Art Hounds: Winona's Frozen River Film Festival

"In the Starlight"
"In the Starlight" is one of more than 80 films that are part of this year's Frozen River Film Festival in Winona, Minn.
Courtesy of Mathieu Le Lay Productions

Winona denizen and Cafe Congo owner Steve Bachler has been going to the Frozen River Film Festival for years. He says it's a great festival, featuring more than 80 films of varying lengths; they're primarily documentaries about the environment, travel and adventure sports. Bachler says what he loves most about the festival is how it brings people from different walks of life together to what he calls a "marketplace of ideas." The festival runs Feb. 6-10 at various venues in Winona, Minn.

TC Photo's George Slade stumbled across a photo exhibition at Artistry in Bloomington the other day, and he was charmed by it. Photographer Meghan Duda hauls a giant pinhole camera (she calls it her "Trailer Obscura") to take minimalist photographs of the landscape. The results reduce land and sky into a basic black and white, transposed onto a grid of silver gelatin photo paper. Slade says at first you might not even realize you're looking at a photograph, but the mosaic-like images draw you in. On view through Feb. 22.

Theater artist Paul Reyburn is looking forward to Theatre 55's production of the classic '60s musical "Hair." Theatre 55 is a new company featuring seasoned talent — all the actors are 55 or older. Reyburn says acting opportunities often fade for actors as they age; ironically that means that people who are usually cast to perform in a show like "Hair" never experienced the culture from which it was born. Reyburn says he's looking forward to seeing a group of older performers let loose and draw on their own life experiences to bring this story to life. Performances run through Feb. 10 at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

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