(soft music) - Hello and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll see clips from the winning films of the Fargo Film Festival.

But first joining me now is Sean Volk.

Sean, thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much for having us.

- Yeah, Sean, you're the development and engagement manager for the Fargo Theater.

And of course you're here to represent the Fargo Film Festival.

- [Sean] Yes.

- It's exciting.

We're gonna talk about that, but first, tell the folks a little bit about yourself.

- Yeah, well, again, just first, thank you so much for having us.

We're so grateful for the opportunity to talk about the festival and everything we do at the theater.

Well, like you said, my name's Sean.

I work at the Fargo Theater.

I've been in a number of positions at the theater, so I've been really lucky to see a lot of different perspectives there.

When I was in college at Concordia, I started behind the sand as a concession worker, and then when I graduated, I was promoted as the operations manager.

I was there for two years, and then I left to go to grad school where I got a master's in film studies from the University of Western Ontario.

And that was such an incredible experience.

And since then, I've been fortunate to work for a number of film festivals around the country.

And then in March of 2020, I know a wild and turbulent time, when we think about our, our recent history.

I was really fortunate to come back to the theater in a newly created role, the Development and Engagement manager.

And I've been there ever since, working with the theater and working with the festival.

- You know, I look at this and this is the 2024 Fargo Film Festival and the 24th annual.

- Yeah.

- So this is great.

Can you discuss maybe some of the highlights of this year's edition and when it starts?

- Absolutely.

We are so excited to welcome audiences to the theater for the fest.

The festival begins on Tuesday, March 19th, and it runs through the 23rd.

So I always like to say, if you've got five days, we've got five days of movies to play for you.

We're really, really happy to have it back at the theater.

It's such an important event for the theater, because it is the theater's largest single annual fundraiser.

As a nonprofit organization, we really rely on community support.

And this is one way, whether you're coming to a movie, buying popcorn, that's a huge way to show support for the theater.

And this year there are so many incredible movies.

We've got more than a hundred films scheduled, so it's hard to pick highlights or favorites.

But I would say a couple, just off the top of my head, we've got two Oscar nominees this year.

So if you watched the Oscars this past weekend, there's the documentary, "Nai Nai & Wài Pó," which is this really beautiful moving intimate story where a documentarian goes to his grandmother's house and films their lives.

So his two grandmas moved in together late in life, and now they live together, and they just have this really amazing friendship and connection and the way that they each see the world is so different.

And then we have the animated short "Letter to a Pig," which was also Oscar nominated, and that is a really stirring and harrowing film about a Holocaust survivor reading a letter about what it took for him to survive that experience.

So it's incredible to see such world-class filmmaking on display.

But then, another film I wanna highlight is "AJ Goes to the Dog Park."

That was a comedy made right here in Fargo-Moorhead.

So we're really excited to have its regional premier and to be able to show it to audiences here in Fargo so that they can see their friends and neighbors up on the big screen.

It's this wild comedy about a man who goes to this dog park every day with his little dog, and then it closes, and he has to do everything in his power.

And there's a lot of weird things that he does to try and get it to reopen.

It's funny, it's wild.

It's very sweet.

And the ending is something you have to see to believe.

- Well, with that said, well, yeah, can you explain how films are entered into the festival for consideration, and then the process it goes through then for how they're selected?

- Yeah, of course.

So we use a platform called FilmFreeway that allows filmmakers from around the world to submit their movies.

And we had more than 300 films submitted this year from 41 countries.

So it's truly an international experience and an international festival.

And we were able to look at all of those films with our juries.

So there are a number of categories in the festival doc feature, narrative feature, documentary, short, animated shorts, narrative shorts, students, experimental.

It's incredible to see all of the different pools of filmmaking that are happening right now.

And so we have juries on each of those categories that look at those submissions, and then pick the very best films for us to play in the festival.

So yeah, we have to take the more than 300 we get, which is a lot of hours of watching, and then whittle it down to the hundred that you're gonna get to see at the Fargo Theater.

- Yeah, when you say jury, how many people are on a jury?

- Gosh, yeah.

So it depends on each category.

Some of them can have up to 12 to 14, and then others, you know, are eight to 10.

It really depends on that category.

And the cool thing is they're all volunteers from our community.

So our jury, our pool of volunteers is more than 70 people this year.

So we're really proud to have so many people involved in the festival that care about movies and they care about the Fargo Theater.

- Yeah, can can you talk about the origins of the film festival?

Of course, obviously it dates back to the year 2000.

It's easy enough, it's easy to keep up with your anniversary dates.

- It is.

- And then some of the meetings with organizers and of course Margie Bailey.

- Yeah, of course.

Well, you know, going back, it's a little bit before my time.

My first one that I was ever involved with was in 2009 and I went as an audience member in 2006, so I missed a couple of years of it.

But, you know, film festivals I think are a really important part of a city's kind of thriving arts sector.

And so people like Rusty Castleton and Ted Larson and Margie Bailey looked around at other cities and said, hey, why do they have a film festival and we don't?

And so the three of them spearheaded this initial event that had right around 30 movies, and it was two and a half days.

And so now we're more than a hundred films playing over five days.

So you can see there's been a lot of growth since then.

But, you know, film festivals I think are a really important part of a Healthy City's ecosystem because it drives tourism and it brings so many interesting, diverse voices to a community.

- Why do you think it's been so successful?

- I think that people are eager to see different forms of entertainment than you can get just every day at the multiplex.

And I think that's really, really exciting, because people want to see different stories.

They want to see something that if they weren't watching it with this audience at the Fargo Theater, they wouldn't see it otherwise.

That's one of the things I'm so proud about with the festival, is we're we're playing things that otherwise just wouldn't play in our region at all.

And we get to, in some cases, premiere them and get to share them and sit with your friends and neighbors and laugh and cry and be shocked and scared.

Sometimes if it's a scary movie, it's the best feeling in the world to be in an audience at the theater watching a movie there.

- Yeah, well, let's go back to the festival.

Can you tell us about how many filmmakers, actors, and actresses are slated to attend?

And can you talk about a few of them maybe?

- Yes, we are really, really excited.

This year, we've got 45 people coming in from all over the country, so the major hubs New York and LA will be really represented.

But we have filmmakers that are truly, truly independent, making films exactly where they are and bringing those stories to us.

And so we're excited each of our evening showcases.

So Tuesday through Saturday night, we'll have special guests there for Q & As.

So the thing that I love so much about the Fest is you get to come in, you watch a movie, and then you get to hear from the very people who made it, just on that stage in the Fargo Theater.

And you get to be a part of that conversation, which I think is so special.

We've got everyone from Vivian Kerr who wrote and directed the film "Scrap," to Will Greenfield, who is part of our Friday night showcase.

He just produced a film called "Immaculate," and it's this new horror movie with Sydney Sweeney, who is a real up and coming star.

She was just on Saturday Night Live and she's on "Anyone But You" and "Euphoria," and it's about a nun who, an American nun who moves to Italy and joins a rural convent.

And while she's there, miraculously they find out she's pregnant.

And it looks very spooky.

I'm very excited for audiences to see it.

But Will is this really kind of extraordinary force in the film industry right now.

He started as a production assistant, has worked his way all the way up to producers for incredible people like Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee and Yorgos Lanthimos.

And he just produced the last season of "Euphoria" on HBO.

And so we're really honored to have him come and we'll be able to watch the movie together and then have a conversation with him on stage afterwards.

So we're having independent filmmakers come, and then we're having industry heavyweights like Will Greenfield.

So it's a really cool collection of people.

- Yeah, it is.

Sounds like it.

Talk about when do the film start screening every day?

- Yeah, so on Tuesday opening day, March 19th, you can come starting at 1:30 in the afternoon, and then every day after that, we're not kidding you, we've got films morning, afternoon, and night.

So starting at 10 o'clock each day, you can come in.

there's a morning session, afternoon, and then our evening showcase each night.

- So how do people?

Do people have to buy tickets for the whole five days?

Or can they come a day at a time?

- Yeah, you know, you can truly curate whatever festival experience you want, whether you can come for just one session, or you wanna come for the whole shebang and see the whole thing, we've got a ticket or a pass for you.

The prices begin at $2 if you want to come for the two Minute Film Festival, the two minute movie contest, which is so, so cool, all the way up to $150, which gets you into every single movie and some exclusive parties with filmmakers that'll be coming.

- Wait a minute.

You just mentioned the annual Two Minute movie contest.

- Yes.

- Tell us about that.

- This is one of my favorite events that happens each year.

It's on Thursday, March 21st this year, and it starts at 9:15.

And it is such a cool thing.

The kind of rule and mandate for it is you have to tell a story start to finish in under 120 seconds.

It can be whatever genre you want, whatever form or mode of filmmaking you want.

So we'll have documentaries, we'll have pieces of animation, we'll these really kind of cool and quirky narrative films.

But the only rule is if you want to be in that block of filmmaking, it has to be under two minutes long.

And it's incredible to see the things that we get from, not only around the country, but around the world and all the different voices of filmmakers who are successfully telling a story in such a short, kind of bite-sized amount of time.

- Can you talk about the film screening on opening night, I guess.

Tell us about that.

- So our opening night showcase this year is a documentary called "Show Her the Money."

And this is a fascinating and really empowering story, and it looks at women in the world of business and specifically venture capital.

And the film starts with a really startling statistic that I knew nothing about, that in the world of venture capital, funding, 98% of it goes to men.

Only 2% of that goes to women entrepreneurs and inventors, which is crazy.

So this documentary follows four female entrepreneurs and female investors who are trying to change those statistics and make them look a little bit more like the world we live in today.

So we get to follow people that are starting their business or that are expanding their business and opening it up to the full market of India.

So it's this really inspiring piece of filmmaking that shows that no matter who you are or where you come from, given the right opportunity and given the right access to support and funding, that your product can find the people that it needs to.

It's a really, really wonderful film.

And we've got four producers that are coming that are gonna take part in a panel afterwards.

So if you are interested at all in business or the business world, I think this is a fascinating conversation that you're really gonna wanna be there for.

- And that's on the 19th, but then on the Wednesday, the March 20th.

- [Sean] Yeah.

- I understand you have a special guest representing the narrative feature winning film.

- So our winner of best narrative feature this year is a film called "Scrap."

And it's this really moving family drama, well, I shouldn't say drama, it's a drama, it's a comedy, it's a romance.

It's really cool how she does all of this.

And our special guest that night is writer director and star Vivian Kerr.

So she did all of these things.

She brought the film from page to screen and she stars in it herself.

And it is about a woman who through some really unfortunate financial circumstances, has found herself unhoused and she's doing everything she can to hide that from her daughter and to hide that from her estranged family.

So you follow her as she's living in her car, trying to get her daughter to and from school, with a regular routine, and trying to get back up on her feet financially.

It's a really timely story and I think it's really beautifully acted.

And it features Anthony Rapp from "Rent" and Lana Parilla from the ABC show "Once Upon a Time."

So there are gonna be faces that you know from other media that you consume.

So it's a great film and you should really come out on Wednesday night to see it.

- Well, you we're talking about all the nights, but not all of them because we've got so much going on, but let's talk about the final night, what's going on that night?

- Yeah, that's really our Best in Fest showcase.

So all of the film screening that night are award winners and we'll have two special guests coming.

Jennifer LaFleur is a producer and actor who is coming with the film "The Day Of."

And it is a really harrowing and very chilling story.

It's a narrative short about a mother who receives a call from her daughter that suggests that every parent's worst nightmare is actually becoming a reality for her.

It is such a powerful film.

It's moving, it's a really, I think it'll really change people and really affect people.

I'm excited to watch it with people and I'm excited to get to talk with her afterward.

And then we also have the film "Blue Hour," which is part of our student competition.

And the film, the filmmaker, writer-director, JD Shields is coming.

And this is about a photographer who gets a really unexpected request to do a photo shoot.

And the photo shoot has these kind of life changing implications both for her as an artist, but also for the subject that she's filming.

It's again, a beautiful, very vulnerable piece of storytelling.

And it's cool because these two films are such incredible, incredible pieces of filmmaking and we're gonna have the people that made them right here.

- You mentioned volunteers earlier, but can you talk more about the importance of pretty much an all volunteer festival?

- Yeah, you know, I think one thing that really does set us apart is that the festival is as much a part of the community as the Fargo theater itself.

I think a lot of bigger festivals or festivals that you'll hear in other communities have staff that work across the country.

But we truly are based here in Fargo with people that you go to the grocery store with, that you work with, that you see every day.

They're involved picking these movies and they're finding things that they want to showcase that they want our community to be able to see.

So it's truly your friends, family, and neighbors that are putting this all together.

- Can you tell us about some of your sponsors that help out?

- Yeah, you know, we're really fortunate.

Whether it's individual donors or our presenting sponsor, Bell Bank, who's been with us since the very, very beginning.

We are so fortunate to have the support of businesses and individuals across the community because like we said, the Fargo Theater is a nonprofit organization and the festival is our largest annual fundraiser.

So while other people will do galas and big parties to try and raise money, we really wanna lean into what we do artistically as an organization and showcase the very best of independent film.

- You know, can you talk, because I understand this happens how film festivals help launch careers?

- Yeah, you know, I think for emerging artists and for new filmmakers, whatever stage of your career you're in, going to a festival and having the opportunity, one, to see your movie on the big screen, two, to see your movie with an audience, but then three, to get to meet other filmmakers is a really cool and very unique experience.

It's exciting to see filmmakers kind of on the rise in their career and to see where they are and then where they go.

We had Mike Flanagan come back last year and he has gone on to create films and series for Netflix and Amazon and he came with his very first feature in 2010.

So it's this incredible journey to watch people kind of go on this rise.

And, you know, film festivals are a really important part of that because it's where people can find audiences, they can find their community of filmmakers, but then at other festivals that are markets, they can also sell their movies, they can get seen by distributors and kind of launch them into a different stratosphere.

It's really cool.

- Well, I guess Sean, people are interested.

How can they get tickets?

How can they find out more information?

- Yeah, the best way to do that is to go to fargofilmfestival.com.

You can look at our entire program guide online now, or else you can click the tickets button and you can buy your tickets.

And like I said, anything from $2 all the way up to $150.

There's a festival package that we can put together for you.

- What about a one day ticket?

Do you have that?

- No, so you can curate whatever you want and there are sessions.

You could buy a morning session, afternoon session, or night session.

- [John] Okay.

- So you can come for the day, you can come for a session or come for the whole thing.

- Well, it sounds great and of course we wish you the best of luck with all of it.

- [Sean] Thank you.

- And now we want to take a look at clips from the winning films of the 2024 Fargo Film Festival.

(phone ringtone) - Beth Anderson.

- [Taylor] Hi Beth, it's Taylor from Piper Brook.

- Yes, of course.

You just caught me getting out of spin.

How are you?

- [Taylor] I'm great, thank you.

Gwen wanted me to thank you for coming in.

- Yes, of course, of course.

- You need to leave now.

- No problem at all.

- [Taylor] Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to invite you to the next round of interviews.

- Oh, okay.

May I ask why?

- We're sick of people like you here?

- [Taylor] I'm sorry, I can't disclose that.

- Do whatever you need to do.

- [Taylor] But we'll absolutely keep your resume on file.

Gwen loved you.

- Excuse me for one moment.

- I am on the phone.

Give me two seconds, two seconds.

Thank you so much.

- [Taylor] Have a great day.

- I'm calling the police.

No drugs that I saw, but she's obviously homeless.

- Excuse me.

- I don't know if a prostitute or what?

- How dare you?

- [Man] Hey.

(soft music) - My ex-wife is my neighbor, literally across the fence.

She misses me, I know this, you know how I know she misses me?

'Cause she remarried a guy named Jeff.

(people laughing) True story.

She even asked me to help plan her wedding.

'Cause I officiate and I also, I have a little business, I do some wedding planning and stuff.

I plan three on my own.

I'm obviously an expert.

But that young lady at the age of 23 had to take her husband off of life support.

They had an argument about money and him buying his mom and dad's cows.

And he put a gun to his head and he pulled the trigger in front of her at 23 years old.

So what do we need to do to change this?

And then it dawned on me, I'm gonna have a nonprofit and it's gonna be called TUGS.

Talking, Understanding, Growing, and Supporting.

(soft music) - This is fake.

It's junk, worthless.

- That's a diamond, a real, real diamond, - No, worthless junk.

- It's easily worth 500 bucks.

- Andrea, if diamond real, more than 500 bucks, tiny cut.

- Fine then, 400 bucks.

It's a deal.

- No deal, no buck, worthless.

(speaking foreign language) - You're missing out.

(soft music) - I become famous, they called Pizza on Fire and Flaming of Dough.

My left arm was like, you know, like hand, it was burning.

The one of the judge, you know, like she was screaming.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

Hakki, oh my gosh, oh my gosh."

She was like just screaming, okay?

And everybody was screaming.

- You know, spin pizza blindfolded, and with pizzas on fire, in handcuffs.

He was really a showman.

- I won like fastest, largest freestyle and of tasting, I believe.

So I won all four of them.

I won the World Pizza Championship.

I go floor and I cry.

It was very important to me to win that championship.

(loud chants) - [Protestors] We are the people!

- Press bitch.

- We are the people, we are the people.

- Mom, did you hurt yourself?

- Just a little.

Why aren't you sleeping?

- It's too hot.

- Come here.

- I want to go back to Belgrade.

(soft music) (heavy breathing) (screaming) - [Narrator] I wait to see if the city will have its soul back once the worms are done with it.

I wait for a sign that the planet itself will play a role in the future, or if that's being phased out, I wait to see if there's an aisle for people like me.

I'm jealous of cows having diagrams, mapping their best cuts.

I wait to see evidence of my spirit in others, of others feeling anywhere close to the way I do.

Most importantly, I wait to find out what it'll be like a month from now when I'll have lived another month on Earth.

- Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse for this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Funded by the members of Prairie Public.