Submissions are arriving daily for the 2009 Fargo Film Festival.  If you are a moviemaker seeking an opportunity to have your work judged for competition in North Dakota’s premier film festival, complete an entry form and send us your work.  The festival’s regular postmark deadline is January 1, 2009.  Visit our SUBMISSIONS page for entry forms and detailed information about requirements.

In just one short month, the early submission deadline for the 2009 Fargo Film Festival will pass. If you are a moviemaker considering festival entry opportunities, take advantage of the reduced rates by sending us your project before the regular deadline period begins.

The Fargo Theatre’s annual Children’s Summer Film Series is underway. Each Tuesday at 10am and 1pm, the Fargo Theatre will show a specially selected feature aimed to entertain kids of all ages. The remaining titles in the series include FernGully: The Last Rainforest (June 24), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (July 1), Doctor Dolittle (July 8), An American Tail (July 15), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (July 22), and The Wizard of Oz (July 29). Be sure to mark you calendars for some wonderful screening opportunities.

Sponsored in part by the Fargo Theatre, the 48 Hour Film Project returned to Fargo the weekend of May 16-18, 2008 for its third successful year. Co-produced by Ira Livingston and J.J. Gordon, the Fargo leg of the tour saw thirteen excited moviemaking teams frantically producing short movies in just 48 hours. The public premiere of the completed work was held on Tuesday, May 20 at 7pm and 9pm at the Fargo Theatre, with an award ceremony following the late screening.

This year’s Best Movie was Precious Metal: The Otto Steinholz Story, produced by the Bubblegum Detective Agency. Along with the top award, the movie also picked up Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Lead Actor, and Best Costume Design. As the citywide winner, Precious Metal qualifies the Bubblegum Detective Agency to compete on the national level in the 2008 48 Hour Film Project’s Fall Shootout. Congratulations from the Fargo Film Festival!

Fear Itself, a movie by Colin Froeber and Allison Schmidt, won first place at the 2008 2-Minute Movie Contest at the Fargo Film Festival. A comical account of unusual phobias, Fear Itself played to enthusiastic audiences at the second venue and the closing evening “Best of the Festival” program at the Fargo Theatre. Colin and Allison spent some time answering questions during an interview that took longer to complete than the brief running time of their enjoyable short.

Describe how you collaborated on Fear Itself. Did you co-write, co-direct, and co-edit, or did you divide up the duties?

Allison: We pretty much “co-everythinged.” It was a really relaxed process because we had a check and balance system. You could always see the strengths and weaknesses in the other person’s ideas. Colin acted because his scream is a gem.

Colin: Allison and I did separate research on phobias we thought sounded interesting or humorous and then worked together to figure out how to present them. We both have similar loopy senses of humor, which helped a lot during the process. During the shooting, Allison was in charge.

When planning a 2-Minute Movie, how do you approach the time limitation? Where did the idea for Fear Itself originate?

Allison: First of all, we limited the characters to two. There isn’t enough time to build a good scene or have the audience identify with more than a few. Usually the script becomes condensed, so we had to be flexible with lines. Long credits also take up too much precious, precious screen time.

Colin: Fear Itself was originally intended to be just one part of a longer film. A couple of years ago, some friends approached us with the idea of getting a bunch of moviemakers to create their own short films around the subject of fears or phobias, and combining the shorts into one full-length collaboration. As far as I know, Fear Itself was the only thing to come out of that original concept. That’s partly why it’s so short - the other reason is that people probably would have stopped laughing and started being annoyed if it had gone on too long. I think there’s a certain window of time in which constant screaming is funny, and that window is probably somewhere around two minutes.

Many of Colin’s reactions as an actor are clever and inventive. How much of Colin’s performance was improvised during the actual shooting?

Allison: I don’t think we ever micro-managed his performance. It was basically like, “Okay, scream!” In retrospect, what Colin does so well is Franklin’s delayed moments of realization. For example, in phagophobia (fear of swallowing), Franklin starts munching on cereal but only screams when he begins to swallow. Why Franklin doesn’t immediately associate chewing with its result is beyond me, but it’s still pretty funny. We did usually decide before shots in public locations exactly how Franklin was going to react.

Colin: To be completely honest, most, if not all, of my performance was improvised. I think if we had written a script it would have been nothing but a single stage direction reading “Franklin screams in various locations.” We shot everything in one afternoon, and we did end up doing several takes for each shot. You can definitely tell if you listen closely to my voice - it’s pretty near to gone in some of the segments. I had a sore throat for a few days after the shoot.

How did you decide on the various types of phobias to include? Were there ones that you definitely said “We have to do that one” or ones that you wanted to add but didn’t?

Allison: We were initially pretty smitten with the fear of death and fear of trees. We basically just took out a phobia dictionary and looked for variety, what could be pragmatically shot and hopefully not offend people. I felt the shots and the reactions were more important than the actual phobias. Switching from a medium shot of Colin in a room to a wide shot of Colin running between trees is dramatically more interesting than a series of medium shots in a house. Plus, it was important that each physical reaction was different as the scream was pretty monotone.

Colin: We were toying around with maybe twenty different phobias before we settled on the ones we ended up using. We considered a lot of things when deciding which to use. What I think is so funny about the film, and what still makes me laugh every time I see it, is how outlandish the situations are. You see the title card with “fear of bicycles,” and you think you know what’s coming, but instead of seeing the character riding a bike, he’s just standing next to one, screaming. Instead of the “fear of cars” part showing Franklin in a car, he’s just standing next to a busy street. Instead of seeing him shower for the “fear of showering” part, he’s just standing fully clothed and screaming in a bathtub.

The humor comes from this ridiculousness - it’s not like we see the character accidentally stumbling into or coming across frightening situations, but instead he seems to be purposely putting himself into them. This unexpected quality is something we really worked hard at capturing, and it’s something that couldn’t be utilized for every phobia we researched. We also looked for unusual or highly abnormal phobias. Arachnophobia? It’s been done, and I refuse to work with spiders. Everyone’s scared of clowns, but being afraid of trees, or speaking? Now that’s funny - and it makes for a good movie, too.

The Fargo Film Festival would like to thank all the volunteers, audience members, panelists, visiting moviemakers, board members, projectionists, theatre staff, and everyone else who helped to make 2008 our most successful and rewarding event yet. It is clear to anyone who attended all or part of the festival that the community of Fargo supports and believes in film and the arts. The quality of the movies showcased in the Fargo Film Festival continues to impress cinema devotees, and we can hardly wait to see what the 2009 FFF holds in store for us.

Greg Chwerchak, the director and co-writer of Greetings from the Shore, the 2008 Fargo Film Festival’s award for Best Feature Narrative, has created music videos for an impressive list of pop and hip-hop royalty, including Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, Eminem, Ludacris, and Ice Cube. Additionally, his two short films, The Hook-Armed Man and The Quarry, have been screened at more than one hundred film festivals around the world. The Quarry was included in the 2002 Fargo Film Festival, and we are excited to see more of Greg’s work.

Now, along with producer and co-writer Gabrielle Berberich, whose own personal experiences form the core of Greetings from the Shore, Greg has made the leap to features, and is hoping to continue his already successful filmmaking career.

Talk a bit about how Greetings from the Shore came together as a project for you.

Greetings from the Shore grew out of Gabrielle’s summers at the Jersey Shore, so I suppose you could say the project has been coming together for years. A lot of the characters come from colorful people in Gabrielle’s life. Plots developed from events that shaped her summers at the Shore. And the filming location is the real Jersey island where the events happened to her. But on a practical level, the project came together when Gabrielle and I took a trip to that island in New Jersey - Lavallette.

I’d heard her reminisce about it for years, and I guess I assumed it was inflated with a little exaggeration and Jersey Girl pride. But when we got there and I walked out to the ocean, I instantly understood what she’d been talking about. New Jersey isn’t at all like how it’s represented in TV shows and movies. The Shore is beautiful. Soon after that, I remember talking to the core team of Gabrielle, [co-producer] Greg Schaefer, and [executive producer] Rob Schulman. We decided that first and foremost, we wanted to show audiences the real New Jersey and that the Jersey Shore would essentially be the first character. That’s when the story began to crystalize and the project quickly came together.

You have made many short films and music videos in the past. What are the biggest differences and considerations when completing a feature?

The biggest difference between a music video and a feature is that with a feature you don’t hear the same song blasted 1000 times a day! Seriously, the answer is almost as obvious as you’d think: a feature takes longer. But what’s surprising to me is that the temporal correlation isn’t linear; it’s exponential. And while much of physical production is identical - lights, lenses, and such - the creativity that informs those decisions seems vastly different.

With music videos, you’re trying to grab iconic images. With a short, you’re often trying to express one clever idea. But with a feature, iconic images and clever ideas mean very little if you don’t have a good story, good characters, and great performances. As a director, creatively maintaining those elements for two hours with a consistent tone is very different than catching someone’s eye for a three-and-a-half minute music video. I used to joke that music videos use sprinters’ muscles and features use marathoners’ muscles; it’s all “running” but they’re vastly different races.

What was your favorite scene or moment to direct in Greetings from the Shore?

There were tons of amazing moments for me. I’m so proud of the cast and crew; they blew me away. But one scene is frozen in time for me: Jenny, the young lead character, has just checked into a room by herself at a rundown summer rental. It’s basically a storage closet under a stairwell; no amenities, no comforts, she’s all alone. Jenny begins to unpack, and she pulls out a photo of her and her dad, who we’ve just learned has passed away. She stares at the picture, and her eyes fill with tears. I remember watching the first take on the monitor and seeing the father’s photo in the actress’s hand.

I hadn’t seen the photo before in rehearsals, and the emotion of it suddenly hit me because it’s a real photo of Gabrielle and her dad. It was a surreal moment, as if in all the chaos of making a movie I’d forgotten what the movie was actually about. But seeing Gabrielle’s dad, Leo - who I was lucky enough to know and was an incredible guy - jarred me. The scene reminded me of his loss, and I was overcome with sadness; it was like I was watching the real Gabrielle grieve all over again. Now, however, when I see the scene at a festival, I’m at peace. It’s a strange consolation, but I’m so happy to see Leo again, share him with audiences, and know that we’ll have him in our movie forever.

Can you tell us anything about your next project or upcoming projects?

The next project is a film called Lucky Mucker. It’s a darkly-comic twist on Romeo & Juliet set in the slate mines and Oktoberfests of Western New Jersey. Without giving away the twist, the story is steeped in Jersey folklore and urban legends; tonally it’s dark and funny, in the vein of films by the Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson. As with Greetings from the Shore, the location is virtually a main character. Where Greetings from the Shore taps into the nautical history and beautiful scenery of the Jersey Shore, Lucky Mucker plays out on the colorful stage of Western Jersey - autumn leaves, polka bands, sausage factories, etc. The storytelling is similar to Greetings from the Shore, but Lucky Mucker is more of an over-the-top comic romp.

The Fargo Film Festival’s 2-Minute Movie Contest takes place tonight at 7:30pm at the Roberts Street Theatre venue in the Ivers Building (just West of the Fargo Theatre). Admission is free, and at least twenty-five moviemakers have completed work that will be screened and judged at the event. The top three movies earn a spot at the main venue during Saturday evening’s “Best of Festival Films” session. One of the Fargo Film Festival’s most popular traditions, the 2-Minute Movie Contest is always well-attended, so arrive early to secure a seat.

Documentary moviemaker Sandra Osawa is one of the recipients of the 2008 Fargo Film Festival’s Bill Snyder Award, claiming the Best Documentary Feature and Best Native American Voices Documentary Feature awards for her movie Maria Tallchief. Osawa, a member of the Makah Nation, has been making movies since the 1970s, and has also taught screenwriting at Evergreen State College and video production at Seattle Community College.

She received a BA from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon and did graduate work at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television and the Universities of Washington and Oregon. Copies of Maria Tallchief are available for purchase from Upstream Video Productions by clicking here.

Maria Tallchief will be screened at the Fargo Film Festival on Thursday, March 6, 2008, at 8:40pm at the Fargo Theatre. Recently, Ms. Osawa spoke with the Fargo Film Festival.

How did you become interested in the subject of Maria Tallchief?

I choose my subjects very carefully as I know I will be with that subject for many years (in this case 7 years off and on). I like subjects that help us understand the more contemporary aspects of Indian identity and that help bring us fresh new ideas about what it means to be “Indian” in modern times. I like to think I’m opening up the definition of what it means to be Indian by including Indian ballerinas, Indian comedians, and Indian jazz musicians. It’s my opinion that we are seen largely as people of the past and largely as people with a problem. I like to show us as very much part of the present and very much a part of the solution.

I cannot believe that no one has done a full length documentary on Maria Tallchief and it only supports my idea that we are more accepted when we become our stereotypes. Sometimes the portrait of a successful Indian woman is a bit threatening and does not really fit the image that most people have when they think of American Indians. I think this speaks to who has the power to tell our stories and we as Indian people are only just beginning to have the ability to do this, so I think that’s why we are starting to see stronger stories emerge and ones that are grounded in real lives, lives that are inspiring and offer a lot of hope to our younger generation.

Your movie features footage of Tallchief dancing during her prime. Can you tell us a little bit about these images?

The footage of Ms. Tallchief dancing in her prime forms the corps of the story and this is the reason the film was delayed or on hold for close to three years. We could not obtain the rights to several key archival pieces and we could not tell the story without using both Orpheus and the Firebird berceuse. These are key roles in Tallchief’s career. We found beautiful clips in Montreal as the New York City Ballet performed there in the mid 1950s and it was broadcast in Canada. The opening moments with Swan Lake are from Montreal, Canada as well as the Les Sylphides ballet segment and Pas de Dix.

The early footage from Ballet Russe came from the Newberry Library and this is some of the earliest footage of Tallchief dancing. There was no sound, but you get a good idea of how innovative these dances were and are. People are very taken with the dancing and it is almost as if you could watch these clips over and over and never tire of them. For me her dancing has special quality and we try very hard to identify that on screen through various people commenting on her art. I’m very happy to be able to introduce Tallchief to a whole new generation of people who have not heard of her, for she deserves her unparalled place in history - both American Indian history and dance history.

What was the greatest challenge you faced during the production of Maria Tallchief?

The greatest challenge for me was to confront a legend and try not to be overwhelmed with the staggering prospect of trying to tell her story in fifty-six minutes and forty seconds, the standard PBS time frame. She has a big story with immense influence and I wanted to try to get it right - to not make any mistakes. I was aware of being an interpreter, so I had to read more, to listen more, and to be very cautious. I admit I had many years of fear when I felt that I could not finish due to untold obstacles and untold delays. As an artist, it is often very hard to reach down and find that bit of oxygen inside that will fuel you and help you get to the finish line.

The artists in our day are not well supported and I’m especially happy that I could include a clip of President Kennedy at the end of our film talking about the importance of art. His time period ushered in the greatest period of funding for artists and such funding has steadily declined over the decades. Now, it is quite a difficult task both to remain independent and to remain an artist. My husband, Yasu, and I have managed to do this for over 30 years and it is good to see our work being used and studied in such places as Harvard and Berkeley and other colleges across the country.

Cindy Stillwell, the winner of the 2008 Fargo Film Festival’s Experimental category for her movie High Plains Winter, received her Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University’s film program and since then has worked as a moviemaker and professor. She currently teaches film production in the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University in Bozeman, where she works with undergraduate and graduate students. Cindy also runs Hybrid Media, which can be found online here. She graciously agreed to share some of her time and thoughts with the Fargo Film Festival.

How did you settle on the subject of High Plains Winter as a movie project?

High Plains Winter is the third film in a trilogy of Westerns. As the final film in the trilogy, it deals with the winter season and its effects on humans, animals, and the land.

Tell us a little bit about joring. It looks like a potentially dangerous sport.

I am not an expert on joring, and I have never even tried it! I know it is a sport that is supposedly Norwegian in origin. Many people tell me it started with dogs pulling the skier instead of horses. Some of my students at MSU Bozeman tell me they grew up doing this.

The sounds and images in your movie create a unique experience. Tell us a little bit about your production process.

My process is very slow. I shoot and then edit, and see what I’ve got. I love working this way, like a sculptor. For this film, I spent three “seasons” gathering the joring footage and the landscapes, so that is three years, three winters. I then went out and gathered the audio and wove it all together. The music was composed by a longtime collaborator named Jeffrey Arntsen. We have done enough projects that we have a kind of shorthand. He used to live here in Bozeman, but has since moved to Seattle, so we did a lot of emailing and Fed Ex-ing stuff, to get the right sounds in the music sections. He sent me stuff in layered tracks and all mixed together, so I could play with it as I wanted in my software.

High Plains Winter has been shown in many film festivals, including Sundance. Please share some of your memorable film festival experiences.

Well Sundance was a highlight. It is such a well-known venue and the thrill of being included was a fantastic experience because there is this whole system set up for you as a filmmaker. Navigating Sundance takes strength and power naps. Each day was like three days in one: meeting people, seeing films (which was hard to do), and taking advantage of the panels and meet-and-greets. Sundance was excellent for networking and for the experience.

The smaller venues, like the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, provided a different kind of experience. I wouldn’t say it was better, just different. At Big Sky it was a smaller group so there was much more time to see films, meet the filmmakers and programmers, and really connect with people. That kind of intimacy can only be found at smaller festivals and I think it is a really rich experience.

I really enjoyed Rotterdam too, although it is more of a large-scale festival. Rotterdam programs all of the short films together and screens them in one venue, so the short makers can meet and talk and see each other’s films. This is really great because here it is not like the short film is relegated to something like a pre-feature endeavor. Rotterdam celebrates the short form as another aspect of filmmaking, so as a filmmaker I was never sidelined because I had a short as opposed to a feature. We are all filmmakers, regardless of the length of our shows.