2019 Films

We cancelled our Festival in 2020, and will be having our 2021 Festival on-line.  When our 2021 films are selected they will be posted here. In the meantime, here’s what we showed the last time we were in the theater.

Here are our 2019 film listings. Each film listing includes a note on when or where it will be shown. If a location isn’t listed, the film will be shown in Ashland. No films will be shown twice, so even if you go to one of our screenings in Washburn, Bayfield, or Drummond, you can still come to Ashland and see all new films. An asterisk (*) indicates that a filmmaker plans to attend. This list will be updated until the festival as we receive more confirmations of attendance. To see the schedule for each venue and each film block, please go to our Schedule page.

Animal. Bahram Ark and Bahman Ark. 15 minutes. The Ark twins, 27 year-olds from Tabriz, Iran, have made this film about a man who tries desperately to cross the border disguised as a ram. (Friday afternoon)

Annabel Lee. Amy Coop. 22 minutes. “It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, that a maiden there lived whom you may know, by the name of Annabel Lee.” This interpretation of the poem by Edgar Alan Poe captures the hope of a young couple and their horror at the sense of time running out at the hands of malevolent forces. There is no trailer for this film but here is the Kickstarter video that explains the filmmakers’ approach. (Saturday late afternoon)

A Present for Grandma. Anna Goranova. 8 minutes. Born in Bulgaria, but now living in the Twin Cities, Anna Goranova gives us the tale of a girl who is taken shopping but who only wants to get a present for her grandmother. (Friday afternoon) *(Anna Goranova, writer and director, and Anna-Maria Mihaylova, “The Girl”)

Birthday Night. Omid Shams. 20 minutes. A drive home after finishing work for the night may change the relationship between two brothers forever. A searing look at interpersonal relations from Iran. (Saturday night)

The Breath Connection. Aliscia Young. 14 minutes. Watch as New Zealand’s champion woman free diver swims among the country’s inland lakes and shows us how breath is everything in her sport. (Bayfield)

The Casting of an Innocent Woman.  Jacob Thomas Pilgaard. 20 minutes. The acting in this film is riveting, as the audition for a movie part tests a young actress’s resolve. From Denmark. Here is the trailer.  (Saturday night)

Chasing the Taper. Mark Allen Davis. 83 minutes. Even if you are not a fly fisher, this exploration of the craftsmanship applied by several very different hand-makers of fly rods will captivate you. This showing is made possible with the assistance of the Wild Rivers Trout Unlimited chapter. Here is a trailer.  (Saturday late afternoon)

Corvus. Matthew Balz. 10 minutes. A woman’s effort to create an artificial intelligence machine has (as these things usually do) unintended consequences. As science fiction so often does so well, this film explores real human emotions. (Saturday early afternoon)

Crossing Superior. Corey Adkins. 50 minutes. Just when you think the new ways for crossing Lake Superior have been exhausted, here come three guys on stand-up paddleboards. An epic feat, and a touching one, too, as the trio receive special permission to paddle over the Edmund Fitzgerald site and pause to honor its sailors. Here’s a preview. (Drummond) *(Corey Adkins, director)

Don’t Draw the Curtain. Andrei Florescu. 20 minutes. It’s hard enough to raise children without a revolution going on outside your door. This film takes us inside a family during the 1989 fall of the Romanian communist regime. The trailer is here. (Saturday late afternoon)

Elephantbird. Mahsoud Soheili. 15 minutes. An aging man takes a hazardous bus trip to deliver a turkey to his grandson. The director, from Iran, describes this film, set in Afghanistan, as a darkly comic attempt to humanize the perils faced by ordinary Afghanis every day. (Washburn)

La Eternidad de Paula. Dayana Gauthier. 11 minutes. Coming from Venezuela, this film shows three ways out of the impossible situation facing a drought-stricken and impoverished family: death, emigration, and hope. It is hard not to see this film as an allegory for the challenges facing Venezuelans across their country. (Bayfield)

Fairy Tail. Justin and Kristin Schaack. 4 minutes. Can interspecies intolerance turn to love, and can that love survive? Justin and Kristin Schaack (who last year gave us the totally delightful Rag Doll) are back with this romcom featuring a woman and a rat. (Friday night) *(Justin and Kristin Schaack, directors)

The Flow of Life. Txema Ortiz. 4 minutes. This short time-lapse film shows us, in beautiful images, the flow of water and life. (Friday night)

Flying Fishes. Mohammad Towrivarian. 15 minutes. A teacher from the city tries to make it in a small Kurdish village. He makes more of a connection than he thinks. (Saturday late afternoon)

Fraser Syndrome and Me. Kyle Anne Grendis. 20 minutes. One of only 75 people world-wide known to have this genetic condition, 25 year old Kyle Anne Grendis, who has never met another person with Fraser Syndrome, sets out to find others like her. This is truly an uplifting tale of talent and determination. Here is a trailer. (Friday afternoon)

From Seed to Seed. Katharina Stieiffenhofer. 87 minutes. Terry and Monique have left their opera careers in Europe to pursue with their young family a life of sustainable farming in a small supportive community on the Canadian prairie. This is a hopeful, upbeat, story of sustainable values married to cutting edge science by some truly interesting individuals.  Here is a trailer. (Washburn)

The Gift of the Magpie. Anita George. 11 minutes. Small-time grifters seek one last hit on Christmas Eve, 1934. A great noir evocation, plus a real steam-powered antique carousel from Iowa! (Saturday early afternoon)

Haunting the Haunted. John Gigrich. 6 minutes. The haunted house team gets a new member. This is John’s funniest and best acted film yet! (Saturday early afternoon)

Hearth. Sophie B. Jacques. 10 minutes. So do you really want to list your house on airbnb or VRBO? Better check out that renter profile! (Saturday night)

How Not To Be Seen. Beth Peloff. 4 minutes. The film for the shy person invited to a wedding. With an original score composed by Alexandria Mueller, this film was shown at the 2019 Minnesota Film Score Fest. (Saturday early afternoon)

Jalil and Kahlil. Roholla Akbari. 29 minutes. This documentary follows two brothers from a small farming village in Iran who make the national track team, but who still have to contend with problems at home. (Drummond)

Julie. Stefanie Brockhaus. 18 minutes. Julie Gauthier, a free diver originally from the island of Reunion, finds her real love in underwater dance. (Saturday early afternoon)

Lick and Sniff. Randy Slagle. 15 minutes. To see “Love Actually” or not? How science can influence the affairs of the heart. (Bayfield) *(Randy Slagle, director)

Love Them First: Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary. Ben Garvin and Lindsey Seavert. 90 minutes. Every single one of the members of our selection committee was moved by this documentary showing the efforts of one public school principal in North Minneapolis who will not give up on her efforts to make her school and her students succeed. If you are or ever have been a teacher, an administrator, a parent, or a student (we think that covers most everyone, but you can bring kids under 5, too) or if you just want to see a great story told really well, this film is for you. Here’s a preview. (Saturday night) *(Ben Garvin, writer and producer)

The Lure of the Deep. Larissa Coriveau. 16 minutes. A voice-over actor’s passion is to tell real stories, which he does online– but no one ever listens. Until one night. (Friday afternoon)

Old Mrs. Jenkins. Taryn Hough and Thomas Norman. 6 minutes. Taryn, whose documentary The Last Doll Lady was warmly received here last year, opens this film with a terrible storm that has knocked out the lights. By candlelight and flashlight, the tragic tale of Old Mrs. Jenkins is told. But for whom is the tale a tragedy? (Cue peal of thunder.) (Drummond)

Ouroboros. Emma Keehan. 8 minutes. In a weird dystopian society where masked dancers are transported back and forth to be judged by shadowy figures, one dancer is given a chance at, if not freedom, then at least knowledge. What can she do with it? (Friday night)

Polly/Dolly. John Akre. 7 minutes. We meet Polly and Dolly, twin sisters joined by their love of the theremin, that unearthly electronic musical instrument, but separated by mutual disdain. This is a live action film from John, who has only shown animations here before. (Saturday early afternoon)

Ride. Richard O’Connor. 2 minutes. A bike journey through Dublin in the rain at Christmastime, beautifully drawn. (Saturday night)

Right to Harm. Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher. 76 minutes. Wisconsin is not alone. From the American Southwest to the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, factory farming threatens the health of rural communities everywhere. This film takes a look at the plague Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) visits on our land, air, and water, and hopes to help organize effective resistance to the CAFO industry. The film features our own Mary Dougherty. A trailer can be found here. (Bayfield) *(Mary Dougherty, subject)

Rios Patagonicos. Marie Leclere and Bruno Fromento. 23 minutes. A team of fifteen canyoneers spends seven weeks finding and descending unexplored waterfalls in Chilean Patagonia. They came back with some pretty amazing shots. Here’s a peek. (Washburn and Saturday early afternoon)

Riplist. Mike Scholtz. 67 minutes. Mike takes us into the celebrity deathpool world, where groups get together and compete, sort of like in a fantasy football league, to draft who among the famous and infamous they think might die in the next year. Bizarre and exotic? We thought so too until one of our committee members revealed a long-term membership in just such a group. As anyone who regularly reads the obituaries knows, what we learn when people die brings us a much better appreciation of life.  Here’s the trailer. (Friday night) *(Mike Scholtz, director, and Valerie Coit, producer)

Six Home. Ebad Adibpour. 4 minutes. Hopscotch in a time of war. (Bayfield)

Sold Down the River. Karen Erbach Lawlor. 19 minutes. “Third world conditions in America’s heartland.” CAFO’s in Wisconsin. (Friday afternoon) *(Karen Erbach-Lawlor, writer and director)

Swept Away. Thomas Grascoeur. 12 minutes. Do circumstances sometimes require us to “settle” or can we insist on our right to be “swept away?” This film delights the heart. (Washburn) *(Sheri Davenport, writer)

Tin Can.  Pat Battistini. 20 minutes. An out-of-work immigrant rodeo clown takes a huge risk in order to spread a little happiness and finds help in a very unexpected place. Here’s a quick preview. (Friday night) 

Vars.  Javad Vatani.  52 minutes.  At 360 feet high with a 216 foot span, when built in 1936 the Vars Railway Bridge in Iran was an engineering and construction marvel, and changed the economic and social life of the region.  Now, the construction warranties have finally run out, and the Iranian government is questioning whether to close down the bridge.  A fascinating look at the bridge’s history and its impact on its community.

The Visit. Mehrdad Abbasian Vahdat. 10 minutes. A little Kafka, a little Beckett, a little Havel, and a great original sensibility of the absurd. (Friday night.)

Wanted: Strong Woman. Marilyn Cooke. 15 minutes. A nurse who is taking care of her uncle in her off hours, the main character in this film wants more, and finds it at her gym when she sees on a poster, “Wanted: Strong Woman.” (Drummond)

Welcome to the Powder Keg. Toby Spanton. 15 minutes. In a dangerous and corrupt fight club setting, this film asks how far a friend will go to help out another. (Friday afternoon)

Winter Cranes. Joseph V. Brown. 4 minutes. Beautiful footage of Sandhill cranes in Baraboo. (Drummond)