by Christopher P. Jacobs | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | May 7th, 2015
Earlier this year the Criterion Collection released Blu-ray editions of two Japanese classics from the 1960s: Yasujiro Ozu’s intimate family comedy-drama “An Autumn Afternoon” (1962) and Kihachi Okamoto’s samurai epic “The Sword of Doom” (1966).
Both appear at first glance to revolve heavily around specific elements of Japanese culture and history, yet each transcends time and culture to depict universal realities of human nature.
“An Autumn Afternoon” was Ozu’s final…
by Kayla Culver | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 30th, 2015
Local musician Charlie Mauk is best known for his hip-hop music, but he has recently taken on an entirely new project.
Mauk is serving as actor, director, writer and director of cinematography for his first full-length feature film “Aura.”With the help of his longtime friend Bjorn Pedersen, who also acts in a leading role, Mauk has been able to bring his own mob film to life. It has been seven months since…
by Greg Carlson | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 29th, 2015
Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are Josh and Cornelia, married New Yorkers rocketing through their 40s.
Childless and conflicted about it, the pressure from old friends/new parents Marina (Maria Dizzia) and Fletcher (Adam Horovitz) doesn’t exactly help. Josh is a documentary filmmaker whose current project has consumed nearly a decade of his life. And he’s still shooting footage while his editor Tim (Matthew Maher) toils away without a paycheck.
Cornelia’s father Leslie (Charles…
by Greg Carlson | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 26th, 2015
The erroneous report that a Tokyo office worker died near Detroit Lakes, Minn., in 2001, looking for money buried in the snow in Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Fargo” forms the basis of David and Nathan Zellner’s haunting, original “Kumiko the Treasure Hunter.”
Starring Rinko Kikuchi as the title character, the Zellner brothers’ movie projects a heady metanarrative that is as much a consideration of our relationship to cinema as it is an elegy for its (presumably) doomed…
by Greg Carlson | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 23rd, 2015
On Saturday, April 25, the public is invited to attend either of two free screenings of “The Good Lie,” starring Reese Witherspoon, at the Fargo Theatre. The screenings will be held at 1 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. and will be followed by Q&As with co-star Kuoth Wiel and others.
In addition, local organization African Soul American Heart will feature other events that day that include opportunities to meet actress Kuoth Wiel, ASAH Ugandan director Aja Galuak, and others.
by HPR Contributor | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 16th, 2015
By Suzanne Hanson
Spring is a time when we look forward to the future and plant the seeds for growth, which is no doubt why it seems a natural fit that we celebrate Earth Day every April 22.
According to Earth Day Network, Earth Day was founded by a group of students in New York in 1970 as a means to draw attention to pressing environmental concerns and the need for proactive public policy and change.
Nearly half a century later, we’re not doing so hot, or rather, quite the opposite. We…
by Greg Carlson | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 15th, 2015
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy engineers a jaw-dropping feature debut in “The Tribe,” a stylistic tour de force that juxtaposes the gorgeousness of cinematic execution against the horror of the narrative’s unrelentingly grim subject matter.
Set in a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf, “The Tribe” follows new student Sergey (Grygoriy Fesenko) as he receives an education in the institution’s real subjects: theft, assault, prostitution, exploitation and murder. Unbroken,…
by Christopher P. Jacobs | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 15th, 2015
Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave filmmaking movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is now in his 80s, but still making movies that are no less daring in “breaking the rules” of traditional cinematic techniques to express his ideas in new ways.
His “Adieu au langage” (“Goodbye to Language”) won him his first Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and earlier this year it won the U.S. National Society of Film Critics Award for Best…
by Greg Carlson | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 8th, 2015
Gabe Polsky’s “Red Army” skates by as swiftly and forcefully as the larger-than-life hockey personalities it closely examines.
Flipping the American “Miracle on Ice” narrative on its head, Polsky’s sharp, attentive documentary invites viewers to see the dominant Cold War rink soldiers of the Soviet Union’s national team not as Ivan Drago-esque automatons, but rather as hard-working young men just as proud of their country as the kids who played for Herb Brooks on Team USA.…
by Christopher P. Jacobs | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | April 8th, 2015
A recently-restored version of a beloved science-fiction classic came out on Blu-ray last month from Twilight Time in a limited release of 5,000 units.
“First Men in the Moon” (1964) was a groundbreaking film based on a groundbreaking book by H. G. Wells written more than six decades before men finally did walk on the moon.
Historian-philosopher-author Herbert George Wells is best remembered for writing five sci-fi novels, or “scientific romances,” as they were called when…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.comFargo, ND – Mayor Mahoney issued a city-wide mask mandate on Oct. 19th, shortly after North Dakota became the state with the largest number of new cases per capita in the US, a record it…
Shawnee Kaseman of Wishek, ND was awarded the title of Miss North Dakota for America 2020 this past September, but instead of preparing to hit the stage in a glittering gown under sparkling lights,she addressed pageant judges from…
Thursday, March 19, 4:30- 8 pm1609 19th Ave N, FargoCass County Soil Conservation District is hosting their annual Ladies’ Ag Night supper event. This event has a goal of bringing together multiple generations of women involved…
In a news cycle where it’s tough to discern fact from fiction, you may have noticed that a number of conservative media consumers are announcing their dramatic exit from Facebook and Twitter. After Twitter labeled a number of…
Is There Personal Liberty? When Does It Begin And End?It was bound to happen to an inquiring mind. Scientists around the world are monitoring sewage for outbreaks of COVID-19 because victims of the virus have had the very…
To say that this year’s Bartenders Battle was the best display of talent in the six years since its creation would be an understatement and a disservice to not only the bartenders who made it into the competition, but also the…
Reviving Rural Grocery Stores in North DakotaBy Annie PrafckeFargo, ND – On October 7th, Gov. Doug Burgum awarded Milnor Market and the Forman grocery store project Main Street Awards, as part of an initiative led by the Office…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comMusicians and concertgoers alike unexpectedly found their plans disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Artists and venues have been facing a situation that is unprecedented for most…
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…
By Jill FinkelsonWe’ve been hearing the word Unrest a lot lately. Unrest in the streets. Unrest in the capital. Unrest in our own homes as we struggle to hunker down in the face of the unseen pandemic. People are restless. They…
By Kris Gruberperriex1@gmail.comEloise Breikjern has been the Executive Director of Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre since 2013. She will retire in December.High Plains Reader spoke to her about the strength of her staff, the…
by Kris Gruberperriex1@gmail.comAdam Quesnell's last show at The Cellar beneath the Front Street Taproom in Fargo was in early September of 2018. He was embarking on a seminal move from Minneapolis to LA. As always, his comedy was…
by Jill Finkelsonjsfinkelson99@gmail.comFar North Spirits, located up in Hallock, MN, is the northernmost distillery in the lower 48. They may be young in the distillery world but the farm and the spirit reach far into the past.…
by Laurie J Bakeremsdatter@gmail.com Part of modern yoga is participating in the world around us. We live in a time of upheaval in society and nature, and of great suffering in humans of all ages. Most of us perceive this suffering…
By Ashlee Nordquisthpr@hpr1.comI've come to the conclusion that not everyone understands why my brother and I went on ventilators for covid and what that means. As I survived and my brother SO FAR is improving, I can make jokes and…
By Marc de Cellemarcdecelle@midco.netAs someone who has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the last decade, and who has participated as both a poll worker and an absentee vote counter in the last five years, I feel it's my…
