Seventeen recent short works by Minnesota filmmakers have been chosen for a new season of MNTV. An important showcase that has been funded by the Jerome Foundation for more than two decades, MNTV has evolved into an annual three-part series produced in collaboration with FilmNorth, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), and The Walker Art Center Film and Video Department. The new MNTV season will be broadcast state-wide and streamed online by TPT this winter (Dec/Jan) and installed in the Best Buy Film/Video Bay at the Walker Art Center in 2015.
Past MNTV programs can be viewed on TPT.
Program 1
Ann Prim, Filmetto – Porta 241
A Borgesian conundrum; fragmented vignettes conjure the secret life of objects to create a tender, sensual story of desire and where those desires might lead us.
Neha Belvalkar, Ayananta
A young, married woman from a small town in India questions her estranged relationship with her husband. She finds strength in a revolutionary dance form and in her friendship with a transvestite, who has been ostracized by the conservative society they live in. She perseveres to move forward by not submissively accepting her difficult circumstances.
Annie Enneking, Funeral for Fun
A woman, missing something or someone, seems to be a stranger at her own party.
Kevin Russell, Into the Roil
An estranged couple gets lost in the woods chasing a mysterious blood trail.
Andrea Shaker, home. not home.
An experimental short film that speaks of home and homeland as places of comfort, confinement, and war. The film creates an uneasy feeling of trauma, as it moves between video footage of meditative interior views, sounds of everyday domestic activities, and distant alarms. The alarms evoke an anxious anticipation of an impending bombing.
Christopher Lange, Home Near Water
Brad attempts to preserve love within his dying marriage, which coincides with his gradual transformation into a creature. Filmed in a painterly style, this experimental drama flows with visual and musical vigor, reflecting the existential and spiritual change of the film’s main character.
Program 2
Jami Olson, Artist Series: Shelly Mosman
This film is a short profile of the artist Shelly Mosman. In the film Shelly shares her process on making photographs.
Mark Brown, Sermon of the Serpent
In southern West Virginia, Pastor Mack Wolford leads one of the few remaining snake handling churches in the United States. Mack was a child when he lost his father to a rattlesnake bite during a church service, yet his family remains deeply tied to the faith. This 15-minute documentary takes an atmospheric storytelling approach to illustrate the faith, beauty and sacrifice of Pastor Wolford’s beliefs.
Preston Johnson, The Hammer and the Axe
Master blacksmith Doug Swenson, a specialist in 18th century metalwork, and his apprentice Tim Jorgensen, a student of Viking age culture, learn from each other at a red-hot forge on the ice-cold prairie.
Horacio Devoto, The Job of the Architect
With the music of indie rock group Low, the film tells the story of renowned Duluth-based architect David Salmela. Using images from Salmela’s residential work, Jackson Meadow, the conservation community in Marine St. Croix, Minnesota, and the headquarters of Loll Designs at the Hawks Boots sustainable Manufacturing Facility, The Job of the Architect looks at Salmela influences, background and approach to architecture and design.
John Akre, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein is a poem by Matthew Zapruder with animation by John Akre. It is a meditation on longing, distance, and the General Theory of Relativity. It was created as part of the MotionPoems 2014 line-up.
Mike Hazard, INCONTEXT
INCONTEXT is a portrait of the artist, Monica Rudquist. As she creates a large installation, Rudquist talks about her love of clay, her influences and what people see in the art. Organic to the work shown, the video is a serene, handmade, passionate, beautiful, obsessed flight of fancy.
Program 3
Peter Nelson, Former Best Friends Forever
Former Best Friends Forever features the recorded audio of four men who were at one time the artist’s “best friend.” The men scrutinize formative shared experiences, revealing a unique perspective on male relationships. In costume, Nelson lip-synchs the words of each friend, embodying both himself and his best friends simultaneously.
Alexander Kohnstamm, Rosie
An overworked lawyer is given a tragic case that changes him.
Katie Rensch and Jes Reyes, A Mind of Winter
A Mind of Winter explores our human relationship with the natural world and our society’s attempt to push against seasonal change. This film asks viewers to consider their physical and emotional connection with nature.
Peter Franco, The Last of Fall
James, the star quarterback of his high school football team, is preparing to take his team to the state championship game. With the state title and a scholarship on the line, he tries to ignore his attraction to a teammate, but struggles as his desire competes with pressures on the field, at home, and in school.
Cody Brown, City of Fear
City of Fear is a post-apocalyptic visual interpretation of MaLLy’s track, it is a warning about the path we’re on and a statement for the oppressed.
