Despite competition for audiences, specialty film festivals keep growing in Minneapolis
Even with streaming and all the other movie options available to fans, the organizers of two upcoming festivals in the Twin Cities say there are real advantages to having focused events.
Demand drives Cine Latino, the festival of movies from the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world. Artistic director Hebe Tabachnik said it grew out of the annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival in April.
"The [MSP] Film Society felt that they needed to show even more films," she said of her event’s parent organization.
With so many new, high-quality movies coming out, the main festival just couldn't fit them in.
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And Tabachnik said the audience wanted many different kinds of movies.
"I have to say I am pretty surprised at how diverse our audience is," she said.
Cine Latino opens Friday at St. Anthony Main Theatre with a documentary about the first Mexican chef to win a Michelin star. On Saturday, the festival shows "We are the Radical Monarchs" a film about a girl’s organization in Los Angeles that teaches activism.
"When I first heard about the Radical Monarchs, I was excited," says one beret-wearing youngster in the film. "I knew it was going to be different because of social justice compared to talking about selling cookies and money and stuff."
Tabachnik said not only does Cine Latino draw hard core film fans it also attracts large groups of people from countries represented in individual movies.
"For example, there is a large Ecuadorian community and they always come to see films that are representing their country that year," she said. "That doesn't mean that they don't come to others, but it's very interesting to see how we help galvanize those communities."
In an example of overlooked history, Cine Latino will show a harrowing Spanish film called "Another Day of Life," a drama about a Polish journalist covering the civil war in Angola in the mid-1970s.
In the film the reporter initially can't find a story. Soon, however, he is faced with evidence of brutal massacres of civilians.
The film is in English, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish, and combines live action and animation.
"And because it's animated, a lot of the most terrible things are bearable just because of the media that he is using," said Tabachnik.
She said festivals must not only nurture audiences, they have to create them, too.
Jim Brunzell, artistic director of the festival Sound Unseen, agrees.
"You have got to give them a reason to get up from the couch or leave the house or directly from work, [to] come and catch a screening," he said.
The 20th Sound Unseen, a festival of music on film, opens Tuesday, Nov. 12. Screenings are scheduled at several venues, including the Walker Art Center, Trylon Cinema, Parkway Theater and Bryant-Lake Bowl.
Sound Unseen will feature Taryn Gould, co-director of the documentary "All I can Say." It's drawn from the personal video archive of Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon. It shows the band's rise to fame starting in 1990, a musician’s-eye view of concerts, and family life with a new baby.
Hoon documented his life with a Hi8 camera until his death at 28 from an overdose in 1995.
Brunzell said there's so much interest in the film it sold out almost a month before the festival opened and a second show has been added.
"It might have been the fastest selling film that we have ever had in the 11 years I have been at Sound Unseen," he said.
The festival has scheduled an appearance by cult figure John Doe of the Los Angeles punk band X, following the movie "X: The Unheard Music."
Jim Brunzell said the competition for audiences forces festivals to try harder, which he regards as better for everyone.