Michaela Handke/ Winonan
This year the Frozen River Film Festival celebrated its 10-year anniversary with impacting and sustainable documentaries. Topics for the films ranged from Lyme’s Disease to rock climbing without a harness.
The Frozen River Film Festival has partnered with Winona State since its conception due to the sustainable outlook both organizations have. The campus has given the festival a place to call home for the past 10 years and many years to come.
Mike Kennedy, the chairman of the board for three years, sets his goals for this festival based on other events that would compete with the film festival.
“This year is the first year that we moved the festival from January to February which causes a lot of planning and a lot of time,” Kennedy said. “We did that because we were on top of the dates of the Sundance Festival. Doing this caused higher numbers of people attending in the field, including the director of ‘Dear Governor Hickenlooper’ who is up for an Oscar for part of this film.”
The main goal for the festival lies in its nationwide success.
“Our mission and our goal is to be one of, if not the only, premiere film festival in the country,” Kennedy said. “By doing that we can promote the Winona area to the film industry, as well as talk about the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge.”
Every year the film festival goes to the Telluride MountainFilm festival to preview films they are showing at their festival. Now, less than 50 percent of those films are from the Telluride MountainFilm Festival, and the rest they seek out on their own. They strive to show films from Minnesota as well as the Winona area.
The festival kicked off with a few events during the week such as the adrenaline series at several different locations. Winona LaDuke, who spoke about her activism, after her film “Love Thy Nature.” She had ideas on what can be down to help save the environment, and her culture in comparison to ours. Most of the films were shown on Saturday and Sunday. Live music and vendor stands served the socializing guests in the atrium of the Science Learning Center.
One of the most talked about films at the festival was “Blindsight,” which gave blind artists the materials and ability to take photographs.
The director of “Blindsight,” Bob Sacha, said his inspiration for this film was a thought he had always had being a photographer.
“What would happen if I lost my sight?” he said. He found out about a group which was defying the common idea that photography or visual art couldn’t be done without sight.
Sacha spent time with the artists as a volunteer and even become a subject for several of their pieces.
Aside from the films, the festival had several other activities and attractions for the attendees. Several musicians filled the atrium with their artwork including Amanda Grace who performs the “Finally Friday” events at Blooming Grounds.
Blooming Grounds catered the event with wraps for the customers to choose from along with a number of drink and snack choices. Tansy’s also catered the event, offering the hungry audience members crepes of their choice.
To conclude the festival, the People’s Choice Award was given on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. to the film that the audience voted their favorite. The award winner was “Queens and Cowboys” directed by Matt Livadary. The film discussed how members of the International Gay Rodeo Association are breaking stereotypes.
The Student Award winner was “Resolute” directed by Daniel Roher. Students that are studying film or are interested in film voted it to be the best. This film documents the many struggles female members of the Inuit tribe of Canada’s High Arctic faced during their childhood and how they are making strides to fix the damages.
“An Honest Liar” directed by Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom won first place in the Juried awards, and Wrenched directed by M.L. Lincoln came in second. This documentary is about deception through a world-famous magicians eyes and secrets that he is keeping.
The awards ceremony was held at the Masonic Temple full of food and beverages. It was a celebration of another strong year for the Frozen River Film Festival.
