Oliver Stricherz

From April 2nd to the 13th, the 44th Annual Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Film Festival showcased diverse voices in cinema through 200 different films, enlightening panels, and accessible options that open the world of film to all.

We all spent our spring breaks somewhere. Some roamed sun-swept beaches, while others toured the college campuses they might in time call home. But my spring break was rather different. As my friends traveled far and wide on cars and planes, I traveled worldwide for two weeks on reclining seats with popcorn in my hand. My method of transport? The 44th Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Film Festival. During MSPIFF’s two weeks, I found myself engrossed by the moving image.

Since 1981, the Minneapolis Saint Paul Film Society, the Twin Cities’ premier exhibitor of independent and local Film, has put on MSPIFF. Now in its 44th year, the festival has become world-class, with much of the glitzy spectacle of festivals like Sundance, but with fewer of the often absurd elements that can gatekeep the celebration of film from the general public. This year, MSPIFF offered many perks, one of which was sliding scale ticket prices for select showings, including the festival’s opening night film, Free Leonard Peltier. This ticketing opportunity is one of many ways that MSPIFF makes its wide array of films available to everyone. Another notable opportunity is student discounts. An all-access pass for the general public is $800, but for students, the price drops to a staggering $75, less than 10% of its regular price. Films can deeply impact students to make change and provide them with knowledge of all subjects, and with these beneficial student discounts, it seems like the MSP Film Society is aware of this. 

My journey with MSPIFF this year began with my application to receive a press pass. Two weeks later, my request was accepted! Another example of the festival’s acceptance and approval of modern media forms shines through with “The Vern,” co-host of the film podcast, Cinema Recall. This year marked the fourth time The Vern has covered the festival through the all-access press pass, and marks his first year as a member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association. When speaking about MSPIFF44 with The Vern, he said that he “met a lot of the volunteers and had a great experience this time around”. He also really enjoyed the Milgrom Tribute Industry Day, in which the films and legacy of acclaimed director Ang Lee were deeply celebrated.

Free Leonard Peltier

Although there may be many, films aren’t the only thing getting people to come to MSPIFF. This year, the festival had many events, including everything from panels to karaoke parties. The opening night of the fest began with the documentary Free Leonard Peltier, which brilliantly told the story of the 49-year-long unjust imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, one of the most impactful Indigenous activists ever. The film, directed by Indigenous director Jesse Shortbull and reporter David France, used archival footage and interviews with other activists who were involved in the 1973 revolution in Wounded Knee. Near the end of his term, former President Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence to house arrest after the previous 49 years he spent in maximum-security prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The film had been completed by this point and had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival the previous January, but upon Peltier’s sentence being commuted, the ending was changed, and shown for the first time at MSPIFF. 

After the film was shown at MSPIFF, each of the three screenings that night were preceded by a Q&A with director Jesse Shortbull and David France, and others involved with the film, as well as a surprise video message from Peltier himself expressing his gratitude to those who came and saw his story, as well as a timely reminder to stay vigilant in the face of injustice. After this came the Opening Night party at the A-Mill Artists lofts, which included food from the beloved and award-winning Indigenous restaurant, Owamni.

Right In The Eye: Live Movie-Concert Of Georges Méliès Films

Another event that was quite popular at MSPIFF was Right In The Eye: Live Movie-Concert Of Georges Méliès Films, which included a collection of 12 short films made by early special effects pioneer, Georges Méliès, set to a live score composed and performed by French musician Jean-François Alcoléa. The films themselves, which include some of the earliest examples of stop-motion and double exposure, are still incredible more than 100 years post their creation, and could entertain a crowd alone. But, alongside Alcoléa’s score, they burst through the realm of creativity, leaving shock on my face and within me a deep feeling of childlike wonder.

All That’s Left of You

This year, MSPIFF44 showed a strong initiative to represent the stories of people from all parts of the world. More than 60 countries worldwide had at least one film in the festival, mostly in languages other than English. From documentaries to samurai films, there’s an international film for everyone. The Film Society’s deep appreciation for showing international stories through film shows up in many other parts of the year as well, through other specialty festivals such as the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Italian Film Festival, Cine Latino, Black Europe Film Festival, and more, all in collaboration with local Twin Cities cultural centers and international voices. 

An incredible example of an international film shown at this year’s film festival is Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis’ narrative feature film, All That’s Left Of You, which is said to be shown later this year at the annual Arab Film Festival. Spanning 40 years, All That’s Left Of You expertly shows the multi-generational resilience of a Palestinian family against the violence and displacement from their homeland. The film includes incredibly powerful and emotional performances from the entire cast, most notably from director Cherien Dabis, who plays Hanan, a mother trying to navigate the difficulties of raising children through a constant state of indignation and impending violence in the occupied West Bank. As the war in Gaza enters its 19th month, this film couldn’t be any more relevant, and gives a deeply moving glimpse into the inhospitable conditions that Palestinian civilians have endured, and continue to endure today.

Milgrom Tribute Award: Ang Lee

One of the biggest days of the festival this year was the daylong celebration of famed director Ang Lee’s work, for which he was bestowed the Milgrom Tribute award in recognition of his pioneering career in cinema. The Milgrom Tribute is awarded in honor of MSP Film Society founder and MSPIFF co-founder Al Milgrom, who, within Minnesota, championed the independent and international spirit of film. The day’s main event was a moderated interview with Ang Lee himself, in the auditorium of DeLaSalle High School, not far from MSPIFF’s headquarters at the Main Cinema. The conversation was mostly a recollection of his incredible career, in which he started as a hopeful actor and ended up making films in Taiwan, which began to gain attention around the world and led to nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards for his second and third films, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. His first English language feature was Sense and Sensibility, in which he went from directing fledgling Taiwanese actors to A-listers such as Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant. When directing the film, he was still learning English and joked that he didn’t have any “Sense or Sensibility” at the time. Nevertheless, the film was very well-liked, and his career continued.

Lee would direct more English language films, but most notably, in 2000, came the release of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was shown the morning of the Milgrom Tribute day. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, some of which were Best Director and Best Picture, and ended up winning four, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography. In the discussion, he later spoke of a difficult time in which his father, with whom he had a complicated relationship, died. This also came during a time when Lee was feeling confused and burnt out, considering ending his career. Though his father had never shown much respect for Lee’s career in cinema, upon his death, he saw his disheartened son and asked him to make another film. The film that his father would ask him to create would become Brokeback Mountain, which was shown this year at the festival later that night with an introduction from Lee. Although the film is seen as one of the greatest films of the 21st century, Lee described its creation as incredibly difficult. During the previous 13 years, he had made 9 films and, throughout that artistically challenging course, gone from an unknown artist in Taiwan to a household name. But the difficulties of its creation proved to work out, and the film was widely acclaimed, receiving 8 Academy Award nominations and winning three of them, including Best Director, which Ang Lee was the first person of color to win in Academy Award history. This eventful day at MSPIFF44 was extremely rewarding and illuminated the work of one of cinema’s greatest directors.

Ricky

While it may be headquartered at the Main Cinema in Northeast Minneapolis, the festival showed many films throughout the Twin Cities metro. Films were spread across 6 different movie theaters, with the majority playing at the Main. This year marked the first year the historic Edina Theatre joined the list of venue partners, which includes The Capri, Pop’s Art Theater in Rochester, the MIA, and Landmark Center. An incredible film I saw at The Capri, the historic North Minneapolis theater, was Ricky. 

The film tells the story of Ricky, a Black-Caribbean man who, at 30 years old, is released from prison on parole following a 15-year sentence that he began when he was only 15. The film explores Ricky trying to get back on his feet again and return to society after his imprisonment. The process of returning is difficult, and through an incredible performance by actor Stephan James, we see a man struggling to recover from the dehumanizing effects of being imprisoned. The film also shows complex family dynamics and relationships with Ricky and his family, most notably in the character of Ricky’s parole officer, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph, who deeply wants Ricky to succeed and defeat the system created to imprison him and people like him, forever. Overall, the acting in the film is incredible, and paired with the complex story of Ricky and the people in his life, audiences will connect with the film through their own stories. We saw this at the end of the film during a deeply meaningful Q&A with director Rashad Frett—Ricky is his debut feature film—when many members of the audience told stories of their own experiences with incarceration as well as Frett, who explained how many of the characters in Ricky derived from people in his own life who struggled to overcome the crushing systemic weight of American society.

One to One: John and Yoko and Acts of Reparation

Narrative-based features may have had the majority at MSPIFF this year, but there were many powerful documentaries shown as well. Over 30 documentaries were shown, ranging from topics such as the Queer community to the Somali Film Industry. Two documentaries that stuck out to me this year were One to One: John and Yoko and Acts of Reparation. 

Through archival interviews and era-appropriate television clips, One to One: John and Yoko tells the story of the period in which multimedia artists John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to Greenwich Village of New York City after the legendary rock band, The Beatles, broke up. It showed Lennon and Ono’s participation in the widespread disapproval of the U.S involvement in the Vietnam War, and the man supporting it, President Richard Nixon. It showed concert clips from Lennon and Ono’s powerful One to One concerts, the only post-Beatles shows Lennon did, in which they raised $1.5 million for mistreated disabled children at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. 

Acts of Reparation shows Selina Lewis Davidson and Macky Alston, two documentary filmmakers who, in their own ways, try to discover and understand their connections to slavery. As a black woman and a white man, Lewis Davidson and Alston approach their histories in different ways, but both find a sense of healing from connecting with their pasts. The film explores the idea of reparations, not necessarily just fiscally, but figuring out how we repair the deep, long-lasting traumas that exist in the South. It explains familial and ancestral trauma that is passed down, and wonders how we repair that history as well. At the end of the film, there was a Q&A with the directors, and it was tied to lots of ways that you can connect with their film at their website, actsofreparation.com. The most important thing we can do at this time, when our current Administration is trying to erase these voices, is to highlight and tell the stories of Black and Brown people and make sure that they never go away. Our stories are what we learn from, and it’s important to how we exist in this modern day and age.

In my weeks at the festival, I experienced the true beauty of film. I met people, saw meaningful and impactful films that I will remember for years to come, and viewed many perspectives of the world in ways I haven’t seen before. When speaking with Film Society photographer Lisa Venticinque about the festival, she said, “Film encompasses everything, [the festival is] a great context in which to meet people and gather.” I couldn’t agree more. If film is an all-encompassing thing, and a vehicle to anywhere, I believe MSPIFF44 was first class.