You're invited: MSPIFF is celebrating its 40th Annual Festival!

MSPIFF40: YOUR/SCENE

Cindy sits down with Susan Smoluchowski, Executive Director of the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Society for a Q & A on the upcoming Film Festival: MSPIFF40 YOUR/SCENE

What is the most exciting thing about MSPIFF 40?

That we are actually able to celebrate the 40th year of the MSP International Film Festival, after this year of all years. That we are here to tell the tale. The line-up is really superb, with 103 feature films and as many shorts representing cultures and countries from around the world. As many of our patrons have said over this past year, we've provided a way for you to travel the world while marooned at home, something that has lent some normalcy and meant alot to many of us.

What is the inspiration behind this year's theme YOUR/SCENE?

We came up with this theme last fall, brainstorming about what the end of the lockdown would look and feel like. You'll see a window in each image with people stepping (or falling) out of these windows, invoking stepping-out into the world again. The theme also alludes to community. Ours is so big and holds so many diverse perspectives, we liked the idea of inclusion and curiosity it implies. What's your scene? How is it like or different from ours.

Is anything different this year from MSPIFF 39?

I would say that what is most different, from an internal point of view, is that we are not testing the waters of the virtual world the way we were last year. We felt that we were in some ways inventing the wheel in 2020. This year is also different since we are at the end of the tunnel, not the beginning, and we can fully imagine ourselves back in theaters, together, in person in the coming months and certainly well in time for MSPIFF41. In this vein, although most of our films will still only be available on our virtual platform, we will have five outdoor in person events this year! Three seated screenings at Como Pavilion in St. Paul over our Opening Weekend, May 13-15, and two drive-in screenings at the Bohemian (BOHO) Flats just down river from the St. Anthony Main Theater on our Closing Weekend, May 21 and 22.

How does the process work to attend the festival, or just a few feature films as a newbie to the festival?

The process is oh-so-simple. Visit mspfilm.org and click on the MSP International Film Festival banner or box which will take you to the full and marvelous line-up of films. You have a number of drop-downs at the top of the page, where you can search by country, region, language, theme, program, etc. I know that some can find it overwhelming, but we make it as simple as it can possibly be for the viewer to find what he or she might be interested in. Also, sign up for our email blast - from our website at mspfilm.org - and get daily updates on special events.

It's easy to purchase a ticket and it's easy to watch the films on your tv. We have explicit how-to instructions on each film's page, but if anyone needs hand-holding, ticketing@mspfilm.org is the place to go.

What films are you most excited about featuring this year?

I mentioned our outdoor screenings, and I'm very excited about all of those. We open the Fest on May 13th with SUMMER OF SOUL, which also opened Sundance this year (where everything was only online). It took all kinds of awards and it is a film that everyone should see. It's a documentary about an outdoor series of concerts held and recorded in Upper Central Park in 1969, the summer of Woodstock, that drew many thousands of people, mostly Black audiences of all ages and from many places, but that was dismissed and forgotten for years. This film is part historic marker about the politics of the time, part ode to the great Black musicians of the 1960s: Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, BB King, and so many more. We are one of the first festivals in the country to screen the film since then AND we are showing it on the big screen, in person, in the gorgeous Como Pavilion setting. I highly recommend this event. Tickets are going fast at mspfilm.org.

I also recommend our Closing Night film, at the BOHO Flats. The film, AFTER ANTARCTICA, retraces Will Steger's trip across Antarctica, something that can never be experienced again. Will Steger will be with us, as will the filmmakers.

Learn more about MSPIFF 40