January 11th, 2021
By Greg Carlson
27 December 2020
Alicia Coombs is an archivist and the head of business affairs for the American Genre Film Archive in Austin, Texas. Outside of watching and collecting movies, she likes to drink coffee, read about cults, and turn down plans so she can hang out with her cats instead.
Greg Carlson: How did you get into movies?
Alicia Coombs: I was raised to love movies. There are a lot of collectors in my family. My uncle, who I am really close to, is a…
December 17th, 2020
By Greg Carlson
gregcarlson1@gmail.com
David Fincher lays down plenty of track on the great big electric train set of “Mank,” the filmmaker’s return to the director’s chair after “Gone Girl” in 2014. Depending on one’s interest in the evergreen legend of “Citizen Kane” and the politics of classic Hollywood, mileage may vary, but Fincher’s detailed visual style and an invested performance from Gary Oldman -- not to mention the talents of several entertaining supporting…
December 17th, 2020
By Greg Carlson
gregcarlson1@gmail.com
The Safari, known more recently as the Marcus Safari 7 Discount and the Marcus Safari Value Cinema, has been sold to Ignite Church. The unsurprising news heralds the transition of Moorhead, Minnesota’s surviving public movie exhibitor from one kind of sanctuary to another. Like any cinema, the Safari brought people together to dream in the dark. This week, friends have shared many stories of memorable movie going experiences, birthday parties,…
December 4th, 2020
By Jillian Finkelson
Oscar de Leon has been making films locally for years. His latest project has been nominated for the Exceptional Artistry Award.In his own words, Oscar tells HPR about the project and its journey to the film festival.
“Haylee Thompson (who runs Rethink) and her best friend David Triptow (who is the choreographer on the film) reached out to me about making a film for the festival and we started talking about ideas and influences to really find…
November 14th, 2020
Sofia Coppola’s delightful distraction from national affairs sees the writer-director returning to her sweet spot: the tiniest whiff of autobiography in a story that, to paraphrase James Stewart’s Macaulay “Mike” Connor in “The Philadelphia Story,” eavesdrops on “the privileged class enjoying its privileges.” A mashup of thematic terrain explored in the cross-generational partnering of “Lost in Translation” and the father-daughter bonding of “Somewhere,” “On…
November 14th, 2020
The return of Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev is deliberately timed to bring shame to the already circus-like Trump administration ahead of the national election held November 3. The first of three evolving onscreen title translations tags the project “Borat: Gift of Sexy Monkey to Vice Premier Mikhael Pence for Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan.” While this “subsequent moviefilm” is statistically unlikely to move the needle…
November 14th, 2020
David Byrne and Spike Lee embrace the inevitable comparisons between Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” and their recently-released filmed version of “American Utopia.” Lee’s skillful screen translations of more than half a dozen live shows, including “Passing Strange” and “Rodney King,” position him as an ideal choice to capture the immediacy of the in-person event. Like Demme, Lee also takes the viewer to all kinds of places inaccessible to ticket holders, and…
October 21st, 2020
By Greg Carlson
Rachel Harrison Gordon’s “Broken Bird” may be only ten minutes long, but it is a powerful debut and one of the best films of 2020. An autobiographical story about a biracial girl in New Jersey preparing for her bat mitzvah, the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was included as part of the South by Southwest Film Festival’s collaboration with Amazon when the in-person version of the event was canceled as a result of the pandemic.
Greg Carlson: Are you…
October 7th, 2020
By Greg Carlson
gregcarlson1@gmail.com
Veteran cinematographer and documentarian Kirsten Johnson follows one directorial masterwork -- 2016’s “Cameraperson” -- with another. Stylistically distinct from “Cameraperson,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead” captures the filmmaker’s relationship with her father, a longtime Seattle-based psychiatrist whose declining health necessitates retirement and a move across the country to Kirsten’s place in Manhattan. During the physical and…
October 7th, 2020
By Kris Gruber
High Plains Reader spoke to Ryan Hardy, President of the Red River Organ Society, about the 47th annual fundraiser for the Mighty Wurlitzer. This year will be the first fully virtual event, with some special additions to the performances.
HIGH PLAINS READER: Can you share some of the discussion points that came up in planning this event, such as the logistics of performing virtually as opposed to in person?
RYAN HARDY: Our in-person Silent Movie Night has…
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By Bryce Vincent Haugen By his own account, Edwin Chinchilla is lucky to still be in the United States. As a 12-year-old Salvadoran, he and his brother were packed into a semi with a couple dozen other people and given fake…
By Michael M. Miller Rev. Salomon Joachim, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Beulah, North Dakota., delivered an address to the Western Conference of the Dakota District of the American Lutheran Church in 1939. His presentation was…
Wednesday, March 25, Group lesson 7 p.m., Dance 9 p.m.Sons of Norway, 722 2nd Avenue North, FargoCare to dance? If you don’t already know how to dance, the Northern Lights Dance Club can show you a thing or two about social…
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January 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead2026 marks 10 years of frosty fun! Enjoy sauna sessions with Log the Sauna, try Snowga (yoga in the snow), take a guided snowshoe nature hike, listen to live…
By Jim FuglieI’m feeling a little mean right now. It doesn’t happen often, but I tend to pay attention to politics and politicians and I’m pretty disappointed in one of our politicians right now. So I’m going to be mean to…
