Minnesota Film Festival Returns to Downtown Duluth

The Minnesota Film Festival is returning to downtown Duluth.

The Zeitgeist Arts Building, along with other venues across the Historic Arts and Theatre district, will be hosting the festival. It will feature over 100 films, with over 80 filmmakers in attendance.

For many of those filmmakers this marks a chance for them to share their projects with the community that helped shape and inspire them.

“Being able to connect with the community is what our films are all about. So being able to showcase those stories of the community to the community is really exciting as well. I worked with Sarah Bamford Seidelmann, who is a local artist, author, and shamanic healer. Our film is all about her leaving medicine and following what makes her feel good, hence the title of the film: ‘Follow Your Feel Good,'” said Asher James Carlson, director of “Follow Your Feel Good.”

Carlson, a former U.M.D. student, is showing his first film at the festival, as well as working behind the scenes.

Another Duluth filmmaker, Evan Flom, is showcasing his documentary “To Be A Good Home,” which looks at farmers in the Duluth and Lake Superior Basin area.

“I think it’s a really sweet opportunity, especially at this film festival where there’s a mix of documentaries that are like mine. It’s a local story that a lot of folks around here are going to connect with, but then you’re also seeing national stories, you’re seeing international films. So I think the diversity in programming really brings together a cool mix of stories,” said Flom.

The festival tries to highlight as many different voices as possible, such as their Indigenous Shorts section on Saturday. It’s one of the many things that draws local filmmakers like Khayman Goodsky, an Indiginous filmmaker, to the festival.

“‘When Thunderbird Dances’ is a 20 minute short film, it is an experimental film. It has over fifteen Indigenous actors, ten Indigenous fashion designers and seven Indigenous musicians. Everyone on our team, except one person, is Indigenous. Watching a lot of our stories be told by non-Indigenous people kind of inspired me. Like, let’s make something new from our own perspective, and let’s show local artists and creators their stuff can be in films,” said Goodsky.

The film festival runs from March 19-23. For more information you can visit their website.