How a film reel of mystery origin made its way to a Minneapolis cinema

As the film begins, a title card fades onto a snowy landscape.

There is no dialogue and no story. Just a long music ballad drifting underneath surprisingly intricate shots — including an aerial shot at the end, clearly filmed from a helicopter.

The 15-minute, deteriorating 35-millimeter film “Snow Dream” is the most valuable film in the Minneapolis-based Trylon Cinema’s collection. But it almost ended up in a dumpster.

“White snow on a faded print has this really strange, ethereal — almost like Mars — look to it. It's a trip,” said John Moret, the Trylon’s film programmer.

“It would have been very difficult to make, and I don't know who would have seen it.”

The Trylon is a theater dedicated to showing films that aren’t in circulation anymore, also known as a revival cinema.

Moret has been collecting film prints for years alongside Trylon founder and director Barry Kryshka. They source them locally and abroad, showing them to die-hard cinephiles and regular customers alike.

Each film print has its own story.

“They need to be shown, or they're worthless,” Moret said. “And now it's more of like a hoarding — these are all going away.”

Moret and Kryshka now only show “Snow Dream” to volunteers at the theater during special occasions. Moret has seen it four times.

But just like the meaning of the film, the origin of their “Snow Dream” reel is unclear.

Kryshka theorized “Snow Dream” may have been made to advertise snowmobiles at trade shows. But their time spent researching usually leads to dead ends.

Moret and Kryshka only know for certain what’s shown on the print and how it ended up at the Trylon Cinema.

“I got it from a friend, who I won't out, who got it from a dumpster,” Kryshka said.

That dumpster was outside a warehouse transit hub for film prints. “We would head there after bar close once we figured out which day they rolled their dumpster out to be emptied the next morning,” said Andrew Hersey, a film buff who said he procured the movie in 1998. He worked there with Kryshka at a revival house called Oak Street Cinema in the Stadium Village neighborhood of Minneapolis.

When Oak Street closed in 2010, Kryshka revived the tradition of showing “Snow Dream” to theater volunteers, this time at the Trylon.

“There's no other way to see this thing except being in a movie theater with other people when the time comes around to show it,” he said.

Moret and Kryshka consider the film priceless.

“We would never part with it,” Moret said.

“No one wants it but — yeah,” Kryshka added.

Listener posits reel was filmed in Wisconsin

Hours after this story aired, a listener, Chris Simondet, did some digging and discovered an advertisement promoting a film called "Snow Dream" at the Granada Theater in Duluth in 1969.

“A selected film featuring the joys and beauty of snowmobiling,” the advertisement reads. “Filmed entirely in the absolute privacy of Potawatomi Estates.”

Potawatomi Estates is located in Barnes, Wis., and was then-operated by Juneau Land Co., headquartered in Duluth and Minneapolis.

The advertisement Simondet submitted comes from the Duluth News Tribune, but newspaper archives show various advertisements for the film at theaters across the state, including Minneapolis, between April 1969 and December 1971.

Correction: This story has been updated to include additional information about the history of "Snow Dream” (May 16, 2025); and a clarification on how the movie made it from a dumpster to Oak Street Cinema and then Trylon Cinema (May 28, 2025).

Do you have a “Hand-Me-Down?” An artifact of your own with a compelling origin story? Let us know at MorningEdition@mpr.org and a producer will reach out to you.

Listen to this “Hand-Me-Downs” segment by clicking the player above.

• June rains set records around Minnesota
• Morning Announcements for June 27
• DFL Leader Melissa Hortman: A political force known for ambitious goals, adept ways
• Avid gardener and philanthropist fled Laos and became 'true Minnesotan'