April 19, 2006

City Pages. M-SPIFF.

M-SPIFF 06 The Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival opens tomorrow and runs through April 30, and Rob Nelson opens the City Pages cover package with a list of all the reasons it might not have this year. In short, human frailty, politics and that eternal festival bugaboo, money. Evidently, it came down to the wire. "Would a beleaguered board and an almost entirely new staff be willing and able to mount an M-SPIFF in record time?" asks Nelson. "[I]ncredibly, yes."

The fate of a single movie theater might seem like a sideshow in all this, but as Paul Demko explains, a single financially strapped organization, Minnesota Film Arts, is trying to keep both the fest and the Oak Street Cinema afloat.

Sweet Land But onto the films. The City Pagers have picked out twelve to highlight in their roundup, and Minnesotans are likely to have a particular interest in Al Franken: God Spoke since, to hear him talking to Nelson, it really, really does sound like he's going to run for the Senate in 2008.

Caroline Palmer previews "'Childish Films,' a program of live-action and animated shorts, as well as a few features," and Emily Sohn talks with Ali Selim about his first dramatic feature, Sweet Land, which closes the fest.

Also in this issue, Jim Ridley on The Notorious Bettie Page.

Posted by dwhudson at April 19, 2006 3:33 AM

Comments

I'm envious that they've got the new Ripstein film and SFIFF doesn't. I guess it's tough for a film to play two festivals at the same time though. I hope lots of Minnesotans go see the Ruination of Men and get as much out of it as I did when it played here.

Posted by: Brian at April 19, 2006 4:59 PM

The Ripstein event is happening because of a new consulate in St. Paul.

But the bigger issue with this festival has a lot to do with what could go wrong. M-SPIFF was taken to the next level last year by its new ED, who subsequently was fired. the board has since alienated a city, its previous staff, and most notably a number of distribs across the industry. This festival shall determine the future of film arts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. I'm quite concerned. Speak to a number of distribs about their ability to get a film on a screen in the area, and you'll find that this org was a home to most non-Landmark titles. This new board doesn't seem to understand the role of the org in the community and has destroyed the lifes work of its founders. Nearly 25 years old and I see a wall crumbling in that city. It's really too bad, but the arts are always at the mercy of its funders. When those funders become the board of directors, who also as it were with this situation, decide to begin programming, that's when disaster strikes. I hope the Twin Cities recovers from what is certainly a enormous disaster of the arts. Best of luck.

Posted by: brave soul at April 20, 2006 3:33 PM