On Jan. 31, Two Harbors will host its second annual Shorts in Winter Film Festival. The festival celebrates the North Shore visually, with the category definitions clearly spelled out for all submissions.
The short film categories featured are shorts made by North Shore residents, shorts made by North Shore students, shorts filmed on the North Shore, shorts filmed in Minnesota, and shorts created by Minnesota filmmakers. Short films are defined in the rules as 20 minutes or fewer. “We’re hoping for a unique experience,” said Matt Bachman, co-founder of the festival.
According to its website, the Shorts in Winter Film Festival’s mission statement is “to showcase the unique perspectives representative of Minnesota’s North Shore region through film. The medium of film is a powerful device capable of encapsulating time, place, meaning, and feeling. The Shorts in Winter Film Festival seeks to bring voice to this region by providing a creative space for filmmakers to present the diversity, creativity, and ingenuity of its area and residents of all ages.”
“There are so many creative people who live in this area,” said Jamie MacFarlane, the other co-founder of the festival. While the North Shore is the star, the festival was opened up to a broader base of filmmakers this year. Last year, people who submitted films were required to be North Shore residents.
“Films [that fit the category descriptions] can be so wide open to interpretation. We’ve had animation, drama, comedy, and documentaries. It’s nice to come together and see things on the big screen, especially when it’s your neighbor doing it,” Bachman said.
Bachman and MacFarlane are longtime friends who share a love for the North Shore. Bachman is a filmmaker himself, so the idea of a film festival in the winter felt like an exciting challenge. As a big-picture type of person with a vision, it made sense to pair up with MacFarlane to make this festival a reality.
“I’m more of a behind-the-scenes type,” said MacFarlane. She is detail-oriented, and her background in hospitality and event planning makes her an excellent captain of this festival ship.
A panel of judges scored the films based on certain criteria after the submissions closed in mid-November. The judges rated them using a rubric that scores artistic vision, clarity of story, engagement, and compelling subject matter. “We already doubled submissions from last year; that’s success,” said MacFarlane.
A real community event, sponsors, as well as the venue, are local. Lovin’ Lake County, North Shore Explorer Minnesota, Castle Haven Cabins, Harbor Insurance Agency, Park State Bank, Sonju Two Harbors, Castle Danger Brewery, On the Record, and Bent Paddle Brewing are the local names helping make this event a reality.
While this is only the second year of the festival, there have been some changes. “Listening to all of the people laugh while watching the films was memorable; we felt like people enjoyed the films,” said MacFarlane. “Things we’re changing this year, though, would be that we moved it to the end of January instead of December. We’re also doing it later in the day instead of early in the afternoon. We’re adapting.”
Looking to the future, both MacFarlane and Bachman have ideas of where this could all go. “I think I’d like to see this grow into cultivating a film collective up the North Shore,” said Bachman. “A grand mission is for this to become a small center for the Minnesota film community.”
“We are hoping now that the [Harbor] Theater has reopened that we could potentially host it there at a real theater, like a real film festival,” MacFarlane said. “We could have different category blocks on multiple screens and grow this into something bigger in this community.”
Tickets can be purchased on the festival’s website at: shortsinwinterfilmfest.com. The event will take place in the Two Harbors High School auditorium at 3 p.m. on Jan. 31.
“Our main focus is on getting people there for the communal experience. We’ll have some laughs and feel some different emotions together,” said Bachman.
