MN Shortlist, Oct. 3-9: Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' at Cine Latino and more
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MN Shortlist is your weekly curated roundup of recommended arts events from MPR News, highlighting standout theater and music performances, exhibits and gatherings around the region.
Featured event: The 13th annual Cine Latino film festival at the Main Cinema
Oct. 8 — The 13th annual Cine Latino film festival opens with the highly anticipated “Frankenstein,” a film Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has been working towards for more than three decades. (The film won’t debut in theaters until Oct. 17 and on Netflix on Nov. 7.)
“I’ve lived with Mary Shelley’s creation all my life,” del Toro said in an interview with Netflix. “For me, it’s the Bible. But I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.”
The festival is a five-day celebration of Latin American, U.S. Latino and Ibero cinema, including the 2025 films “A natureza das coisas invisíveis (The Nature of Invisible Things),” “O agente secreto (The Secret Agent)” and the children’s animated film “Hola Frida,” about the childhood of the famed Mexican Surrealist painter Frida Kahlo.
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The fest will also feature tango and salsa performances, art activities and food and wine tastings. (Alex V. Cipolle)
‘The Legacy We Choose’ premiere at Walker Art Center
Oct. 3 — The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosts the world premiere of “The Legacy We Choose,” a youth-led television series produced by local advocacy group Guns Down Love Up.
The series looks at gun violence in Minnesota, with each episode offering a different story of a young person’s encounter with a shooting. The five-part series will move to the CW Network in the fall. (Max Sparber)
The 7th Annual Bloody Mary Festival at The Union Depot in St. Paul
Oct. 4 — The Bloody Mary may be the most famous savory cocktail, and it famously bites back. The drink is a blend of vodka, tomato juice and spices — often garnished elaborately with pickles, celery, meat sticks and olives. And they are being celebrated this weekend at the 7th Annual Bloody Mary Festival.
Hell’s Kitchen, Pizza Luce, Bryant Park Bowl and Dark Horse Bar & Eatery will showcase their own takes on the classic drink. (Anika Besst)
An Evening with Nidia Góngora at The Cedar
Oct. 5 — Afro-Columbian singer Nidia Góngora brings her signature mix of folkloric and electronic music to the Cedar in Minneapolis. Her music originates in the South Pacific region of Colombia and draws heavily from marimba music, but she’s been collaborating with musician and DJ Will “Quantic” Holland since 2017. Her solo work shows the global influence of funk and the dance hall.
She appears with Columbia Live, a nonprofit organization in Minnesota dedicated to promoting the richness of Colombian culture through dance. (Max Sparber)
‘Hour of the Wolf’ at Trylon Cinema
Oct 5–7 — It’s a tale as old as time: A husband with a secret (he’s still in love with another) and a suspicion (the neighbors are demons).
In the ‘60s, the often folkloric Swedish director Ingmar Bergman turned toward horror. His “The Virgin Spring” was the basis for the grueling 1972 exploitation film “The Last House on the Left,” while “Through a Glass Darkly” dramatized psychosis. But “Hour of the Wolf,” playing at the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis, is especially odd, borrowing motifs from Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and elements drawn from werewolf and vampire stories.
Star Max von Sydow would later battle demons again as the title character in 1973’s “The Exorcist.” While “Wolf” may not have the later film’s gonzo shocks, von Sydow’s haunted face has always been one of horror’s greatest special effects. Bergman knew that better than anyone. (Max Sparber)
'Ada Limón & Robin Wall Kimmerer: All Flourishing is Mutual' at the Pantages Theatre
Oct. 8 — Poet Laureate Ada Limón and author Robin Wall Kimmerer are hosting a conversation about resiliency, reciprocity and being human in the natural world.
Limón just finished her second term as the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate. In her poetry, the struggles of the past and present open into visions of the future. NASA engraved her poem “In Praise of Mystery” on the Europa Clipper, bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Robin Wall Kimmerer remains a leading voice on environmental stewardship, identity and place. Her 2013 book “Braiding Sweetgrass” interweaves scientific research with the ancestral knowledge of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. It quickly became central to conversations about building more reciprocal, sustainable relationships with the natural world. (Anika Besst)
‘Two Gents’ at various locations in the Twin Cities
Through Nov. 2 — Though now seen as high art, Shakespeare wrote in his time for a broad cross-section of English theatergoers. In a similarly democratic spirit, the nomadic theater company Ten Thousand Things is staging “Two Gents” in churches, schools and community spaces across the Twin Cities. The show is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”
“It is — many speculate — the first play that Shakespeare ever wrote,” said Ten Thousand Things Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans. The comedy follows two suitors as they pursue the same woman and leave others heartbroken.
“‘Two Gents’ is the first show that I selected to direct with Ten Thousand Things, because it is a play of firsts,” Lowans said. “We're celebrating the power of firsts: Of first love, of first loss, of first friends, and the discoveries and the difficulties that come along with that.” (Jacob Aloi)
‘Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora’ at the University of Minnesota
Through Dec. 6 — The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota has mounted “Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora,” a wide-ranging exhibition covering the last 25 years of art from 43 artists working in Puerto Rico as well as artists of Puerto Rican heritage working in the mainland U.S. Minneapolis artist Ricardo Levins Morales, who was born in Puerto Rico, will have work in the show.
“Vaivén” is Spanish for “back-and-forth-movement” and, according to the press release, “is most associated with the supposed ease at which Puerto Ricans migrate between the United States and Puerto Rico. Beyond the comings and goings of travel, this word names decades of physical and cultural ebb and flow that have resulted in more persons of Puerto Rican descent living across the 50 United States than in Puerto Rico itself.”
Exhibition programming includes a panel discussion on Oct. 8 called “Becoming SotaRicans” at the College of Liberal Arts and a discussion on Oct. 24, “Algarabía: A Conversation with Roque Raquel Salas Rivera,” at the U’s Regis Center for Art. (Alex V. Cipolle)
‘A View of Mexico’ at Minneapolis Institute of Art
Through Jan. 4 — José María Velasco painted the landscapes, botany and geology of 19th-century Valle de México, helping craft a national identity for Mexico that endures today.
Many of those paintings are on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for the exhibition “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico." Mia partnered with the National Gallery in London, where the exhibition toured first, and together they published the first scholarly catalogue of Velasco’s outside of Mexico.
“Velasco holds a place in Mexican art history comparable to Albert Bierstadt or Frederic Church in the United States,” said Valéria Piccoli, Mia’s Ken and Linda Cutler Chair of the Arts of the Americas and Curator of Latin American Art, in a press release. “His dramatic, romantic landscapes evoke national pride and wonder, and we’re thrilled to introduce his work to a broader audience.” (Alex V. Cipolle)
