October 28, 2024 • 68 mins
Join me as I chat with Jim Brunzell (Director of the Sound Unseen Film Festival). Movie Maker calls Sound Unseen "One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World." The festival is a unique, cutting edge "films on music" festival that started in Minneapolis 25 years ago. We discuss his upbringing, upcoming festival guests, John Doe, Linda Perry and more and I also learn that his dad was a WWF/WWE Wrestling star. Great talk!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
Auto Parts.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You are listening to the Figure Eats podcast. I'm your host,
Nick Leet from the band High on Stress out of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and today is a little bit of a curveball for you.
As you know, this is a music podcast, and I've
spent many, many, many hours talking to musicians, record producers, anders, videographers, authors,
(01:04):
all sorts of music related shenanigans, and today is no different,
but also a little different in that I am talking
to the director of Sound Unseen, which is a film
festival that focuses on cutting edge films on music. And
this has been happening in the Twin Cities here for
twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Twenty five years. It's very cool.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
This is coming up November thirteenth through the seventeenth here
in Minneapolis, and it's got films about music but also
special guests like Ex's John Doe, Linda.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Perry from Four Non Blondes.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
There's films that include Husker Doo and The Replacements and Devo,
all sorts of super cool.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Movies that are coming up.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
And it was a really, really good time talking to
Jim here, Jim Brounzell. If I hadn't mention that already,
he actually reached out to me and talked about being
on the podcast, and it was a really fun conversation.
I didn't know Jim and learned a lot about him
and his festival. And one of the crazier things. I've
(02:09):
talked to a lot of musicians on this podcast, and
some of them have some pretty intriguing family members, be
it Hollywood movie stars or parents in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, or people who have come from
families that.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Have created major.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Companies in the US. But this is the first time
that I've spoken to someone whose father was an all
star wrestler in WWF WWE.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
So that was a fun.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Terminal, so great time talking to Jim. Looking forward to
the Film Festival here in Minneapolis in a couple of
weeks and without further ado, I bring you Jim.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Runs them the ridiculous stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That I come in here and I'm like, oh, the
children have been in here, because there's stuff all over
the place. Yeah, but it's also good, so like I
have to kind of balance the getting on their case
of leaving in a mess, and also like, all right,
you want to do some music stuff, I'm all about it,
so absolutely, And I do want to get pretty deep
(03:28):
into the sound on scene stuff, but I want to
learn a little bit about you as well and kind
of how you got to where you're at, because I
think you've got a very interesting job. So did you
grow up in Minnesota or what's kind of your backstory?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, I mean my back start. Yeah, So I currently
live in Saint Paul, and Saint Paul is where I
was born. And you know, as at a very early age,
I was very interested in movies, and I think probably
my earliest memory was being like five years old and
(04:03):
watching like Ciskel and Ebert, and I was very much
wanting to be a film critic because Roger Ebert was
at a very early you know, not maybe five, but
maybe more like eight or nine years old, I wanted
to be a film critic, and so I sort of
became obsessed with movies and my dad, for his profession,
(04:27):
traveled a lot, and I had an older sister, so
I think for my mom it was easy for her
to either rent videos for us or take us to
the movie theater, something like all of us collectively could do.
And so that just sort of, you know, fueled my
passion even more. And then in high school I wrote
reviews for the school newspaper. And then I got to
(04:50):
college at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and I wanted
to be a film major. And what I learned the
hard way was they didn't really have a f film department.
So I became an English major, and then minor didn't
film Like they offered film courses, but they didn't necessarily
have a film.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Deprogram yeahah, gotcha. And what did your dad do?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So my dad, well, I should ask you, are you
from the Are you from Minnesota? Are you from Twin Cities?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Originally?
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Not?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Originally I'm from North Dakota originally. Okay, I've been here now.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I moved here when I was twenty, and I've been
here longer than I was in North Dakota, which I'm
sure North Dakota's love when I say that, and I.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Say it frequently O. Hey, you know, sorry, hometowners.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No Bill Bison. And you know the Fargo Film Festival,
which I've never been to, but I've always heard great
things about and I'd love to get up there one
of these years to check it out. But I hear
great things about the Fargo Film Festival, so nice. But yeah,
my dad, my dad was a professional wrestler.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
All right, the sick a turn okay.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, so yeah, he wrestled in the a w A
and the late seventies early eighties, and he was in
a tag team with Greg Gania called the High Flyers Wow,
and then he jumped to the you know, at the
time it was the WWF and now it's WWB. But
(06:19):
he was in the WWF and he was also in
a tag team with another wrestler named b Brian Blair,
and they made up they made up the Killer Bees.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I remember the Killer Bees.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So was was this like the eighties then kind of
the height of okay, Hulkogan and all that was Biggs.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, and you know, my dad was in a couple
of WrestleMania's, so you know it was but you know,
my parents are still together after forty nine years, and
so this is. You know, this also feeds into you know,
sort of like my film obsession, because yeah, my dad
was gone twenty seven to twenty eight days out of
(06:59):
a month, you know, or if he wrestled in Fargo
or Des Moines or Madison, you know, he'd fly back
to Minneapolis and I'd get in the car with him
and go with them to the matches. He'd wrestle and
shower and we'd drive back. And you know, I understood
at a very early age that my you know, my
(07:22):
childhood was much different than my friends. So you know,
I understood, like, you know, I could go places with
my parents for vacation or go to wrestling matches or whatnot,
and you know, see my dad on TV and magazines
and they had action figures. So but I knew I
also didn't want to be in wrestling, So I yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Wow, that's that's an interesting upbringing. That's fascinating to me.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Did when did you first realize that things were a
little bit different at your house than maybe the house
next door.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
School?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, probably like second or third grade, because we moved
and my parents are still in that house. They moved
in that house in nineteen eighty seven. In the summer.
So when I went to start third grade at a
new school, that's when I sort of knew things are different.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Wow, that's really cool. It's funny because I didn't know
that backstory. The reason why I asked is typically when
you talk to someone who goes into the arts or
wants to major in the arts, like you know, movie
making or being in music or whatever, there's always a
little bit of that, well, fine, what are you gonna
(08:39):
fall back on? Conversation? That happens, and usually rightfully, oh right.
We know enough people who have gone into the arts
that have not been terribly successful. But I would imagine
in the rustling world, it is an art and it
is theater. I imagine that maybe you probably didn't get as
much pushback as the ever person who wants to go
(09:01):
into that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I mean, I suppose to some degree, but I guess
you know, if you're just talking like built in physical traits.
You know, I'm five eight, my dad is six feet,
my mom is five to two, so I you know,
i'd probably right where I should be height wise. And
you know, when you look at wrestlers, I mean, I
(09:25):
wouldn't say wrestlers in twenty twenty four. But in the eighties,
you know, a lot of them were just big dudes. Really.
I mean some that you know, I mean they trained,
you know, they were on strict diets. You know, they
wanted to be in good shape. But you know there
was wrestlers that were you know, six seven, three hundred
pounds and probably barely lifted weights.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And I could see, you know that my dad, you know,
as he got older, it became harder like anything. You know,
you're a musician, I've ru it gets harder each year,
you know, And so you know, I think I never
sat down with my dad and said, you know what
(10:08):
I really want to do is I want to follow
in your footsteps, Like we never had that conversation. It
was just never on my radar. I do find it
interesting that wrestling is part of my life because it's
one of the things that is like the furthest way
of anything I do in my life. But you also
bring up a good point of the theatrics of wrestling
(10:29):
in the art form, and you know that can obviously
translate to you know, theaters, you know, or plays, theater
and then you know, film and acting, because there's a
lot of that involved as well.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So what did your parents say when you said you
wanted to go into this.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I mean, they were always supportive.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
They knew how interested I was in it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And you know, also in college, I I dabbled in screenwriting,
you know, because I thought, oh, I want to get
into the movies. But then I also sort of thought, well,
it was sort of fun to just go to the
movies and experience it. And then it wasn't until after
college that I had a corporate job and there was
(11:15):
this neighborhood theater in the Twin Cities that no longer exists,
but it's called Oak Street Cinema, and to me, that
was like movie Heaven, you know, or that's where I
found this calling. And I had started volunteering for the
Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival in two thousand and four,
(11:39):
and I got to be really good friends with two
people in particular there, Adam Sakouler and Rick Hanson. And
through those relationships and those friendships, I then quit my
corporate job and started working at the theater and that, yeah,
and you know, because I started, I had the bug.
(12:01):
You know, it's hard to explain how people get involved
in all this because some people do sort of fall
into it, some people get you know, sort of headhunted
into certain positions, and other people to start volunteering and
work their way up. And I just sort of started,
I guess I started volunteering at the right time and
worked my way up, and you know, I sort of
(12:24):
rose the ranks. And then my last year there was
two thousand and eight, and we had just done whatever
year of the Minneapol Saint Paul Filmfest, and you know,
it wasn't a very flush operation money wise. I know
that they were struggling to pay bills, and you know,
we had good attendance at the screenings, and you know,
(12:47):
we weren't majorly in debt. But at the same time,
our one asset was the Oak Street Cinema Theater, and
their idea was they wanted to close the theater and
try to sell the building, which to me didn't make
a lot of sense. And this again was two thousand
and eight. So when I heard that I left. I
(13:09):
put in my two weeks and thankfully I got another
job relatively quick. And about two months after that, Rick
Hanson came to me and he said, hey, I just
took over sound unseen from Gretchen Williams, the previous vestival director.
He said, do you want to help out with Sound
(13:29):
and See and be a programmer? And I said, yeah, sure,
because at least I was comfortable with this full time
corporate job that I had that I could still do
this on the side nice and it was face like
the bets of both worlds. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
So, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I started working on Sound and Scene in two thousand
and eight, and then in two thousand and ten we
expanded Wait is that right, it's either two thousand nine
or twenty ten. I'm sorry. We expanded Sound and Seeing
to Duluth. So it was called Sound and Seeing International Duluth,
which is an awful title, and it's still longer.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah, it's no longer called that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And Rick was the director, and you know, there was
a few of us that worked on it, and so
we were doing Minneapolis and Duluth and Rick met a
young woman. They fell in love, they got married and
they're still happily married. They have a thirteen fourteen year
old son. But Rick moved to Duluth and he said,
(14:37):
I don't think I have the time to do sound
and scene. We want to take it over. So in
twenty twelve, I became the festival director. Wow, thinking I
would only be doing it for two maybe three years
and then pass the torch or pass it on or whatever.
And here we are in twenty twenty four and I'm
(14:59):
still the festival director.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So what does that look like? What is your day
to day as the festival director? What are some of
the things that you have to do? Because this is
I think for a lot of the listeners, they're going
to listen to this and go. If I were to
get into that sort of a field, what does that
look like? Because I really have no idea what you
would do on a day to day Basi's very interesting. Yeah, no,
it's very well. I should also preference.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know, there was sort of a crossroads moment with
this because I had moved to Austin, Texas in twenty
fourteen to run a whole separate film festival down in Austin.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So I was also doing sound and seen remotely for
eight years, and I mean I would come back for
the festival, but then as soon as it was over
and we sort of tied everything up, I'd head back
to Austin, and you know, we just start working on
it again.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
But I just want to read the city. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, well it's getting bigger every day, yeah and changing right, yes,
so yeah, I just want to at least mention that
before I sort of do a deeper dive. You know,
I I love everything I do. And the one thing
about loving something so much is that you can see
(16:19):
a lot of unfortunate shortcomings where you sort of hand
yourself give yourself over to something that you're so passionate
about and that you care so much about. And you know,
I think the thing that people do not know about
Sound and Seene is that it's all volunteer based. So
we have a great group of people that I work
(16:43):
with that you know, I've surrounded myself with that help
this festival to get to where it is for basically nothing, So.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
You know, a passion project.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah yeah, and you know, there's nothing there's nothing wrong
with that, you know, as long as you are able
to make a living doing something else and you can
still have enough time and energy to put a great
festival on, like you know, that's that's wonderful. I don't
recommend it for everyone because you know, people should be
paid with their worth and you know, it is harder
(17:20):
each year to raise money, to find films, to find
live music, to find venues, supporters, advertising, marketing. You know,
it's it's a grind like anything. I'm not saying that
this is you know, luxurious at any means, but I've
been doing it for so long it's it's almost as
(17:41):
natural as going to bed or you know, breathing or
you know walking. So there is a lot that goes
into it. And I guess my role as the festival
director is I ultimately have to oversee every thing that
we do. I have to be accountable for every dollar
that goes out and every dollar that comes in. I
(18:02):
have to coordinate with filmmakers, venues, distributors, producers. You know,
we have to work out flights and we have to
pay screening fees for some films. We have to find
hotel rooms, we have to find transportation.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
For the guests and directors that come in.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, so you know, you just have to keep thinking,
you know, like anything two or three steps ahead. It's like, Okay,
we're now showing this movie at the festival. You know,
what do we do next? Because we have to be
able to advertise it. We have to get people excited
about it because we're bringing it to town to show
(18:46):
in the festival, and we have to be excited about
what it is that we're showing to get other people
excited about. So you have to add that level of
marketing and advertising, because you can show the best film
or you can have the best lineup in the world,
but if no one knows about it, no one's going
to show up.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
And even with that, yeah, you're always competing against a
thousand other things, especially in cities like Minneapolis to Saint
Paul and Austin.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
You know, there's a lot going on all the time. Yeah,
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I think it's also one of these things where you know, like, look,
I mean people don't like talking about the pandemic and
what that did to creators and artists and that seclusion
and isolation of creating art and bringing it to the masses.
(19:40):
But you know, it really affected the film industry, not
just in the US but worldwide. And you know, we
also got spoiled to some degree with all the streaming
options that we had, right which, look, I you know,
I love my streaming channels. I love watching stuff at home,
(20:03):
but there is something about going out to an event,
to a live setting to see a movie and know
that the artist is going to be there, that the
filmmaker is going to be there, you know, because you're
not going to have that same experience watching it from
home on your couch.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
And I feel like the pandemic, I feel like it
was kind of trending this way anyway, but when the
pandemic hit, it really took a toll on theaters a
general mainstream or not. And I tell my son all
the time, like, if you look at what the mainstream
movie theaters are showing, it's usually a Marvel movie or
something like it's I'm telling him, I'm like, back in
(20:43):
the day, you can go watch a funny movie at
the movie theater with a crowd of people all laughing
at the same time.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
And he hasn't been able to picture.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
He's a teenager, and he's just like, that's so strange
because any movie they show now is just, you know,
the mainstream thing. So I always trying to take him
out to do something kind of fun to home alone.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
It put the Parkway last December.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And that had a little taste of that too, and
it because people were laughing and having a good time.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
And of course most people have seen that movie.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's kind of a Christmas classic at this point. But
it was kind of fun just to see that reaction
out of my kids because they don't have that like
we had that. Like I remember going to see Farley
movies or whatever you're going to see the original Star
Wars movies and just that that feeling is it was
much different than it is now. So I think theater
(21:32):
is important and I hope that people continuously go, and
I hope it expands again because for as much as
I love streaming too, like being able to do anything
by clicking a button's pretty amazing, but also we find
ourselves stuck in the house a lot too, and it
just isn't the same feeling that it used to be.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So do you find that as well?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, you know, I I'll okay, you know, I answered
five minutes ago. Like the daily grind of putting on
a festival, you know, one of the perks I guess
that I get, you know, and something that I don't.
You know, I appreciate the opportunity to is I get
to travel a lot nice, So, you know, typically the
(22:17):
first you know, like the first major festival of every
calendar year is sun Dance in Park City, Utah, Cool January.
And because Sound and Seen has been set up to
be in November, this means that we've got you know,
X amount of time to travel to festivals, to look
at other lineups, to inquire about other films to try
(22:39):
to potentially bring to the festival. But what I've learned
in going to these festivals is it is important to
see films that we are considering for the festival with
an audience, because myself, along with our programmers, you know,
program director Rich Gill and Kat Swenson and Dash Donado,
(23:00):
you know, we also have a screening committee of about
eight or nine volunteers that watch submissions that get submitted
from various you know, filmmakers, producers, distributors to the festival
for consideration. And you know, we can watch these at home,
we can watch them on our TV, and mostly we're
watching them by ourselves. And you know, you need to
(23:24):
be able to differentiate what's going to work for you
personally versus what's going to work in a theater of
potentially three hundred people, right, And what I've also learned
in going to these festivals is, yeah, I'll go to
music related docs, which is typically what Sound and Seene is,
(23:45):
and you know, I try to see them all in
a theater because I need to see how it also
plays with an audience. Because if you're watching something in
a crowded theater and people aren't laughing, people aren't clapping,
you know, most likely you're going to get that same response.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Now, personally, I may like.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
The film or I may like the subject, but in
my head, I'm also thinking is this going to translate
for our Sound and Seene audience.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, that's an interesting take, especially when you're dealing with music,
because music is so it brings people together, and it
also is like, yeah that music sucks. This music's great,
So you have to really cater to what your audience wants.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I suppose. And I went to.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Prince they did the Diamonds and Pearls release show out
at Paisley Park.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Did you havepen to go to any of those?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I didn't, but I've certainly been to Paisley Park with
my share of times.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It was great because I had a from when the
Quest was glam Slam back in the day.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Oh yeah, they played that show. He did like a
kickoff night at glam Slam before the tour.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
That.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I've seen a few concert movies in with a crowd,
and it is different because with that, people got up
out of their chairs and they were dancing and they
were singing as though it was a movie like or
an actual concert. So it was kind of to your point,
it's interesting. If I would have watched that movie at home,
I would have, as a Princes fan, would have been like,
(25:23):
that was really cool. Well, walking out of that, I
was like, what a great vibe of that whole thing.
People had a great time, they were singing and dance
against the closest they're going to get to seeing them
again at this point, So you know, I could see
what you're saying as far as how that translates to
an audience and whether or not it's going to click
or not.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, And you know, like anything, you know, sometimes we
you know, we make the wrong choice, and not because
of it's a bad film or not. It's just sometimes
we have higher expectations for some films and they underperform.
And you know that can be anything from us not
promoting enough, from press or people not talking about the
(26:04):
film enough. And you know, again in this social media age.
I don't know how long we're going to keep saying that.
But we're also dependent on these filmmakers and artists to
help promote these films as well, because you know, you
never know if this person who made this film has
(26:26):
relatives in the Twin Cities, or if they went to
college there, or if their best friend is you know,
from college, lives there now or something. So you really
it's a really grassroots tight bands on deck YEP. And
you know, sometimes we're also surprised, well, you know, we are.
Our venues for sound and seen range from eighty five
(26:50):
seats to three hundred and fifty, and sometimes we'll put
a film in at an eighty five seat theater and
it'll sell out in three days and then you know,
we can't move it or upgrade it to a different theater.
And sometimes you put in a film that you think
is going to sell three hundred, three hundred and fifty
tickets and it sells fifty and you just have to
(27:10):
live with that. Yeah, it's not a your best. Yeah
it's not a perfect science. And you know the other
thing that I've also learned, and you know, this might
be more of just like a personal take, but It
does matter when you're watching these movies as well, because
you know, we're doing this interview in the morning. If
we had done this at night, it'd probably be a
(27:32):
different conversation. Just like if you're watching four movies in
a date. You know, if you're watching the first movie
at nine am and then you're watching the last one
at nine pm, you know, you're probably gonna have different
takes versus if you flip flop those or you know.
So it's just you know, And that's just what I've
noticed doing this for almost twenty years now is sometimes
(27:54):
I have different approaches to when I want to watch
things because I want to be in a better mood.
I don't want to be as exhausted. But sometimes you
don't have that option.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Right, And so, as you mentioned, it's not an exact science.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
When the movies, which is it a big theater is
a little theater, how you want to approach that? What
what is generally your approach to it though, to try
to figure out how it's going to play or for
your best guess, how.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Do you decide what goes where?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I mean not every film that we show in
our five day festival can play the seven o'clock Friday slot,
and that's just a reality. You know, this happens. I'm
a big sports guy, so I'm gonna throw in a sportslogy.
You know, the league determines what game is going to
(28:46):
be the Sunday night game of the week. That doesn't
always mean it's gonna be the best game, but that's
the one where they think they're gonna have the most eyeballs,
the best ratings, you know, advertising, and they want marquee
names to play in those games because they know that
they're going to have the widest audience at home watching it.
So I'm looking at it along with you know, the
(29:07):
team of just you know what what films in this lineup?
You know, are people most excited about? What is something
that's going to drive them to you know, because our
opening night's on Wednesday, and you know, some people don't
like going out during the week. You know, we still
call those school nights, so you got to also keep
(29:32):
that in mind. But you know, when I saw the
Devo documentary, which is what we're opening with at Sundance
in January, I immediately knew that this was something that
the Twin Cities would want to see. The pedigree of
the band, the longevity of the band, the notable hits,
the uniqueness of the band, and they're still going, you know,
(29:54):
fifty years later. And so that was something that we definitely,
you know right away, even in January and February, you know,
knowing that our festival is in November, like this is
a potential to be an opening night because you also
need your opening night film to set the tone for
the rest of them.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
So it sounds like it's almost like putting an album together.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Really you want that leadoff track to really pull them
in and kind of be that sure thing. Yeah, I
can't imagine that Devo thing would fail. Like that seems
like a no brainer. And especially you know, putting it
on a weekday that he said it's on a Wednesday.
Devo fans are going to come out for that regardless
of They'll be excited about seeing it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So very cool and you know, but yeah, I mean,
and again, not every film can be your opening night
or closing night film, and you just have to sort
of balance it out. And you know what's tricky. As
you sort of brought up with music, everyone's got different tastes.
So we definitely want a wide variety of topics and
(31:00):
subjects and genres at the festival because personally, like the
type of music I like is probably different than what
you like or what Rich likes or cat likes. But again,
we don't put this festival on for ourselves. We put
it on for the community. And it's important to bring
(31:21):
these films into town because there's a large percentage of
them that will never ever come to the Twin Cities,
let alone be shown on a big screen.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And you know, we do have some Minnesota based films
this year, and some are older, but we felt like
with this being a big year as a twenty fifth anniversary,
that this was something that we wanted to celebrate the
history and the progression of Twin Cities in Minnesota music.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
What are some of those I saw? One of them
is The Entry with Who's ger New in the Replacements shows?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yep, yep, so seven Nights in the Entry by Rick Fuller,
who has been a long staple here in the Twin Cities.
We've shown a lot of Rick's work over the years.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Talented guy.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, and this was a film that we showed at
the festival, I believe in two thousand and seven, and
it was before the Riverview renovated, and you know, we're
talking seven hundred seats and they had seven hundred people
show up to see Seven Nights in the Entry, And yeah,
(32:34):
and I mean it's also complicated because of certain licensing
and rights issues of why this film hasn't been seen
much more or you know, had had more of a
festival life, or you know, it's on.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Streaming or physical media.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And it was important to us this year to again
celebrate like past Minnesota films. And so the name that
I brought up a while or earlier in this chat,
Adam Sekuler, who is one of my best friends, sort
of recruited him to help out program some of these
Minnesota titles from the past because he was also a programmer.
(33:17):
It sounded the scene before I even joined. So he
has the history of the festival and has that knowledge
of previous films that played and did well, and that
was something that we wanted to bring to this year's
lineup as well. And so it was Seven Nights in
the Entry. M eighty, which is a concert film that
(33:38):
Chris Strouth also produced, has early footage of Debo when
they were referred to as Dove and suicide Commandos nice,
you know. So there's a lot of nuggets in there,
and that was something that was screened in like two
thousand and two, two thousand and three, So this is
(34:00):
like the first time in twenty some years that people
have seen this film as well. And you know, if
you've been in the Twin Cities for a long time,
you've obviously heard the name Spider John Kerner yep. And
when he passed away in June, a Minnesota based filmmaker
who doesn't live in Minnesota anymore but lived here for
(34:22):
much of his life. Don McGlenn had made this doc
on Spider John Kerner in two thousand and five that
you know, we showed in two thousand and six, and
then I think we even brought it back in like
twenty ten. And with John's passing in June, we felt
it was important to honor him and give the screening
(34:42):
a tribute and to have a longtime friend and performer
Charlie Parr be involved as well too. So you know,
I mean, I don't want to say like that was
something that we had planned all along, but you know,
things come up, and it was one of these things
where it was a film that hadn't been on the
(35:04):
big screen in a long time, and I know a
lot of people have been missing and wanting to see
this film. And it's also, you know, a slice of
life of Spider John's career in life, and it was
important to have that reflected in this year's program.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
So, growing up as someone who loved movies, were you
a big music fan as well? Or did you just
kind of get wrapped into this as you went along
and it was more of a music based thing.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
How did you land there? Were they both your passions?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No? I love music, I still do. No, there was.
It was sort of a crossroads in my life of
what direction I wanted to go because, as I mentioned,
I wanted to be a writer, and I had an
opportunity to write for this Oh my god, this is
(35:57):
so funny, this website called how is the Show?
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I remember? How Was This Show? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So I wrote for them for like three years, four years,
and I was constantly going to concerts and reviewing shows.
And that's you know, someone who's now made a living
doing this. Andrea Swinson. She started off writing for that
site too. So I've known Andrew a very long time.
We'd see each other at the same shows, and you
(36:26):
know it was I loved it. You know, it was
great going to the four hundred Bar and you know,
see Bright Eyes or Cursive or Arcade Fire and Beulah.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
And all these bands that you know, I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
In many years, but to be there early on in
the late nineties early aughts and to cover these shows
was a blast.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
But I knew I couldn't keep up with both film
and music, so I think I was just definitely more
passionate when it came to film, and you know, I
wanted to travel. I was pretty obsessed with wanting to
go to film festivals internationally, just to see more esoteric
or international films that we weren't getting in the Twin Cities,
(37:13):
let alone the US. And you know, I just made
the decision that I had to sort of hang it up.
And occasionally then I would write some reviews when I
became a film critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet
and I was doing like a weekly film blog, and yeah,
(37:34):
occasionally I'd write some music reviews there. But at the
same time, I just I definitely had more of an
interest in films and stories and moving image and everything.
So then that's why when I got asked to be
the programmer one of the programmers for.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Sounding Scene from Rick, I jumped on it and you know,
best to both worlds. Yeah seventeen years later, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
So what are what are some of the festivals that
you sounds like you do quite a bit of traveling.
What are some of the festivals that you think are
some of the best ones out there? Which ones you
enjoy the most when you go traveling?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Hmm, you know, it's like different every year, but I
would say the one that I try not to miss
now at least is the Berlin and now in I
guess it's more like the Berlin International Film Fest WOW,
which is in February. And the reason why I guess
(38:33):
I would say that one in particular is because they
also have the European Film Market going on at the
same time, so you have the opportunities to see films
that aren't even released, that haven't even premiered yet, because
this is important for distributors to go and look at
these films ahead to see if they want to buy
(38:55):
and for distribution for whatever territory or a country they're representing,
and then meeting with the sales agents in Berlin to
negotiate these deals. Wow, you know, and they also have
some of the best programming internationally, and they have beautiful
(39:19):
venues in Berlin, and I get to see a lot
of my friends who go, not only American friends, but
international friends because it's sort of you know, it's the
second or third biggest film fest in the world.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
After can.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
In France and possibly Venice and Italy.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
And then Berlin. I suppose you meet a lot of
people traveling to these and working alongside people that you
probably only see when you go to some of these vessevals.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, for sure. And that's something that you know is
also very important, is to keep up relationships with people
because you know, maybe not this year, but maybe next year.
There might be a film that we're interested in bringing
in and there's a sales agent I know who's repping
the film, so you have sort of inside track onto
(40:12):
trying to bring that film to town. Because the other
thing with film festivals what I especially learned being in Austin,
Texas was it's very competitive. And as you know, I
sort of brought up earlier, when films premiere at festivals,
you know, it sort of dilutes than other festivals or
(40:37):
theaters wanting to play them in certain markets because they
know that if a film plays a festival and a
certain market where they feel like they can make more
money theatrically, they're probably less apt to play that festival.
But on the flip side, if sales agents or distributors
feel like, oh, this film is never coming to Minneapolis,
(41:00):
definitely want you to play it at your festival because
then there might be a life for it when it
comes to streaming or vod or physical media. So we
are also helping and providing these distributors and producers and
artists promote their film. And if something comes to Sound
and Scene and it sells out there's a demand then
(41:22):
for it.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Wow, that's that's cool. You don't think often times about
all of that when it comes to the to the arts,
like the strategy of how things play out, or the
politics involved in some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So, and the more festivals that I can go to
and have these conversation, it's only going to benefit you know,
Sound and See as a festival or as a business.
And you know, sometimes there's films that will premiere at
Sundance in January and those distributors have a strategy in
mind where it's like, oh, we're releasing this in April
(41:58):
or in May, and so like we don't get the
opportunities to play those films, but maybe the Minneapolis Saint
Paul Filmfest, which is in April might play it, you know,
and that's fine. Like we can't show every music film
in the world either, we have to spread it around.
It's just you know, and at any festival will tell
(42:18):
you this. You know, there's always the one that gets away,
or we can't play it because it's not available, or
you know it's going to be on streaming two weeks
before the festival. Because also you know, once a film
most likely hits a streamer, they don't want to play
a festival that you know they've moved on to, like
the next thing.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Next phase.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah, off the top of your head, is there the
one that got away that kind of sticks with you?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
I mean, not off the top of my head. I
mean there's certainly films that I wish we could have shown.
I mean, I think one only because again it came
out in twenty twenty and I was lucky enough to
see it at Sundance before we went into major lockdown.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Was the documentary on the Go Gos.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh cool so that I saw at Sundance and all
the members of the Go Gos are there and it
was just a wonderful event. In screening, it was a
lot of energy, people are excited, a lot of laughing,
a lot of clapping, and you know, to me, that
felt like, oh, yeah, this is going to be a hit.
It Sound and Seen, And I know Kathy Valentine from
(43:31):
the Go Gos who lived in Austin while I was there,
and so I had a connection to Kathy to possibly
bring this to Minneapolis. And then pandemic hit pandemic.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Yeah, I've actually been thinking about reaching out to Kathy
Valentine see if she wanted to do this.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
So you've been at it now, how long have you
been with sound unseeene Very long time?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Too long?
Speaker 2 (43:57):
No, since two thousand and eight, and then I became
the director in twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
So sixteen out of twenty five years of the thing
you've been you've been around for It's yeah, back of
a run. What are what are some of the moments
that pop in your head the most exciting or things
that you're most proud of in these last sixteen years
as part of this.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Well, you know, I think the growth of it, because
I think when it first started, and I I don't
know much about the early history, believe it or not,
you know, I think it came on to the gates
and like people were pretty jazzed up about it, and
they were doing the right films at the right venues
(44:44):
at the right time. They really, you know, we're inventors
of doing the showcase of music docs because I think
the original idea was they wanted this to be a
touring film festival, similar to how bands tour. They wanted
to take a collection of films out on the road
(45:04):
and go from city to city and show them. I
don't know who would have the time to do that now, but.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Certainly not me.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
So I think that's sort of a model or a
brand that we sort of aspired to of just wanting
to bring cool films to town that you couldn't otherwise
see and to make the Twin Cities a cooler place
to live. But I just think definitely the growth of it,
you know. But then there's there's moments, you know, I'll
bring up Berlin again, where I have a sound and
(45:37):
See beanie, and I'll walk down the street in Berlin
and people, you know, people will be like, oh, sound
and seen, I know what that is, and you know,
and I mean they'll put a smile on my face.
And then you know, I can walk down downtown Minneapolis
or Saint Paul with sound and seen and people don't
know what the hell that.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Is, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
So it's crazy how some people you know. And look,
there's some things that are common knowledge other people that
I don't know anything about. So found and seen again,
Like looking back in all this because my mentor at
the Minneapoli Saint Paul International Film Festival was this man
named el Milgram who is like legendary in the film
(46:18):
festival world. And you know, he was someone that was
really hard to work with, like work alongside. He just
had no parameters, no rules. It was just like get
the work done. I don't care how it gets done.
You know, if you have to call Sweden at six
in the morning to get a film, like, that's what
you got to do. And you know we're talking. This
(46:39):
is like two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
and he founded the Minneapolis Saint Paul filmfests in the
early eighties, but he was able to bring in Jean
Luca Dard and Martin SCORSESEI like, very early on in
their careers because he started the U Film Society at
(47:00):
the you know, University of Minnesota in the early sixties
and showed films at the Bell Auditorium Belle Museum, and
you know, he knew the importance of going to these
film festivals and connecting with people. Because it's one thing
too to send an email to someone and be like, Hi,
(47:21):
I'm Jim from Minneapolis. I run this festival and if
someone reads that, they'll be like, oh cool, some guy
named Jim just reached out and he wants to show
her a film. But it's different if you go to
a festival and you have sort of that one on
one time the meeting, you know, sit down with these people,
get to know them and you know, yeah, just get
(47:42):
to know their brand, their catalogs, what they have upcoming.
You know, it's it's a you have to remember a lot.
Like memory is a huge part of all this too,
because you have to be able to remember names and
faces and where you met, where you sat down. And
that's something that I take a lot of pride in
of just trying to connec people to one another and
(48:02):
make sure that people are aware of the existence of
sound and Seen and that this is in Minneapolis and
now in Rochester in Austin, but it originated in Minneapolis,
and you know, I want to hold onto that for
as long as we can and just make it part
of the pillars of the community. So it is important
(48:23):
to get out there and you know, let people know
that this is something that exists.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Nice And what are you looking forward to for this one?
It's coming up here? November thirteenth is the kickoff. Yes, okay,
November thirteenth through seventeenth. So what are you looking forward
to the most on on this group of films or guests?
I see you've got some pretty cool guest coming too,
so it probably kind of goes hand in hand in
(48:49):
some ways.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
I mean, I'll be diplomatic in a way where I
also you know, someone told me this that you know,
every guess that comes to your festival is just as
important as the other. Obviously, some have more notoriety and
more name recognition than others, but so you know, there
(49:11):
will be some films that draw better than others just
because of who's associated with them or who made the films.
And you know, it's not fair to me to also say, well,
you know, all these films that we're showing are just
as important as our opening night to the four minute
shorts in the shorts program. So I don't want to
(49:33):
like skirt around your question. But you know, I'm always
interested in what surprises us, you know, like because again,
we watched these films so far in advance. We have
to you know, curate and select certain films that you know,
we're watching this.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
You know, we're watching a lot of.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
These films in April. I don't know what's going to
happen from April to November. You know, what's going to
be the talk of the town. What's you know, relevant
and current, you know, pop culture, you know media. But
you know, I'll give you the best answer that I
can in that some of the films that I am
(50:15):
particularly excited about our genre related films, just because I've
always had an interest in suspense, horror, thriller or sci
fi and when those converge with music films, to me,
I find that like very exciting. So that was something
(50:35):
that you know, rich and I talked a lot about
about wanting to incorporate more genre related films. Now I
don't know how those will translate as far as like
ticket sales or box office sales, because they're not your
typical sound unseen music, you know, biopic type film or
(50:56):
like the talking heads type model of getting a bunch
of people interviewed on camera to say how great an
artist or a band is. You know, But these are
you know, fiction films driven by a narrative that are
influenced by music, but that maybe you know, a little bloody,
a little gory, a little surprising, and you know, I mean,
(51:18):
that's just that's the fun of it is, you know,
with Sound and Senior Chair, I want to I want
us to challenge ourselves. I want to have surprising films
that people don't expect us to show, but that we
that we do end up showing. So that was sort
of a long winded answer. But I've been on the
record saying this Pavement is my my all time favorite band.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
All right.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
It's also very exciting that we have this Pavement documentary
called Pavements, which is it's a very bizarre movie. But
as people know and who know the band Pavement. They
put out some pretty bizarre music. But this is like
a film within a film within a film, so it's
(52:04):
very meta. There's actors playing members of Pavement making a
bio pick called Range Life, with then the actual band
members reflecting on their own career.
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Oh for weird. Pretty cool?
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, And you know, it so happens that the editor,
Robert Green, is a very accomplished editor and filmmaker in
his own right and someone that I've known for a
very long time. He'll be attending the festival as a guest,
and so he was the editor of the film. The
film was directed by this New York filmmaker Alex Ross Perry,
(52:44):
who also made this really great film five six years
ago with Elizabeth.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Moss called Her Smell.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And you know, Robert and I were talking and he's
based in Missouri, and he said, Hey, I just happened
to be coming to Minneapolis that weekend because my daughter
goes to college up there.
Speaker 4 (53:03):
Can you schedule the film while I'm in town?
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And I was like, there, and I mean, that's just
stuff that. Again, you can't plan for stuff like that. Yeah,
you know, but it's pretty cool that Linda Perry's coming
to the festival. Yeah, John Doe from X who was
here in twenty nineteen, so he already had a relationship
(53:27):
with Sound and Seen And John Doe lives in Austin,
so I had a connection with him when I was
down there as well. So you know, that's something that
has been valuable to reach out to these people, especially
when they have projects, to invite them to the festival
and be.
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
You know, people are excited for our opening night film
on Devo. You know, we're also pretty excited to be
bringing back swamp Dog gets his pool painted, and to
have swamp Dog and Moogstar come to the Festial will
perform after the screening. Yeah, because that was a film
that Rich and I saw at south By Southwest and
Austin earlier this year, and we were at the premiere
(54:09):
and we went to the after party and yeah, I
mean that's when that conversation started. And it's made by
two Minnesota you know, veterans and the music community and
directors Isaac Gale and Ryan Olsen. So there's a Minnesota
connection with that film.
Speaker 4 (54:27):
Nice. So how long do you think this is going
to go? How many more years you got in you here?
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Well, we did announce. We did announce that after this year,
we are putting the festival on hiatus. I thought I
heard that, yeah, yeah, and you know, but I do
want to let the listeners know that our familiar Sound
and Seen. You know, since two thousand and nine, we
have been doing monthly screenings at the Trial on Cinema
(54:54):
and those will continue. We'll continue doing our monthly screening
program because we still you know, there's still will be
films in twenty twenty five that we want to bring
to town and showcase. But you know, all of us
that work on Sound and Seen all have full time jobs,
So there's something to be said there where you know,
(55:17):
when you're asking someone who already works a full time job.
You know, some people have families. You know, only two
of us are based in Minneapolis, two are based in Austin,
and one is in Rochester, Minnesota. So that also makes
it challenging. You know, the cost of everything goes up.
(55:37):
That's you know, that's just the reality. And you know,
we've gotten this thing to twenty five. And if you'd
have asked the people who founded this in nineteen ninety
nine how long this would go on, I doubt anyone
would have said twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (55:53):
So yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
You know, like I think we all just sort of
deserve a break from it, and you know, it's fine.
I'm at peace with it. I think everyone else is
good with it. And so we really did pour a
lot of energy and time into the festival this year
because we sort of knew that this might be the
(56:17):
last one for a while. So I can't give you,
you know, a return date or the festival. We're certainly
taking twenty twenty five off or a festival. Now, there
could be something in the works for twenty twenty five
that could be a much smaller, scaled back type series
(56:39):
where it's just films that will show with no guests,
no live music, just you know, just films that we show.
So that's something that you know, we'll revisit in twenty
twenty five, but it is something that we've been talking
about because we do want to keep the sound and
sound and seen name alive. But I think just for
(57:01):
the sake of all of our sanities and how busy
we are, we definitely want to take a year off
to sort of you know, recoup, and we can always
you know, restart it because sound and seen as an LLC.
It's not a nonprofit, so we don't have a board
of directors. The five of us that mostly work on it,
we sort of determine when we want to do it,
(57:23):
so there's no expiration date, there's no finish line. It's
just we felt like this was a good time to
sort of hit the pause button, and you know, hopefully
we can unpause it in a couple of years down
the road.
Speaker 4 (57:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:38):
And I you know, I think if you build a
legacy of anything like you have over twenty five years,
I think there's less of a threat of, you know,
taking a break and losing any moment. I mean, you've
got that brand out there, so it probably is a
good time to take a little break.
Speaker 4 (57:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
Well, I think the other thing that I should also
just mention is, you know I work, I mean full transparency.
My full time job is I work for a film distributor. Okay,
so I do that as well. They're based in LA
but I'm you know, I can stay here in Saint Paul.
But you know, in the festival world, a lot of
(58:15):
festivals are really struggling to stay relevant. Not all of
them have the budget that they used to because for
a lot of American festivals, they don't have the funding
that a lot of foreign festivals get for you know,
the different provinces and territories. You know, they get government
funding to put on festivals. You know, the United States
(58:38):
is not giving Sound and Scene or Minnesota any money
to do this. So, you know, I want us to
be able to be proud of our lineup and our program.
And I would prefer to sort of bow out a
little early versus continuing to go down a path where,
you know, further down the path we could be running
on fumes sure, and they need to sort of peter out,
(59:01):
and then what have you gained by doing that? You know,
I think sometimes there's nothing wrong with sort of, you know,
not necessarily being ahead of the curve, but being able
to you know, put your own stamp on it and
you know, go out when it feels right to you.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
Right, well, you're still feeling good.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I mean again, we might
be back in twenty twenty six, we may be back
in twenty thirty.
Speaker 4 (59:31):
We may never come back, like I you know, I don't.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
I mean, it's like when bands break up, you know,
it's like God, I hope that band gets back together,
and some of them do three years.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
Some it takes what it take Oasis, you know, took
Oasis a lot, you know, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Sure there's you know there. You know by doing that,
they're going to be making millions of millions of dollars.
You know, Sound and Seen certainly will not be doing that.
But you know, as long as you know, we have
the energy and you know that drive to continue to
bring these films to the Twin Cities, like, I will
do it for as long as I can, knowing that
(01:00:10):
I'm not getting a monthly paycheck doing it. So you know,
I will do it for as long as I can.
But I also don't want to be doing this when
I'm eighty five years old.
Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Sure makes sense. Well I'm going to. I don't want
to keep you too much longer, but I do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
I already got audi. What your favorite band is Pavement?
We have not addressed movies, so okay to two part question.
What was the first movie that you saw that blew
your mind as a kid? God?
Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
Why and why is it short Circuit? It's certainly not
short Circuit. That's funny you bring me up though, because yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Just simply watched Hackers and the bad guy in Hackers
is played by Fisher Stevens, who was in Short.
Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Yeah that did not age well no, no, because yeah
then he played like an Indian and Short Circuit yes
one of his big regrets apparently, yeah it should be.
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
I almost okay. I mean I don't know if this
is like the film that like impacted me, but I
definitely remember watching stand by Me, Yeah, at a very
young age when I probably shouldn't have been because I'm
sure my parents were just like, oh, this is about
you know, four kids on this.
Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
You know, trip let alone. It's a Stephen King book
and they're going to find a dead body. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
It's like I definitely remember watching stand By Me and
like really being affected by that.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I think it's still relevant in twenty twenty four. But
I love Peebe's Big Adventure.
Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Yeah that he.
Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Does not get old. It's still funny. Every time I
watch it. There's always a new joke.
Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
I had no idea, And maybe I didn't forgot, but
I had no idea Phil Hartman was involved in all that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
This past year we did show Pee's Big Adventure at
the trial on as part of large Marge's anniversary of
her death, So we'll be doing that again in twenty
twenty five. I think it's January eleventh, so that came
in not too long ago, so that that always brings,
(01:02:38):
you know, joy, you know, but also, I mean, my
favorite movie of all time is Drugstore Cowboy Okay, which
is not like a very well known film unless like
you're a pretty big Cinophile, but is directed by Gus
Van Sant and stars Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch and
(01:03:00):
Heather Graham and like her second role, and James LaGrow
and William William Burrows.
Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
Is in it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
But you know, it's one.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Of these movies because people ask, and I guess I'll
just tell you why it's my favorites because it has
every single element of a film in it. It's funny,
it's dramatic, it's an adventure, it's suspenseful, it's you know,
it's got everything he wanted a movie.
Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Do you have a favorite director in general?
Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Yeah, my favorite director is Pedro Lama Dovar.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
And what does Pedro do? I don't think I.
Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
He is the Spanish filmmaker. He's probably in his mid seventies.
Now he's got this new film coming out this year,
his first English film with Julian Moore until the Swinton
called The Room next Door. Okay, but he's best known
for pushing boundaries. He has a couple of films that
(01:03:57):
are NC seventeen. He explores melodramatic storylines. His films are
always very colorful, not only just in the palette and
the camera lens, but you know, the characters, their costumes.
A lot of his stories are twisty, they're sexual.
Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
He just explores a lot of different stories in between
the cracks, and you know, it's just it's something that's
powerful that still whenever a new pedro La Mendovar film
is released, I immediately need to go see it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:38):
Right, So it sounds like it's a lot of unexpected.
Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, he's got almost a
fifty year career, so and he's still cranking him out, so.
Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
You can, you can do the deep dive a lot,
you know, But I mean I love David Lynch, you
know one car hy Lynn Ramsey, David Fincher, you know,
the Hughes brothers, Like there's.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
It means endless.
Speaker 6 (01:05:09):
Yeah, yeah, well awesome, Well I hope to make it
out to a couple of the films. It's coming up quick,
and I wish a great success on it. Fascinating into
a little bit different take than a lot of my
other conversations that I have, so I think it'll people
really enjoy hearing that perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Well, no, I appreciate taking the time, Nick, and you know,
thanks again for let me chat about sounding scene and
my dad as a wrestler. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Thank you for listening to the figure A's podcast this week.
That was Jim Brunzell. Great conversation, different take on music
coming from a film standpoint, which is really cool. So
I hope you'll check out the Sound Unseen Movie Festival
here in Minneapolis. Look it up online if you're from
out of town. It's pretty fantastic. It's been around for
(01:05:59):
twenty five years and movie makers actually called it one
of the twenty five coolest film festivals in the world.
So it's a pretty cool deal here in Minneapolis. In
it doing something for twenty five years, it's not easy,
so it's pretty cool that that festival has been around
that long and just doing the math on it that
(01:06:19):
was around the time I moved to Minneapolis was the
first one, so it's kind of cool. It's been here
pretty much as long as I have so very cool
conversation with Jim, good guy, interesting story. That rustling thing
blows my mind. I even got on eBay to look
at action figures. It's pretty awesome. As Dad has action figures.
Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
I want to have action figures.
Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Dad, where's your action figure?
Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Anyway?
Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the
Figure Eights podcast. By the time the next episode rolls around,
the election will be over. So I'm going to ask
every one of you to find it in your hearts
to vote, get out there and vote.
Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Going to tell you who to vote for.
Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
I am going to tell you one thing, however, vote
for those that lift people up. So you know, whoever
you decide lift people up.
Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
That would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
Because we have enough division and weirdness.
Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
And it's just gross. It's just gross. Let's not be gross. Anyway.
Thank you for listening. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Four years into this thing, more episodes to come. I've
got some interesting ideas coming up here from some known people,
some lesser known people that are very fascinating, and I
hope you will tune in and from Studio twenty four.
Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
This has been the Figure Eights podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Take Care
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Auto Parts.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You are listening to the Figure Eats podcast. I'm your host,
Nick Leet from the band High on Stress out of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and today is a little bit of a curveball for you.
As you know, this is a music podcast, and I've
spent many, many, many hours talking to musicians, record producers, anders, videographers, authors,
(01:04):
all sorts of music related shenanigans, and today is no different,
but also a little different in that I am talking
to the director of Sound Unseen, which is a film
festival that focuses on cutting edge films on music. And
this has been happening in the Twin Cities here for
twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Twenty five years. It's very cool.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
This is coming up November thirteenth through the seventeenth here
in Minneapolis, and it's got films about music but also
special guests like Ex's John Doe, Linda.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Perry from Four Non Blondes.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
There's films that include Husker Doo and The Replacements and Devo,
all sorts of super cool.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Movies that are coming up.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
And it was a really, really good time talking to
Jim here, Jim Brounzell. If I hadn't mention that already,
he actually reached out to me and talked about being
on the podcast, and it was a really fun conversation.
I didn't know Jim and learned a lot about him
and his festival. And one of the crazier things. I've
(02:09):
talked to a lot of musicians on this podcast, and
some of them have some pretty intriguing family members, be
it Hollywood movie stars or parents in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, or people who have come from
families that.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Have created major.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Companies in the US. But this is the first time
that I've spoken to someone whose father was an all
star wrestler in WWF WWE.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
So that was a fun.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Terminal, so great time talking to Jim. Looking forward to
the Film Festival here in Minneapolis in a couple of
weeks and without further ado, I bring you Jim.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Runs them the ridiculous stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That I come in here and I'm like, oh, the
children have been in here, because there's stuff all over
the place. Yeah, but it's also good, so like I
have to kind of balance the getting on their case
of leaving in a mess, and also like, all right,
you want to do some music stuff, I'm all about it,
so absolutely, And I do want to get pretty deep
(03:28):
into the sound on scene stuff, but I want to
learn a little bit about you as well and kind
of how you got to where you're at, because I
think you've got a very interesting job. So did you
grow up in Minnesota or what's kind of your backstory?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, I mean my back start. Yeah, So I currently
live in Saint Paul, and Saint Paul is where I
was born. And you know, as at a very early age,
I was very interested in movies, and I think probably
my earliest memory was being like five years old and
(04:03):
watching like Ciskel and Ebert, and I was very much
wanting to be a film critic because Roger Ebert was
at a very early you know, not maybe five, but
maybe more like eight or nine years old, I wanted
to be a film critic, and so I sort of
became obsessed with movies and my dad, for his profession,
(04:27):
traveled a lot, and I had an older sister, so
I think for my mom it was easy for her
to either rent videos for us or take us to
the movie theater, something like all of us collectively could do.
And so that just sort of, you know, fueled my
passion even more. And then in high school I wrote
reviews for the school newspaper. And then I got to
(04:50):
college at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and I wanted
to be a film major. And what I learned the
hard way was they didn't really have a f film department.
So I became an English major, and then minor didn't
film Like they offered film courses, but they didn't necessarily
have a film.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Deprogram yeahah, gotcha. And what did your dad do?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So my dad, well, I should ask you, are you
from the Are you from Minnesota? Are you from Twin Cities?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Originally?
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Not?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Originally I'm from North Dakota originally. Okay, I've been here now.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I moved here when I was twenty, and I've been
here longer than I was in North Dakota, which I'm
sure North Dakota's love when I say that, and I.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Say it frequently O. Hey, you know, sorry, hometowners.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No Bill Bison. And you know the Fargo Film Festival,
which I've never been to, but I've always heard great
things about and I'd love to get up there one
of these years to check it out. But I hear
great things about the Fargo Film Festival, so nice. But yeah,
my dad, my dad was a professional wrestler.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
All right, the sick a turn okay.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, so yeah, he wrestled in the a w A
and the late seventies early eighties, and he was in
a tag team with Greg Gania called the High Flyers Wow,
and then he jumped to the you know, at the
time it was the WWF and now it's WWB. But
(06:19):
he was in the WWF and he was also in
a tag team with another wrestler named b Brian Blair,
and they made up they made up the Killer Bees.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I remember the Killer Bees.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So was was this like the eighties then kind of
the height of okay, Hulkogan and all that was Biggs.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, and you know, my dad was in a couple
of WrestleMania's, so you know it was but you know,
my parents are still together after forty nine years, and
so this is. You know, this also feeds into you know,
sort of like my film obsession, because yeah, my dad
was gone twenty seven to twenty eight days out of
(06:59):
a month, you know, or if he wrestled in Fargo
or Des Moines or Madison, you know, he'd fly back
to Minneapolis and I'd get in the car with him
and go with them to the matches. He'd wrestle and
shower and we'd drive back. And you know, I understood
at a very early age that my you know, my
(07:22):
childhood was much different than my friends. So you know,
I understood, like, you know, I could go places with
my parents for vacation or go to wrestling matches or whatnot,
and you know, see my dad on TV and magazines
and they had action figures. So but I knew I
also didn't want to be in wrestling, So I yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Wow, that's that's an interesting upbringing. That's fascinating to me.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Did when did you first realize that things were a
little bit different at your house than maybe the house
next door.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
School?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, probably like second or third grade, because we moved
and my parents are still in that house. They moved
in that house in nineteen eighty seven. In the summer.
So when I went to start third grade at a
new school, that's when I sort of knew things are different.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Wow, that's really cool. It's funny because I didn't know
that backstory. The reason why I asked is typically when
you talk to someone who goes into the arts or
wants to major in the arts, like you know, movie
making or being in music or whatever, there's always a
little bit of that, well, fine, what are you gonna
(08:39):
fall back on? Conversation? That happens, and usually rightfully, oh right.
We know enough people who have gone into the arts
that have not been terribly successful. But I would imagine
in the rustling world, it is an art and it
is theater. I imagine that maybe you probably didn't get as
much pushback as the ever person who wants to go
(09:01):
into that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I mean, I suppose to some degree, but I guess
you know, if you're just talking like built in physical traits.
You know, I'm five eight, my dad is six feet,
my mom is five to two, so I you know,
i'd probably right where I should be height wise. And
you know, when you look at wrestlers, I mean, I
(09:25):
wouldn't say wrestlers in twenty twenty four. But in the eighties,
you know, a lot of them were just big dudes. Really.
I mean some that you know, I mean they trained,
you know, they were on strict diets. You know, they
wanted to be in good shape. But you know there
was wrestlers that were you know, six seven, three hundred
pounds and probably barely lifted weights.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And I could see, you know that my dad, you know,
as he got older, it became harder like anything. You know,
you're a musician, I've ru it gets harder each year,
you know, And so you know, I think I never
sat down with my dad and said, you know what
(10:08):
I really want to do is I want to follow
in your footsteps, Like we never had that conversation. It
was just never on my radar. I do find it
interesting that wrestling is part of my life because it's
one of the things that is like the furthest way
of anything I do in my life. But you also
bring up a good point of the theatrics of wrestling
(10:29):
in the art form, and you know that can obviously
translate to you know, theaters, you know, or plays, theater
and then you know, film and acting, because there's a
lot of that involved as well.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So what did your parents say when you said you
wanted to go into this.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I mean, they were always supportive.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
They knew how interested I was in it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And you know, also in college, I I dabbled in screenwriting,
you know, because I thought, oh, I want to get
into the movies. But then I also sort of thought, well,
it was sort of fun to just go to the
movies and experience it. And then it wasn't until after
college that I had a corporate job and there was
(11:15):
this neighborhood theater in the Twin Cities that no longer exists,
but it's called Oak Street Cinema, and to me, that
was like movie Heaven, you know, or that's where I
found this calling. And I had started volunteering for the
Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival in two thousand and four,
(11:39):
and I got to be really good friends with two
people in particular there, Adam Sakouler and Rick Hanson. And
through those relationships and those friendships, I then quit my
corporate job and started working at the theater and that, yeah,
and you know, because I started, I had the bug.
(12:01):
You know, it's hard to explain how people get involved
in all this because some people do sort of fall
into it, some people get you know, sort of headhunted
into certain positions, and other people to start volunteering and
work their way up. And I just sort of started,
I guess I started volunteering at the right time and
worked my way up, and you know, I sort of
(12:24):
rose the ranks. And then my last year there was
two thousand and eight, and we had just done whatever
year of the Minneapol Saint Paul Filmfest, and you know,
it wasn't a very flush operation money wise. I know
that they were struggling to pay bills, and you know,
we had good attendance at the screenings, and you know,
(12:47):
we weren't majorly in debt. But at the same time,
our one asset was the Oak Street Cinema Theater, and
their idea was they wanted to close the theater and
try to sell the building, which to me didn't make
a lot of sense. And this again was two thousand
and eight. So when I heard that I left. I
(13:09):
put in my two weeks and thankfully I got another
job relatively quick. And about two months after that, Rick
Hanson came to me and he said, hey, I just
took over sound unseen from Gretchen Williams, the previous vestival director.
He said, do you want to help out with Sound
(13:29):
and See and be a programmer? And I said, yeah, sure,
because at least I was comfortable with this full time
corporate job that I had that I could still do
this on the side nice and it was face like
the bets of both worlds. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
So, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I started working on Sound and Scene in two thousand
and eight, and then in two thousand and ten we
expanded Wait is that right, it's either two thousand nine
or twenty ten. I'm sorry. We expanded Sound and Seeing
to Duluth. So it was called Sound and Seeing International Duluth,
which is an awful title, and it's still longer.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah, it's no longer called that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And Rick was the director, and you know, there was
a few of us that worked on it, and so
we were doing Minneapolis and Duluth and Rick met a
young woman. They fell in love, they got married and
they're still happily married. They have a thirteen fourteen year
old son. But Rick moved to Duluth and he said,
(14:37):
I don't think I have the time to do sound
and scene. We want to take it over. So in
twenty twelve, I became the festival director. Wow, thinking I
would only be doing it for two maybe three years
and then pass the torch or pass it on or whatever.
And here we are in twenty twenty four and I'm
(14:59):
still the festival director.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So what does that look like? What is your day
to day as the festival director? What are some of
the things that you have to do? Because this is
I think for a lot of the listeners, they're going
to listen to this and go. If I were to
get into that sort of a field, what does that
look like? Because I really have no idea what you
would do on a day to day Basi's very interesting. Yeah, no,
it's very well. I should also preference.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know, there was sort of a crossroads moment with
this because I had moved to Austin, Texas in twenty
fourteen to run a whole separate film festival down in Austin.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So I was also doing sound and seen remotely for
eight years, and I mean I would come back for
the festival, but then as soon as it was over
and we sort of tied everything up, I'd head back
to Austin, and you know, we just start working on
it again.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
But I just want to read the city. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, well it's getting bigger every day, yeah and changing right, yes,
so yeah, I just want to at least mention that
before I sort of do a deeper dive. You know,
I I love everything I do. And the one thing
about loving something so much is that you can see
(16:19):
a lot of unfortunate shortcomings where you sort of hand
yourself give yourself over to something that you're so passionate
about and that you care so much about. And you know,
I think the thing that people do not know about
Sound and Seene is that it's all volunteer based. So
we have a great group of people that I work
(16:43):
with that you know, I've surrounded myself with that help
this festival to get to where it is for basically nothing, So.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
You know, a passion project.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah yeah, and you know, there's nothing there's nothing wrong
with that, you know, as long as you are able
to make a living doing something else and you can
still have enough time and energy to put a great
festival on, like you know, that's that's wonderful. I don't
recommend it for everyone because you know, people should be
paid with their worth and you know, it is harder
(17:20):
each year to raise money, to find films, to find
live music, to find venues, supporters, advertising, marketing. You know,
it's it's a grind like anything. I'm not saying that
this is you know, luxurious at any means, but I've
been doing it for so long it's it's almost as
(17:41):
natural as going to bed or you know, breathing or
you know walking. So there is a lot that goes
into it. And I guess my role as the festival
director is I ultimately have to oversee every thing that
we do. I have to be accountable for every dollar
that goes out and every dollar that comes in. I
(18:02):
have to coordinate with filmmakers, venues, distributors, producers. You know,
we have to work out flights and we have to
pay screening fees for some films. We have to find
hotel rooms, we have to find transportation.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
For the guests and directors that come in.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, so you know, you just have to keep thinking,
you know, like anything two or three steps ahead. It's like, Okay,
we're now showing this movie at the festival. You know,
what do we do next? Because we have to be
able to advertise it. We have to get people excited
about it because we're bringing it to town to show
(18:46):
in the festival, and we have to be excited about
what it is that we're showing to get other people
excited about. So you have to add that level of
marketing and advertising, because you can show the best film
or you can have the best lineup in the world,
but if no one knows about it, no one's going
to show up.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
And even with that, yeah, you're always competing against a
thousand other things, especially in cities like Minneapolis to Saint
Paul and Austin.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
You know, there's a lot going on all the time. Yeah,
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I think it's also one of these things where you know, like, look,
I mean people don't like talking about the pandemic and
what that did to creators and artists and that seclusion
and isolation of creating art and bringing it to the masses.
(19:40):
But you know, it really affected the film industry, not
just in the US but worldwide. And you know, we
also got spoiled to some degree with all the streaming
options that we had, right which, look, I you know,
I love my streaming channels. I love watching stuff at home,
(20:03):
but there is something about going out to an event,
to a live setting to see a movie and know
that the artist is going to be there, that the
filmmaker is going to be there, you know, because you're
not going to have that same experience watching it from
home on your couch.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
And I feel like the pandemic, I feel like it
was kind of trending this way anyway, but when the
pandemic hit, it really took a toll on theaters a
general mainstream or not. And I tell my son all
the time, like, if you look at what the mainstream
movie theaters are showing, it's usually a Marvel movie or
something like it's I'm telling him, I'm like, back in
(20:43):
the day, you can go watch a funny movie at
the movie theater with a crowd of people all laughing
at the same time.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
And he hasn't been able to picture.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
He's a teenager, and he's just like, that's so strange
because any movie they show now is just, you know,
the mainstream thing. So I always trying to take him
out to do something kind of fun to home alone.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
It put the Parkway last December.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And that had a little taste of that too, and
it because people were laughing and having a good time.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
And of course most people have seen that movie.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's kind of a Christmas classic at this point. But
it was kind of fun just to see that reaction
out of my kids because they don't have that like
we had that. Like I remember going to see Farley
movies or whatever you're going to see the original Star
Wars movies and just that that feeling is it was
much different than it is now. So I think theater
(21:32):
is important and I hope that people continuously go, and
I hope it expands again because for as much as
I love streaming too, like being able to do anything
by clicking a button's pretty amazing, but also we find
ourselves stuck in the house a lot too, and it
just isn't the same feeling that it used to be.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So do you find that as well?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, you know, I I'll okay, you know, I answered
five minutes ago. Like the daily grind of putting on
a festival, you know, one of the perks I guess
that I get, you know, and something that I don't.
You know, I appreciate the opportunity to is I get
to travel a lot nice, So, you know, typically the
(22:17):
first you know, like the first major festival of every
calendar year is sun Dance in Park City, Utah, Cool January.
And because Sound and Seen has been set up to
be in November, this means that we've got you know,
X amount of time to travel to festivals, to look
at other lineups, to inquire about other films to try
(22:39):
to potentially bring to the festival. But what I've learned
in going to these festivals is it is important to
see films that we are considering for the festival with
an audience, because myself, along with our programmers, you know,
program director Rich Gill and Kat Swenson and Dash Donado,
(23:00):
you know, we also have a screening committee of about
eight or nine volunteers that watch submissions that get submitted
from various you know, filmmakers, producers, distributors to the festival
for consideration. And you know, we can watch these at home,
we can watch them on our TV, and mostly we're
watching them by ourselves. And you know, you need to
(23:24):
be able to differentiate what's going to work for you
personally versus what's going to work in a theater of
potentially three hundred people, right, And what I've also learned
in going to these festivals is, yeah, I'll go to
music related docs, which is typically what Sound and Seene is,
(23:45):
and you know, I try to see them all in
a theater because I need to see how it also
plays with an audience. Because if you're watching something in
a crowded theater and people aren't laughing, people aren't clapping,
you know, most likely you're going to get that same response.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Now, personally, I may like.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
The film or I may like the subject, but in
my head, I'm also thinking is this going to translate
for our Sound and Seene audience.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, that's an interesting take, especially when you're dealing with music,
because music is so it brings people together, and it
also is like, yeah that music sucks. This music's great,
So you have to really cater to what your audience wants.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I suppose. And I went to.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Prince they did the Diamonds and Pearls release show out
at Paisley Park.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Did you havepen to go to any of those?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I didn't, but I've certainly been to Paisley Park with
my share of times.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It was great because I had a from when the
Quest was glam Slam back in the day.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Oh yeah, they played that show. He did like a
kickoff night at glam Slam before the tour.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
That.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I've seen a few concert movies in with a crowd,
and it is different because with that, people got up
out of their chairs and they were dancing and they
were singing as though it was a movie like or
an actual concert. So it was kind of to your point,
it's interesting. If I would have watched that movie at home,
I would have, as a Princes fan, would have been like,
(25:23):
that was really cool. Well, walking out of that, I
was like, what a great vibe of that whole thing.
People had a great time, they were singing and dance
against the closest they're going to get to seeing them
again at this point, So you know, I could see
what you're saying as far as how that translates to
an audience and whether or not it's going to click
or not.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, And you know, like anything, you know, sometimes we
you know, we make the wrong choice, and not because
of it's a bad film or not. It's just sometimes
we have higher expectations for some films and they underperform.
And you know that can be anything from us not
promoting enough, from press or people not talking about the
(26:04):
film enough. And you know, again in this social media age.
I don't know how long we're going to keep saying that.
But we're also dependent on these filmmakers and artists to
help promote these films as well, because you know, you
never know if this person who made this film has
(26:26):
relatives in the Twin Cities, or if they went to
college there, or if their best friend is you know,
from college, lives there now or something. So you really
it's a really grassroots tight bands on deck YEP. And
you know, sometimes we're also surprised, well, you know, we are.
Our venues for sound and seen range from eighty five
(26:50):
seats to three hundred and fifty, and sometimes we'll put
a film in at an eighty five seat theater and
it'll sell out in three days and then you know,
we can't move it or upgrade it to a different theater.
And sometimes you put in a film that you think
is going to sell three hundred, three hundred and fifty
tickets and it sells fifty and you just have to
(27:10):
live with that. Yeah, it's not a your best. Yeah
it's not a perfect science. And you know the other
thing that I've also learned, and you know, this might
be more of just like a personal take, but It
does matter when you're watching these movies as well, because
you know, we're doing this interview in the morning. If
we had done this at night, it'd probably be a
(27:32):
different conversation. Just like if you're watching four movies in
a date. You know, if you're watching the first movie
at nine am and then you're watching the last one
at nine pm, you know, you're probably gonna have different
takes versus if you flip flop those or you know.
So it's just you know, And that's just what I've
noticed doing this for almost twenty years now is sometimes
(27:54):
I have different approaches to when I want to watch
things because I want to be in a better mood.
I don't want to be as exhausted. But sometimes you
don't have that option.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Right, And so, as you mentioned, it's not an exact science.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
When the movies, which is it a big theater is
a little theater, how you want to approach that? What
what is generally your approach to it though, to try
to figure out how it's going to play or for
your best guess, how.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Do you decide what goes where?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I mean not every film that we show in
our five day festival can play the seven o'clock Friday slot,
and that's just a reality. You know, this happens. I'm
a big sports guy, so I'm gonna throw in a sportslogy.
You know, the league determines what game is going to
(28:46):
be the Sunday night game of the week. That doesn't
always mean it's gonna be the best game, but that's
the one where they think they're gonna have the most eyeballs,
the best ratings, you know, advertising, and they want marquee
names to play in those games because they know that
they're going to have the widest audience at home watching it.
So I'm looking at it along with you know, the
(29:07):
team of just you know what what films in this lineup?
You know, are people most excited about? What is something
that's going to drive them to you know, because our
opening night's on Wednesday, and you know, some people don't
like going out during the week. You know, we still
call those school nights, so you got to also keep
(29:32):
that in mind. But you know, when I saw the
Devo documentary, which is what we're opening with at Sundance
in January, I immediately knew that this was something that
the Twin Cities would want to see. The pedigree of
the band, the longevity of the band, the notable hits,
the uniqueness of the band, and they're still going, you know,
(29:54):
fifty years later. And so that was something that we definitely,
you know right away, even in January and February, you know,
knowing that our festival is in November, like this is
a potential to be an opening night because you also
need your opening night film to set the tone for
the rest of them.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
So it sounds like it's almost like putting an album together.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Really you want that leadoff track to really pull them
in and kind of be that sure thing. Yeah, I
can't imagine that Devo thing would fail. Like that seems
like a no brainer. And especially you know, putting it
on a weekday that he said it's on a Wednesday.
Devo fans are going to come out for that regardless
of They'll be excited about seeing it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So very cool and you know, but yeah, I mean,
and again, not every film can be your opening night
or closing night film, and you just have to sort
of balance it out. And you know what's tricky. As
you sort of brought up with music, everyone's got different tastes.
So we definitely want a wide variety of topics and
(31:00):
subjects and genres at the festival because personally, like the
type of music I like is probably different than what
you like or what Rich likes or cat likes. But again,
we don't put this festival on for ourselves. We put
it on for the community. And it's important to bring
(31:21):
these films into town because there's a large percentage of
them that will never ever come to the Twin Cities,
let alone be shown on a big screen.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And you know, we do have some Minnesota based films
this year, and some are older, but we felt like
with this being a big year as a twenty fifth anniversary,
that this was something that we wanted to celebrate the
history and the progression of Twin Cities in Minnesota music.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
What are some of those I saw? One of them
is The Entry with Who's ger New in the Replacements shows?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yep, yep, so seven Nights in the Entry by Rick Fuller,
who has been a long staple here in the Twin Cities.
We've shown a lot of Rick's work over the years.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Talented guy.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, and this was a film that we showed at
the festival, I believe in two thousand and seven, and
it was before the Riverview renovated, and you know, we're
talking seven hundred seats and they had seven hundred people
show up to see Seven Nights in the Entry, And yeah,
(32:34):
and I mean it's also complicated because of certain licensing
and rights issues of why this film hasn't been seen
much more or you know, had had more of a
festival life, or you know, it's on.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Streaming or physical media.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And it was important to us this year to again
celebrate like past Minnesota films. And so the name that
I brought up a while or earlier in this chat,
Adam Sekuler, who is one of my best friends, sort
of recruited him to help out program some of these
Minnesota titles from the past because he was also a programmer.
(33:17):
It sounded the scene before I even joined. So he
has the history of the festival and has that knowledge
of previous films that played and did well, and that
was something that we wanted to bring to this year's
lineup as well. And so it was Seven Nights in
the Entry. M eighty, which is a concert film that
(33:38):
Chris Strouth also produced, has early footage of Debo when
they were referred to as Dove and suicide Commandos nice,
you know. So there's a lot of nuggets in there,
and that was something that was screened in like two
thousand and two, two thousand and three, So this is
(34:00):
like the first time in twenty some years that people
have seen this film as well. And you know, if
you've been in the Twin Cities for a long time,
you've obviously heard the name Spider John Kerner yep. And
when he passed away in June, a Minnesota based filmmaker
who doesn't live in Minnesota anymore but lived here for
(34:22):
much of his life. Don McGlenn had made this doc
on Spider John Kerner in two thousand and five that
you know, we showed in two thousand and six, and
then I think we even brought it back in like
twenty ten. And with John's passing in June, we felt
it was important to honor him and give the screening
(34:42):
a tribute and to have a longtime friend and performer
Charlie Parr be involved as well too. So you know,
I mean, I don't want to say like that was
something that we had planned all along, but you know,
things come up, and it was one of these things
where it was a film that hadn't been on the
(35:04):
big screen in a long time, and I know a
lot of people have been missing and wanting to see
this film. And it's also, you know, a slice of
life of Spider John's career in life, and it was
important to have that reflected in this year's program.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
So, growing up as someone who loved movies, were you
a big music fan as well? Or did you just
kind of get wrapped into this as you went along
and it was more of a music based thing.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
How did you land there? Were they both your passions?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No? I love music, I still do. No, there was.
It was sort of a crossroads in my life of
what direction I wanted to go because, as I mentioned,
I wanted to be a writer, and I had an
opportunity to write for this Oh my god, this is
(35:57):
so funny, this website called how is the Show?
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I remember? How Was This Show? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So I wrote for them for like three years, four years,
and I was constantly going to concerts and reviewing shows.
And that's you know, someone who's now made a living
doing this. Andrea Swinson. She started off writing for that
site too. So I've known Andrew a very long time.
We'd see each other at the same shows, and you
(36:26):
know it was I loved it. You know, it was
great going to the four hundred Bar and you know,
see Bright Eyes or Cursive or Arcade Fire and Beulah.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
And all these bands that you know, I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
In many years, but to be there early on in
the late nineties early aughts and to cover these shows
was a blast.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
But I knew I couldn't keep up with both film
and music, so I think I was just definitely more
passionate when it came to film, and you know, I
wanted to travel. I was pretty obsessed with wanting to
go to film festivals internationally, just to see more esoteric
or international films that we weren't getting in the Twin Cities,
(37:13):
let alone the US. And you know, I just made
the decision that I had to sort of hang it up.
And occasionally then I would write some reviews when I
became a film critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet
and I was doing like a weekly film blog, and yeah,
(37:34):
occasionally I'd write some music reviews there. But at the
same time, I just I definitely had more of an
interest in films and stories and moving image and everything.
So then that's why when I got asked to be
the programmer one of the programmers for.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Sounding Scene from Rick, I jumped on it and you know,
best to both worlds. Yeah seventeen years later, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
So what are what are some of the festivals that
you sounds like you do quite a bit of traveling.
What are some of the festivals that you think are
some of the best ones out there? Which ones you
enjoy the most when you go traveling?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Hmm, you know, it's like different every year, but I
would say the one that I try not to miss
now at least is the Berlin and now in I
guess it's more like the Berlin International Film Fest WOW,
which is in February. And the reason why I guess
(38:33):
I would say that one in particular is because they
also have the European Film Market going on at the
same time, so you have the opportunities to see films
that aren't even released, that haven't even premiered yet, because
this is important for distributors to go and look at
these films ahead to see if they want to buy
(38:55):
and for distribution for whatever territory or a country they're representing,
and then meeting with the sales agents in Berlin to
negotiate these deals. Wow, you know, and they also have
some of the best programming internationally, and they have beautiful
(39:19):
venues in Berlin, and I get to see a lot
of my friends who go, not only American friends, but
international friends because it's sort of you know, it's the
second or third biggest film fest in the world.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
After can.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
In France and possibly Venice and Italy.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
And then Berlin. I suppose you meet a lot of
people traveling to these and working alongside people that you
probably only see when you go to some of these vessevals.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, for sure. And that's something that you know is
also very important, is to keep up relationships with people
because you know, maybe not this year, but maybe next year.
There might be a film that we're interested in bringing
in and there's a sales agent I know who's repping
the film, so you have sort of inside track onto
(40:12):
trying to bring that film to town. Because the other
thing with film festivals what I especially learned being in Austin,
Texas was it's very competitive. And as you know, I
sort of brought up earlier, when films premiere at festivals,
you know, it sort of dilutes than other festivals or
(40:37):
theaters wanting to play them in certain markets because they
know that if a film plays a festival and a
certain market where they feel like they can make more
money theatrically, they're probably less apt to play that festival.
But on the flip side, if sales agents or distributors
feel like, oh, this film is never coming to Minneapolis,
(41:00):
definitely want you to play it at your festival because
then there might be a life for it when it
comes to streaming or vod or physical media. So we
are also helping and providing these distributors and producers and
artists promote their film. And if something comes to Sound
and Scene and it sells out there's a demand then
(41:22):
for it.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Wow, that's that's cool. You don't think often times about
all of that when it comes to the to the arts,
like the strategy of how things play out, or the
politics involved in some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So, and the more festivals that I can go to
and have these conversation, it's only going to benefit you know,
Sound and See as a festival or as a business.
And you know, sometimes there's films that will premiere at
Sundance in January and those distributors have a strategy in
mind where it's like, oh, we're releasing this in April
(41:58):
or in May, and so like we don't get the
opportunities to play those films, but maybe the Minneapolis Saint
Paul Filmfest, which is in April might play it, you know,
and that's fine. Like we can't show every music film
in the world either, we have to spread it around.
It's just you know, and at any festival will tell
(42:18):
you this. You know, there's always the one that gets away,
or we can't play it because it's not available, or
you know it's going to be on streaming two weeks
before the festival. Because also you know, once a film
most likely hits a streamer, they don't want to play
a festival that you know they've moved on to, like
the next thing.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Next phase.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah, off the top of your head, is there the
one that got away that kind of sticks with you?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
I mean, not off the top of my head. I
mean there's certainly films that I wish we could have shown.
I mean, I think one only because again it came
out in twenty twenty and I was lucky enough to
see it at Sundance before we went into major lockdown.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Was the documentary on the Go Gos.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh cool so that I saw at Sundance and all
the members of the Go Gos are there and it
was just a wonderful event. In screening, it was a
lot of energy, people are excited, a lot of laughing,
a lot of clapping, and you know, to me, that
felt like, oh, yeah, this is going to be a hit.
It Sound and Seen, And I know Kathy Valentine from
(43:31):
the Go Gos who lived in Austin while I was there,
and so I had a connection to Kathy to possibly
bring this to Minneapolis. And then pandemic hit pandemic.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Yeah, I've actually been thinking about reaching out to Kathy
Valentine see if she wanted to do this.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
So you've been at it now, how long have you
been with sound unseeene Very long time?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Too long?
Speaker 2 (43:57):
No, since two thousand and eight, and then I became
the director in twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
So sixteen out of twenty five years of the thing
you've been you've been around for It's yeah, back of
a run. What are what are some of the moments
that pop in your head the most exciting or things
that you're most proud of in these last sixteen years
as part of this.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Well, you know, I think the growth of it, because
I think when it first started, and I I don't
know much about the early history, believe it or not,
you know, I think it came on to the gates
and like people were pretty jazzed up about it, and
they were doing the right films at the right venues
(44:44):
at the right time. They really, you know, we're inventors
of doing the showcase of music docs because I think
the original idea was they wanted this to be a
touring film festival, similar to how bands tour. They wanted
to take a collection of films out on the road
(45:04):
and go from city to city and show them. I
don't know who would have the time to do that now, but.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Certainly not me.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
So I think that's sort of a model or a
brand that we sort of aspired to of just wanting
to bring cool films to town that you couldn't otherwise
see and to make the Twin Cities a cooler place
to live. But I just think definitely the growth of it,
you know. But then there's there's moments, you know, I'll
bring up Berlin again, where I have a sound and
(45:37):
See beanie, and I'll walk down the street in Berlin
and people, you know, people will be like, oh, sound
and seen, I know what that is, and you know,
and I mean they'll put a smile on my face.
And then you know, I can walk down downtown Minneapolis
or Saint Paul with sound and seen and people don't
know what the hell that.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Is, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
So it's crazy how some people you know. And look,
there's some things that are common knowledge other people that
I don't know anything about. So found and seen again,
Like looking back in all this because my mentor at
the Minneapoli Saint Paul International Film Festival was this man
named el Milgram who is like legendary in the film
(46:18):
festival world. And you know, he was someone that was
really hard to work with, like work alongside. He just
had no parameters, no rules. It was just like get
the work done. I don't care how it gets done.
You know, if you have to call Sweden at six
in the morning to get a film, like, that's what
you got to do. And you know we're talking. This
(46:39):
is like two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
and he founded the Minneapolis Saint Paul filmfests in the
early eighties, but he was able to bring in Jean
Luca Dard and Martin SCORSESEI like, very early on in
their careers because he started the U Film Society at
(47:00):
the you know, University of Minnesota in the early sixties
and showed films at the Bell Auditorium Belle Museum, and
you know, he knew the importance of going to these
film festivals and connecting with people. Because it's one thing
too to send an email to someone and be like, Hi,
(47:21):
I'm Jim from Minneapolis. I run this festival and if
someone reads that, they'll be like, oh cool, some guy
named Jim just reached out and he wants to show
her a film. But it's different if you go to
a festival and you have sort of that one on
one time the meeting, you know, sit down with these people,
get to know them and you know, yeah, just get
(47:42):
to know their brand, their catalogs, what they have upcoming.
You know, it's it's a you have to remember a lot.
Like memory is a huge part of all this too,
because you have to be able to remember names and
faces and where you met, where you sat down. And
that's something that I take a lot of pride in
of just trying to connec people to one another and
(48:02):
make sure that people are aware of the existence of
sound and Seen and that this is in Minneapolis and
now in Rochester in Austin, but it originated in Minneapolis,
and you know, I want to hold onto that for
as long as we can and just make it part
of the pillars of the community. So it is important
(48:23):
to get out there and you know, let people know
that this is something that exists.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Nice And what are you looking forward to for this one?
It's coming up here? November thirteenth is the kickoff. Yes, okay,
November thirteenth through seventeenth. So what are you looking forward
to the most on on this group of films or guests?
I see you've got some pretty cool guest coming too,
so it probably kind of goes hand in hand in
(48:49):
some ways.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
I mean, I'll be diplomatic in a way where I
also you know, someone told me this that you know,
every guess that comes to your festival is just as
important as the other. Obviously, some have more notoriety and
more name recognition than others, but so you know, there
(49:11):
will be some films that draw better than others just
because of who's associated with them or who made the films.
And you know, it's not fair to me to also say, well,
you know, all these films that we're showing are just
as important as our opening night to the four minute
shorts in the shorts program. So I don't want to
(49:33):
like skirt around your question. But you know, I'm always
interested in what surprises us, you know, like because again,
we watched these films so far in advance. We have
to you know, curate and select certain films that you know,
we're watching this.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
You know, we're watching a lot of.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
These films in April. I don't know what's going to
happen from April to November. You know, what's going to
be the talk of the town. What's you know, relevant
and current, you know, pop culture, you know media. But
you know, I'll give you the best answer that I
can in that some of the films that I am
(50:15):
particularly excited about our genre related films, just because I've
always had an interest in suspense, horror, thriller or sci
fi and when those converge with music films, to me,
I find that like very exciting. So that was something
(50:35):
that you know, rich and I talked a lot about
about wanting to incorporate more genre related films. Now I
don't know how those will translate as far as like
ticket sales or box office sales, because they're not your
typical sound unseen music, you know, biopic type film or
(50:56):
like the talking heads type model of getting a bunch
of people interviewed on camera to say how great an
artist or a band is. You know, But these are
you know, fiction films driven by a narrative that are
influenced by music, but that maybe you know, a little bloody,
a little gory, a little surprising, and you know, I mean,
(51:18):
that's just that's the fun of it is, you know,
with Sound and Senior Chair, I want to I want
us to challenge ourselves. I want to have surprising films
that people don't expect us to show, but that we
that we do end up showing. So that was sort
of a long winded answer. But I've been on the
record saying this Pavement is my my all time favorite band.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
All right.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
It's also very exciting that we have this Pavement documentary
called Pavements, which is it's a very bizarre movie. But
as people know and who know the band Pavement. They
put out some pretty bizarre music. But this is like
a film within a film within a film, so it's
(52:04):
very meta. There's actors playing members of Pavement making a
bio pick called Range Life, with then the actual band
members reflecting on their own career.
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Oh for weird. Pretty cool?
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, And you know, it so happens that the editor,
Robert Green, is a very accomplished editor and filmmaker in
his own right and someone that I've known for a
very long time. He'll be attending the festival as a guest,
and so he was the editor of the film. The
film was directed by this New York filmmaker Alex Ross Perry,
(52:44):
who also made this really great film five six years
ago with Elizabeth.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Moss called Her Smell.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And you know, Robert and I were talking and he's
based in Missouri, and he said, Hey, I just happened
to be coming to Minneapolis that weekend because my daughter
goes to college up there.
Speaker 4 (53:03):
Can you schedule the film while I'm in town?
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And I was like, there, and I mean, that's just
stuff that. Again, you can't plan for stuff like that. Yeah,
you know, but it's pretty cool that Linda Perry's coming
to the festival. Yeah, John Doe from X who was
here in twenty nineteen, so he already had a relationship
(53:27):
with Sound and Seen And John Doe lives in Austin,
so I had a connection with him when I was
down there as well. So you know, that's something that
has been valuable to reach out to these people, especially
when they have projects, to invite them to the festival
and be.
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
You know, people are excited for our opening night film
on Devo. You know, we're also pretty excited to be
bringing back swamp Dog gets his pool painted, and to
have swamp Dog and Moogstar come to the Festial will
perform after the screening. Yeah, because that was a film
that Rich and I saw at south By Southwest and
Austin earlier this year, and we were at the premiere
(54:09):
and we went to the after party and yeah, I
mean that's when that conversation started. And it's made by
two Minnesota you know, veterans and the music community and
directors Isaac Gale and Ryan Olsen. So there's a Minnesota
connection with that film.
Speaker 4 (54:27):
Nice. So how long do you think this is going
to go? How many more years you got in you here?
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Well, we did announce. We did announce that after this year,
we are putting the festival on hiatus. I thought I
heard that, yeah, yeah, and you know, but I do
want to let the listeners know that our familiar Sound
and Seen. You know, since two thousand and nine, we
have been doing monthly screenings at the Trial on Cinema
(54:54):
and those will continue. We'll continue doing our monthly screening
program because we still you know, there's still will be
films in twenty twenty five that we want to bring
to town and showcase. But you know, all of us
that work on Sound and Seen all have full time jobs,
So there's something to be said there where you know,
(55:17):
when you're asking someone who already works a full time job.
You know, some people have families. You know, only two
of us are based in Minneapolis, two are based in Austin,
and one is in Rochester, Minnesota. So that also makes
it challenging. You know, the cost of everything goes up.
(55:37):
That's you know, that's just the reality. And you know,
we've gotten this thing to twenty five. And if you'd
have asked the people who founded this in nineteen ninety
nine how long this would go on, I doubt anyone
would have said twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (55:53):
So yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
You know, like I think we all just sort of
deserve a break from it, and you know, it's fine.
I'm at peace with it. I think everyone else is
good with it. And so we really did pour a
lot of energy and time into the festival this year
because we sort of knew that this might be the
(56:17):
last one for a while. So I can't give you,
you know, a return date or the festival. We're certainly
taking twenty twenty five off or a festival. Now, there
could be something in the works for twenty twenty five
that could be a much smaller, scaled back type series
(56:39):
where it's just films that will show with no guests,
no live music, just you know, just films that we show.
So that's something that you know, we'll revisit in twenty
twenty five, but it is something that we've been talking
about because we do want to keep the sound and
sound and seen name alive. But I think just for
(57:01):
the sake of all of our sanities and how busy
we are, we definitely want to take a year off
to sort of you know, recoup, and we can always
you know, restart it because sound and seen as an LLC.
It's not a nonprofit, so we don't have a board
of directors. The five of us that mostly work on it,
we sort of determine when we want to do it,
(57:23):
so there's no expiration date, there's no finish line. It's
just we felt like this was a good time to
sort of hit the pause button, and you know, hopefully
we can unpause it in a couple of years down
the road.
Speaker 4 (57:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:38):
And I you know, I think if you build a
legacy of anything like you have over twenty five years,
I think there's less of a threat of, you know,
taking a break and losing any moment. I mean, you've
got that brand out there, so it probably is a
good time to take a little break.
Speaker 4 (57:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
Well, I think the other thing that I should also
just mention is, you know I work, I mean full transparency.
My full time job is I work for a film distributor. Okay,
so I do that as well. They're based in LA
but I'm you know, I can stay here in Saint Paul.
But you know, in the festival world, a lot of
(58:15):
festivals are really struggling to stay relevant. Not all of
them have the budget that they used to because for
a lot of American festivals, they don't have the funding
that a lot of foreign festivals get for you know,
the different provinces and territories. You know, they get government
funding to put on festivals. You know, the United States
(58:38):
is not giving Sound and Scene or Minnesota any money
to do this. So, you know, I want us to
be able to be proud of our lineup and our program.
And I would prefer to sort of bow out a
little early versus continuing to go down a path where,
you know, further down the path we could be running
on fumes sure, and they need to sort of peter out,
(59:01):
and then what have you gained by doing that? You know,
I think sometimes there's nothing wrong with sort of, you know,
not necessarily being ahead of the curve, but being able
to you know, put your own stamp on it and
you know, go out when it feels right to you.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
Right, well, you're still feeling good.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I mean again, we might
be back in twenty twenty six, we may be back
in twenty thirty.
Speaker 4 (59:31):
We may never come back, like I you know, I don't.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
I mean, it's like when bands break up, you know,
it's like God, I hope that band gets back together,
and some of them do three years.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
Some it takes what it take Oasis, you know, took
Oasis a lot, you know, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Sure there's you know there. You know by doing that,
they're going to be making millions of millions of dollars.
You know, Sound and Seen certainly will not be doing that.
But you know, as long as you know, we have
the energy and you know that drive to continue to
bring these films to the Twin Cities, like, I will
do it for as long as I can, knowing that
(01:00:10):
I'm not getting a monthly paycheck doing it. So you know,
I will do it for as long as I can.
But I also don't want to be doing this when
I'm eighty five years old.
Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Sure makes sense. Well I'm going to. I don't want
to keep you too much longer, but I do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
I already got audi. What your favorite band is Pavement?
We have not addressed movies, so okay to two part question.
What was the first movie that you saw that blew
your mind as a kid? God?
Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
Why and why is it short Circuit? It's certainly not
short Circuit. That's funny you bring me up though, because yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Just simply watched Hackers and the bad guy in Hackers
is played by Fisher Stevens, who was in Short.
Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Yeah that did not age well no, no, because yeah
then he played like an Indian and Short Circuit yes
one of his big regrets apparently, yeah it should be.
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
I almost okay. I mean I don't know if this
is like the film that like impacted me, but I
definitely remember watching stand by Me, Yeah, at a very
young age when I probably shouldn't have been because I'm
sure my parents were just like, oh, this is about
you know, four kids on this.
Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
You know, trip let alone. It's a Stephen King book
and they're going to find a dead body. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
It's like I definitely remember watching stand By Me and
like really being affected by that.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I think it's still relevant in twenty twenty four. But
I love Peebe's Big Adventure.
Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Yeah that he.
Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Does not get old. It's still funny. Every time I
watch it. There's always a new joke.
Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
I had no idea, And maybe I didn't forgot, but
I had no idea Phil Hartman was involved in all that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
This past year we did show Pee's Big Adventure at
the trial on as part of large Marge's anniversary of
her death, So we'll be doing that again in twenty
twenty five. I think it's January eleventh, so that came
in not too long ago, so that that always brings,
(01:02:38):
you know, joy, you know, but also, I mean, my
favorite movie of all time is Drugstore Cowboy Okay, which
is not like a very well known film unless like
you're a pretty big Cinophile, but is directed by Gus
Van Sant and stars Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch and
(01:03:00):
Heather Graham and like her second role, and James LaGrow
and William William Burrows.
Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
Is in it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
But you know, it's one.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Of these movies because people ask, and I guess I'll
just tell you why it's my favorites because it has
every single element of a film in it. It's funny,
it's dramatic, it's an adventure, it's suspenseful, it's you know,
it's got everything he wanted a movie.
Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Do you have a favorite director in general?
Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Yeah, my favorite director is Pedro Lama Dovar.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
And what does Pedro do? I don't think I.
Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
He is the Spanish filmmaker. He's probably in his mid seventies.
Now he's got this new film coming out this year,
his first English film with Julian Moore until the Swinton
called The Room next Door. Okay, but he's best known
for pushing boundaries. He has a couple of films that
(01:03:57):
are NC seventeen. He explores melodramatic storylines. His films are
always very colorful, not only just in the palette and
the camera lens, but you know, the characters, their costumes.
A lot of his stories are twisty, they're sexual.
Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
He just explores a lot of different stories in between
the cracks, and you know, it's just it's something that's
powerful that still whenever a new pedro La Mendovar film
is released, I immediately need to go see it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:38):
Right, So it sounds like it's a lot of unexpected.
Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, he's got almost a
fifty year career, so and he's still cranking him out, so.
Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
You can, you can do the deep dive a lot,
you know, But I mean I love David Lynch, you
know one car hy Lynn Ramsey, David Fincher, you know,
the Hughes brothers, Like there's.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
It means endless.
Speaker 6 (01:05:09):
Yeah, yeah, well awesome, Well I hope to make it
out to a couple of the films. It's coming up quick,
and I wish a great success on it. Fascinating into
a little bit different take than a lot of my
other conversations that I have, so I think it'll people
really enjoy hearing that perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Well, no, I appreciate taking the time, Nick, and you know,
thanks again for let me chat about sounding scene and
my dad as a wrestler. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Thank you for listening to the figure A's podcast this week.
That was Jim Brunzell. Great conversation, different take on music
coming from a film standpoint, which is really cool. So
I hope you'll check out the Sound Unseen Movie Festival
here in Minneapolis. Look it up online if you're from
out of town. It's pretty fantastic. It's been around for
(01:05:59):
twenty five years and movie makers actually called it one
of the twenty five coolest film festivals in the world.
So it's a pretty cool deal here in Minneapolis. In
it doing something for twenty five years, it's not easy,
so it's pretty cool that that festival has been around
that long and just doing the math on it that
(01:06:19):
was around the time I moved to Minneapolis was the
first one, so it's kind of cool. It's been here
pretty much as long as I have so very cool
conversation with Jim, good guy, interesting story. That rustling thing
blows my mind. I even got on eBay to look
at action figures. It's pretty awesome. As Dad has action figures.
Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
I want to have action figures.
Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Dad, where's your action figure?
Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Anyway?
Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the
Figure Eights podcast. By the time the next episode rolls around,
the election will be over. So I'm going to ask
every one of you to find it in your hearts
to vote, get out there and vote.
Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Going to tell you who to vote for.
Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
I am going to tell you one thing, however, vote
for those that lift people up. So you know, whoever
you decide lift people up.
Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
That would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
Because we have enough division and weirdness.
Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
And it's just gross. It's just gross. Let's not be gross. Anyway.
Thank you for listening. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Four years into this thing, more episodes to come. I've
got some interesting ideas coming up here from some known people,
some lesser known people that are very fascinating, and I
hope you will tune in and from Studio twenty four.
Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
This has been the Figure Eights podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Take Care
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