The Free Range Film Festival will include a screening of a feature-length documentary about an attempt to snowmobile from Willow River to Moscow, a story of senior citizen Olympians and the first edition of Zinema 2's "Minnesota Stories" series.
The ninth annual festival runs July 27-28 and will include 32 films -- some by local filmmakers -- screened in an almost 100-year-old barn in Wrenshall. There is a suggested $10 donation to attend. Festival organizers said this year's event is documentary and animation heavy, with a lot of stories of older people doing big things.
"Somehow that's become a theme," said Annie Dugan, director of the festival.
One of the highlights of the festival is the local premiere of "Wild Bill's Run," by Mike Scholtz, one of the festival organizers. It's the story of "Wild Bill" Cooper of Willow River, who gathered a crew to make a snowmobile expedition from Minnesota to Moscow in 1972. It includes footage from the failed journey -- and the mystery surrounding what happened after the team returned home. It's described as "part arctic adventure, part crime caper."
The film recently won Best Documentary Feature at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. It plays at 7 p.m. July 27.
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Scholtz has been purposely sitting on "Wild Bill's Run" to premiere it locally during Free Range.
"We did have other opportunities to run it in Duluth," Scholtz said. "And I felt selfish and bad, but I did want to save it for Free Range. Not just because I help program it, but because it's marginally closer to Willow River. It seemed important to me that it premiere (close to Willow River)."
"God's Country," by Louis Malle, is a documentary about Glencoe, Minn., that was made in 1985. The screening kicks off Zinema 2's "Minnesota Stories"
series, which features films set in Minnesota with an extra twist, like: "You'll Like My Mother" played at Glensheen mansion, where the 1972 movie starring Patty Duke and Richard Thomas is set; "Mighty Ducks" played at the Heritage Sports Center. The series closes in the fall with the 1930s silent film "City Girl" with a live score by Charlie Parr.
"We really love and respect Free Range and we wanted to be part of it somehow," said Crystal Pelkey, marketing director for Zeitgeist Arts.
The Free Range Film Festival typically gets about 200 submissions, which this year was a crushing amount, Scholtz said.
"I don't know if the quality goes up each year," he said. "There were so many more films that we wanted to program than we had room for. That made it tough. There are a lot of great films we aren't showing."
Other highlights from the two-day festival include:
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-- With the kickoff of the 2012 Summer Olympics starting the same night as the festival, the Free Rangers are showing "Age of Champions," a documentary about the senior Olympics. It includes a 102-year-old tennis player, an 80-year-old pole vaulter trying to set a world record and evil Southern belles who play basketball.
-- "Surviving Your Bear Attack" is a short film that is actually about surviving a bear attack. It's by Charlie Cline and Scholtz called it useful and hilarious.
-- "Marvin Seth & Stanley," which also played during the Duluth Superior Film Festival, is the story of a father and his estranged sons who take a weekend trip to Northern Minnesota. Chaos ensues. Scholtz calls the feature-length film directed by Stephen Gurewitz the best of the festival.
