury deliberation meeting where there's one person that's in charge, the jury chair, and they kind of set the agenda, they set the tone for that meeting.

But then it's cool to have so many different people from different experiences, different walks of life, watching these movies, hearing their takes on them, and then selecting winners and selecting the movies that we get to see at the Fargo Theater ultimately.

- I understand tickets went on sale February 15th, but can you talk about the ticketing process?

What's it like, and how can people get tickets?

And can you go for one day the whole, what is it?

- Absolutely.

So big thing I would say is, go to fargofilmfestival.com, start off there.

You're gonna get so much information.

It's a big takeaway, if you hear one thing, fargofilmfestival.com, that's where you should go, but you are the of your festival experience.

Say, you can only go for an afternoon or a morning or an evening, then get one ticket.

And that's $9 for morning and afternoon and then $12 at night.

And then you're gonna get awesome programming, or if you are like some of our ultra super diehard fans, and you were using your vacation time to take five days to be with us at the Fargo Theater, you can get an all access pass.

So you can get a pass that lets you into every single thing, or you could come for one afternoon, it's up to you, how much you wanna be a part of it.

But I gotta tell you, we love seeing people.

We love seeing our audiences and we're excited to see them back at the theater because we're a non-profit organization and every single ticket that's sold directly benefits the theater.

- Now you mentioned one panel, I think, but would there be other lunch panels and events for people associated with the festival?

- One of the things that we really pride ourselves on as a festival, is having a social component to it and it's having lunch panels and it's having discussions and it's meeting people that you're waiting in line to get into a theater with that you're standing in line next to popcorn.

I know it's gonna sound a little hokey, but for me personally, some of like I've made some really good friends, like just waiting to get into a theater at other festivals.

You're in a community with people who love movies as much as you do.

So it's really cool and exciting to get to interact with them.

And I'm so glad we can do it again.

We'll have more details about those events and those parties posted on our website, but it's cool that we're able to do it back in person.

- I should have asked you early on, can you give us a little history of were 20 years ago it was founded?

So tell us about that.

- Yeah, we are celebrating 22 years of the Fargo Film Festival.

And so, like I said, I'll be honest with you.

I've been around for about 13 of them.

So I've been involved in some iteration or another, but there was a core crew of movie lovers of academics, of people who worked in Fargo and lived here and wanted to see a festival, Rusty Castleton, Ted Larson, Margie Bailey.

They came together and said, "Other major cities have filmed festivals.

Why don't we?"

And they saw an absence and they created something.

And here we are, 22 years later.

- Okay, tell us a bit about Greg Carlson's two-minute movie contest.

- Oh, this is so much fun.

So, it's a really unique challenge in that, Filmmakers have to tell a whole story in under two minutes.

It doesn't matter if they're doing a documentary, if it's animation, if it's a narrative, if it's fictional storytelling, they have two minutes, start to finish to tell a story.

And we get film from local filmmakers and from people around the world, it's really cool.

And every story is so bite-sized and it goes so quick that before you know it, you've been sitting there for almost an hour and a half and you've watched almost 45 movies.

It's cool.

- Anybody can watch a two-minute movie.

- Anyone can, yeah.

- Yeah, how has COVID, I guess, impacted the Fargo Theater just in general.

- Sure.

- With theater being, I mean, yeah?

- Yeah.

I guess I can say from my perspective, so I started, like I told you, I started the job that I'm in right now on March 3rd, 2020.

(both chuckles) I like the chuckle.

Within two weeks of my start date, we had closed, we had canceled the festival and I remember typing up like the first thing for online saying that, we'll be reopening in April, and then posting those door sheets and then having to go, "Oh my gosh, this might be longer than April."

And we ultimately were closed for 13 and a half months.

We reopened for the FMBallet in may of 2021.

And then we started showing movies regularly again at the end of May, or early June, this last year.

And we've been going strong.

We've been so grateful to see how audiences have supported us, how the community supported us.

And, while we were closed, we did popcorn sales where we begged our famous popcorn and we sold it and brought it out to you, masked, curbside on the streets.

And, people were so generous and so kind.

And one of the nicest things, I think, a big part of my job is I run our social media and outreach things, there was people just reaching out saying, "We miss you.

We miss going to the movies.

We miss coming to the Fargo Theater and we're glad to be back."

And we're glad that people are coming back.

- And I wasn't laughing at you, but yeah, I knew what happened in March, 2020.

We all do.

- Oh yeah, we did.

- How has COVID impacted Film Festivals just in general, is it the same everywhere?

- I think it's really radical cause like I said, some places are trying to do these hybrid events, others are, going strictly in person.

So it's interesting to see how COVID's impacting film distribution.

There isn't a really kind of clear or easy picture yet, but, the thing that I will say I'm most heartened by, especially even when you look at like the big box office success, something like the Spiderman movie that just came out, audiences wanna come back to theaters, audiences wanna be together, watching movies, seeing stories on the big screen, it's a matter of how do we meet them and find them and get them to us.

So I'm glad that's a challenge we love at the festival and at the theater.

So we're glad to welcome people back and we're eager to see people soon.

- Can you talk about any protocols y'all may be thinking about, or what do you think the crowds will be like, will masking be mandated or suggested what's gonna go on?

- Well, and in terms of our COVID policies, we're still finalizing those.

And we'll have them posted on March 1st on fargofilmfestival.com so that people can see what they can expect when they're coming to the theater.

But, I really do want to reiterate, we wanna make sure we're doing this as safely and as possible, like for our visiting filmmakers, for our audiences, for our staff, for our volunteers, we want people to be able to come to the theater, sit down, enjoy being in like this dark, beautiful space and seeing this world unfolding in front of their eyes.

So we wanna make people comfortable.

And we're just hopeful and grateful that audiences are hungry to come back.

We had so many people follow us to our virtual festival.

So we're excited to see those people who had their eyeballs on laptop screens or their TV screens coming back to the theater.

So we're hoping to have a really solid turnout this year.

- Can you talk real quick about how the Film Festival, I think has been the biggest money maker most years for the Fargo Theater?

- Yeah, so, the Fargo Theater is a non-profit organization and the Fargo Film Festival is really unique in that it serves as our largest annual fundraiser.

So whether it's our sponsors, including our presenting sponsor Bell Bank or individual ticket buyers, whenever you spend, money buying a ticket or you're buying merchandise, you are directly supporting the Fargo Theater.

So when you see the Fargo Film Festival out and about, just remember, that's supporting our non-profit organization and our beloved downtown destination.

- Yeah, with that said, you told us, but again, if people want more information, where can they go?

- Go to fargofilmfestival.com.

You can learn about tickets, what's playing and so much more.

- Well, Sean, thanks for joining us today.

- Yeah, thank you.

- All right.

Stay tuned for more information and some film clips from the Fargo Film Festival.

(upbeat music) Here are a few clips from the Fargo Film Festival.

♪ Midnight ♪ ♪ Twirling tongues making lies ♪ - Thanks.

- Congratulations.

- Yeah, these are truly beautiful.

- We're gonna look around some more.

- Yeah.

Now, enjoy yourself.

- Oh my God.

This is amazing.

I'm so proud of you.

- Thank you.

Thank you guys so much for coming.

- I'm gonna go look around.

- Can I talk to you for a sec?

- Sure.

(gentle music) - Tiger asked me to move in with him.

- What?

Wow!

What did you say?

- That I wanted to.

- Yeah.

I'm really happy for you.

- Yeah, right?

- No, I am.

- Stop, how you doing?

Thank you for coming.

- What's up?

How are you doing?

What's going on?

- I'm good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

See, somehow.

- I got you, I got you.

- Somehow I knew he was gonna be here.

I got the text and I was like.

(all laughing) - I know, I tried.

(gentle music) - What's happened to Chris?

- I'm sure you're wondering what I'm doing here.

I want to clarify, Chris does not know that I am here.

My job is to scan and censor all the letters before we pass along.

So I've I read your letters and- - Is this even legal?

You being here?

- It's my civil duty to follow up when someone tries to kill themselves.

- Well, if you're such a hero, then why do you work at an institution that kills people?

- I don't think that's the same thing.

- What do you want from me?

Those letters are private.

You realize that, right?

- Yes, yes I do.

- [Male Narrator] Who knows?

Maybe he doesn't even remember the schoolyard incident.

Anyway, there will be no Dick ending this film.

Instead, I've decided to write him a letter.

Dear Richard, I've made a film about the time we bullied you in the PS 194 schoolyard.

I've interviewed everyone I could track down from our fifth grade class to see what they remembered.

What I didn't expect was that most people only had a vague memory of the actual incident, but everyone clearly remembered you.

My intention was to hopefully end the film with a face-to-face interview with you, but the further into the project I got, the less sure I was to bring the adult you into it.

As I was interviewing everyone, I started to feel like we were reenacting the bullying incident from 50 years ago.

It might be hard to believe this, when I began making this film, I didn't consider how it might make you feel.

I guess I'm not as sensitive as I thought.

Anyway, on the off chance you might one day contact me again saying, "I heard you made a film about me."

Please know that the film is not really about you, but about us.

What's become clear to me is that everyone carries pain.

(upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) (birds chirping) (orchestral music) (air whooshing) ♪ Sweet is the light the day ♪ ♪ And sweet is the length of night ♪ ♪ From the breakup day ♪ ♪ To the fall of night ♪ ♪ From the fall of day ♪ ♪ To the breakup night ♪ - Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse for this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by The Members of Prairie Public.

(air whooshing)