Movies, Stories

The Not-So-Frozen River Film Fest

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This was the weekend of Winona’s Frozen River Film Festival  and Thursday eve we attended our first of many events:  a cluster of short films, each between 4 and 15 minutes, about a given topic – like The Journey Set, Adventure Set, Expanding Frontier Shorts, Our Surroundings Shorts, Characters Set.

There were also longer films and speakers on myriad topics and at various venues – including Ed’s No Name Bar, the MN Conservatory of Arts, Public Library – but the majority will be held on Winona State’s campus. (Next year I’ll get this posted earlier in case anyone wants to make the trip!) I won’t see every film I’d like to because of volunteer shifts, but volunteering gets us free passes to most films and events.

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Unfortunately, with temps in the 50s here this weekend, a couple of outdoor “side events” were cancelled (think ice skating on Lake Winona). On the other hand, the Fat Tire Bike Ride through Aghaming Park (island in the Mississippi that holds the boathouse community), was good to go.

Thursday night’s collection of eight films was called The People Set. I watched, i.e., “Edges”, about a 90-year-old woman still doing fancy moves on ice skates; “Throw” about a thrower who used his skill with a yo-yo to pull him out of gang violence; and the love and tolerance of a family whose young child, “Pink Boy”, is drawn only to feminine things. It was an evening of rich experience, and I traveled to many places and in several people’s lives in a short interval.

What person can you think of who is worthy of being ensconced in a short film?

61 thoughts on “The Not-So-Frozen River Film Fest”

    2. i missing the pun
      i always thought it would be good to do a story on former twins catcher sal butera whose life was always that of a backup and he was ont he team but never played. interessting view vs the stories of the great players. turns out sals kid also became a backup catcher who was in the majors but never played. what an odd thing to pass on from father to son

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      1. Drew Buyers played for the Twins for a while; if I remember correctly, he was good defensively, but not a good hitter. He’s now the backup catcher for the Royals and I noticed his batting average last season was quite respectable. As a backup, he doesn’t play close to every day, but a fair amount.

        Interestingly, he has pitched an inning at least twice (either in a very long extra-innings game or in a blowout loss) and did very well indeed, leading some Twins fans to think he should convert to a relief pitcher.

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      4. Sal has World Series Ring with the Twins. He is a scout for some team. He played for a few years on different teams. His son has a World Series ring with KC, where he now plays. His son was a twin for a few years. Drew may be the best pitching non-pitching player in the Majors.

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    1. To my knowledge, we have not had a post from folks outside the Baboon Congress since going to the new arrangement. I see no evidence that any of the old international readership has come with us to the new address.

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      5. I’ve been trying to keep folks apprised – but we’re still not all set up correctly. As of last night Dale has found a new work-around (the biggest issue is getting all the archives moved), so we don’t lose everything. When the smoke clears (presumably in the next week), we will be trailbaboons.com (with an “s”) and the duplicating between Dale’s wordpress and our wordpress will end. When that happens, I think some of Dale’s followers may find their way back to the trail.

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    2. I checked the daleconnelly.com site, and saw tim’s response to BiR’s blog, and Renee’s comment that he was at the wrong site. tim, have you clicked the “Follow” button to this new blog? Also, while at the Dale site, I discovered Dale’s blog explaining the transition to this one, Hadn’t seen that before. Eventually we’ll all be on the same page, I suppose, but meanwhile we seem to have lost at least a couple of occasional contributors to the Trail Baboon. Is there any way of knowing who the 13 followers of this blog are? As near as I can tell, at least 3 of our current contributors to this blog are not “following” it.

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      1. I’m not following it: should I be? I figured I don’t need one more thing coming to my inbox. I just check in most days.

        As administrator, perhaps VS can see who the followers are.

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      2. Sorry there is so much confusion everyone! As Sherrilee mentioned, we’re trying to get everything set correctly behind the scenes. When all is said and done, Trailbaboon.com is the address that will always take you to the right place.

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  7. the international folk seem to be people who for the most part want you to look at their blog
    i love our little group and while it’s inspiring to think about 1000 followers who cares
    if you build it they will come or they won’t

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  8. My dad would be blowing out 101 candles on his birthday cake, had he lived this long. Today is his birthday. I spent several years writing the story of my parents, but it was really mostly about my dad. I obviously think his story was interesting . . . interesting to people beyond his circle of acquaintances.

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  9. Morning all. I think I would have to nominate my dad. He was funny, caring, generous, very smart, well-read. He believed in education for everybody and didn’t believe in censorship. He represented one of the first conscientious objectors in St. Louis during the Vietnam War, before anybody really knew what a conscientious objector was. I heard him tell a taxi driver once (who was spewing racism) that he was married to a black woman so he could see the driver squirm.

    Despite it being considering “betraying” the legal brotherhood, he sued another attorney once because he didn’t believe that being an attorney should keep you above the law. He reveled at embarrassing his teenaged daughters; he sang O Solo Mio in a restaurant once and I have a picture of his flapping his arms and quacking like a duck in another restaurant. He was amazing.

    And I nominate my mom, because without her, my dad wouldn’t have been half the man he was!!!

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    1. At one time my favorite book was Eliot Porter’s gorgeous collection of nature photographs called In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World. I love his work and find it easier to appreciate than Ansel Adams (who is wonderful, of course).

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      1. Yes, I was in awe of Ansel Adams and his stunning photographs. But when I saw that book, and some others, by Eliot Porter, I realized that I could never do majestic black and white photos like Ansel. Color was a necessity in my life and my photos had to reflect that. Also, Porter shot beautiful photos of more ordinary subjects and that was what I am naturally drawn to.

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      2. Ansel Adams created a whole aesthetic based on his vision and the equipment of his time. He worked with field cameras. They were slow in several ways, but were capable of rendering a gorgeously nuanced tone poem.

        More modern equipment is faster and more flexible, making other kinds of images possible. It all can be attractive.

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  14. OK, trying again:
    Talk about occasional visitors! I have been unfaithful for the last long while, burning up hours on FB and email, reading articles and watching videos (and life, of course). My time might be better spent on TB.
    I do love this little collective, however.

    As with Tim’s, my email directed me to the other site. I just tried to “Follow” this one but it made no mention of email. I’ll see if it works to get posts pouring into my Baboons folder again.

    Vis a vis the current question: I would nominate most of the people whose memorials I have attended at my church. I am on the Memorial Committee (we co-ordinate the receptions, usually cookies, bars and coffee/tea). If we are ready to go by the time the service starts, I usually attend the service, even if I didn’t know the deceased. I always come away saying, “I wish I’d known that person!”
    We have two coming up this week. One is for a charming 91 year old who was vibrant and healthy until last weekend and then was gone. Just the right way to go. I look forward to his service to learn more. I think he was a psychologist originally from Mexico. He often stayed for both services and would jump in to help usher if we were short.
    As usual, for a well-known person in the congregation, the volunteer slots filled quickly. It’s the little-known people whose memorials require more work.

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    1. Hi Lisa! I saw the note about Sal – he was a great supporter of our coat project as well as a choir lover – he brought in treats for the choir more than once to say “thanks” for the music.

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  16. I hope nobody will object if I say a word or two about my father. It is so hard to “see” one’s own father, for we experience them through the lens of the parent/child relationship. I didn’t understand my dad until I spent years reflecting on him while writing my book.

    Something I missed when I was still younger and trying to establish my independence from him was his whimsy. He had a playful spirit that could turn ordinary activities into games.

    For example, when driving he would pretend to be piloting a P-51 Mustang in a “dogfight.” Using a crushed bug on the windshield as his front “sight” he would line that spot on an oncoming car and pretend to be firing his machine guns. He confessed to me once that he got so carried away with this while driving around Lake Minnetonka that he almost drove his car into Brown’s Bay.

    The next story might be in questionable taste, but I don’t think so. My mom noticed something odd. She had a makeup mirror that she kept in the downstairs bathroom. It was a stand-up mirror had a flat side but by swiveling it she could use the concave side on the back to magnify her image when doing her makeup. She kept the mirror sitting on the tank of the downstairs toilet.

    One day my mother noticed that the mirror had been flipped. She had put it away with the flat side out. Someone had flipped it so the concave side was out. She put it back. A day or two later, it had been flipped again. She put it back.

    This went on for several days. There was only one other person in the house: her husband. He had to be flipping the makeup mirror. Rather than asking, she spent a week or two trying to figure it out. And failed. So one day she confronted him and asked the obvious question.

    My father blushed and squirmed and tried to deflect the question. Then he told the truth. When he stood before the toilet using it as men do, what he saw in the mirror was that very special part of his anatomy. That amused him. It became more amusing when he learned that by flipping the mirror, he made himself bigger. He hoped his wife wouldn’t notice.

    I love memories like that.

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  17. I have a piece of hardware iin my house, an antique toilet paper holder, with the name Ed T. Doyle Plumbing stamped on it. I’d like to see a short film about the life of Ed T. Doyle. He must have been an important person, and I’d like to know more about him.

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    2. Here you go, Linda. Ed T. Doyle was the plumbing inspector for the City of St. Paul in 1897. His report to the Inspector of Buildings is recorded here:
      Annual Reports of the City Officers and City Boards – Page 881

      OK, so that’s not coming out as a link, but you can Google it. I haven’t found anything about his toilet paper holder business, but I bet this is your guy!

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  18. Sherman Alexie. Native American author, writes challenging fiction. Born on Reservation on Idaho with water on the brain. Suppose to be a very sweet man despite what he lived through.
    We pay much too little attention to Native Americans. My grand daughter has a part native friend. Her story would be emblematic for many Native/European ancestry children.

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