The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce the 2020 opening night showcase: Award-Winning Short Films with special guest Richard Antoine White.

This world-class trio of award-winning films includes 2020 narrative short and Academy Award winner “The Neighbors’ Window,” animated short winner “Mind My Mind,” and documentary short winner “R.A.W. Tuba,” followed by a Q and A with that film’s featured subject, Dr. Richard Antoine White.

About R.A.W. Tuba
“R.A.W. Tuba” tells the triumphant story of Richard Antoine White (R.A.W.). As a child in Baltimore, he experienced poverty and homelessness, but went on to become a world-class symphony musician and professor.

Growing up, Richard found shelter wherever he could, sometimes in
abandoned rowhomes where rats would chew on him as he slept. Now in his 40s, he still bears scars from their bites. But despite enormous challenges, Richard went on to become the first African-American in the world to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance. He is now a tenured professor at the University of New Mexico and the principal tubist of the New Mexico Philharmonic.

“R.A.W. Tuba” will screen as a part of the opening night Shorts Showcase at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17 at the Fargo Theatre.

Richard Antoine White will appear live on stage for a Q and A immediately following the film.

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce Tom Brandau as the 2020 recipient of the Ted M. Larson Award.

Given in recognition of an outstanding career in film production, film preservation, and/or film education, the Ted M. Larson Award is the festival’s highest honor.

Tom Brandau is a graduate of the American Film Institute (Directing Fellow) and holds an MFA in theatre from Towson University in Baltimore. He has won numerous awards as an independent filmmaker, including a Regional Student Academy Award for his documentary “Whales, Ltd.”

Tom has more than 25 years of experience as a commercial writer, producer, director, and professor in Baltimore. His dramatic short “Sonny and Cornblatt” won several awards, including the Retirement Research National Media Award, the Barry Levinson Arts Award, the Rosebud Award, and a national Telly Award. 

In 2003, Tom wrote, produced and directed the award-winning “Cold Harbor,” a dramatic feature film about four brothers coming to terms with the suicide of their estranged father.

Since moving to Moorhead, Minnesota, films by Brandau that have enjoyed heavy festival distribution include “Heavenly Sight,” a short drama that deals with a young boy’s first experience with death; the documentary short “Mr. Brown,” which took top honors in the Minnesota Historical Society’s 2008 Moving Pictures competition; “The Cleaning Lady,” a short drama which deals with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King; and “Home Delivery,” a short drama focusing on the relationship between two paper boys working in the same newly integrated Baltimore neighborhood. 

His latest project, “Sadie Breaks the Silents,” explores a woman’s attempt to rise in the ranks of the silent film industry, and is currently in post-production.

Brandau has served as a member of the Fargo Theatre Board of Directors. He also served as a committee member of the Fargo Film Festival for nine years, including three years as festival co-chair. 

Tom is Professor Emeritus of Film Production at Minnesota State University Moorhead where he taught for fifteen years. While there he not only educated but engaged students in many initiatives, such as filming the Moorhead Public Access TV show “Underexposures,” which featured student productions; hosting Alumni Summits; encouraging study abroad to the Lincoln University School of Media in England and the Eurospring program, which he led; creating service-learning coursework; advising the Cinethusiasts student organization; and hiring students as crew and cast members on his productions. He continues to actively support and connect with his former students who work in the industry and create art around the world.

Tom lives in Moorhead with his wife and creative partner Janet, their non-ironically-named cats Noir and Orson, and his perfect stepchildren Kate and Daniel Aarness.

The Fargo Film Festival will congratulate Tom Brandau with the presentation of the Ted M. Larson Award on Saturday, March 21, 2020, at 1:30 p.m.

Movie lovers, rock music enthusiasts, and fans of the Criterion Collection are invited to the Fargo Film Festival’s Thursday Evening Showcase: Ryan Hullings on the Sounds of the Criterion Collection. 

A passion for fidelity and years of experience in audio post-production for film, television, and music led Ryan Hullings to the Criterion Collection, where he began as an audio restoration engineer in 2007 and is now supervisor of the audio department.

His work involves not just conducting digital film audio restoration but also keeping pace with cutting-edge restoration technology and evaluating the sound quality of various film elements, all with the mission of upholding the company’s lofty technical standards for film sound and allowing viewers to faithfully experience soundtracks as their makers intended them to be heard. 

In 2019, Ryan spearheaded the restorations of such landmark films as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious,” Elaine May’s “Mikey and Nicky,” John Waters’ “Polyester,” Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema,” and Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise.” Currently, he’s proud to be busy restoring a selection of Bruce Lee films.

The Fargo Film Festival is excited to welcome Ryan Hullings, who will discuss his work on several landmark rock films: Richard Lester’s “A Hard Day’s Night,” starring John, Paul, George, and Ringo, the most influential quartet in 20th century popular recording; D. A. Pennebaker’s “Dont Look Back,” the electrifying portrait of music icon Bob Dylan; Franc Roddam’s “Quadrophenia,” the 1979 British drama based on the Who’s potent rock opera; and David Byrne’s “True Stories,” the cult classic “celebration of specialness” featuring the unforgettable magic of the Talking Heads.

Hullings takes audience members inside the Criterion Collection’s fascinating audio restoration process, addressing in an engaging and accessible manner the work that goes into preparing movies for release or re-release on big screen and small.

Sounds of the Criterion Collection with special guest Ryan Hullings will take place on Thursday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fargo Theatre. Tickets are available starting February 24 at noon at the Fargo Theatre. 

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce a special screening of the award-winning documentary “Balkowitsch,” with very special guests Shane Balkowitsch, Gregory DeSaye, and Chelsy Ciavarella.

The film received honorable mention in the Fargo Film Festival’s Documentary Feature category, and is also the 2020 recipient of the festival’s Prairie Spirit Award.

About the film:
Everyone has a purpose, but most spend their lives searching. For one man, his mission came late in life and has been fueled with passion, spreading like wildfire across the prairies and now the world.

Shane Balkowitsch has a singular desire to reach deep into the past to imprint a moment in time, held firm for future generations. He is at once a preservationist, an archivist, and an artist through the lost art of wet plate photography. Balkowitsch is quickly becoming one of the world’s most prolific artists in the genre, with more than 3,000 plates captured to date.

Balkowitsch’s 2019 photo of climate activist Greta Thunberg went viral, captivating the world. It is now archived at the Library of Congress in Washington. Many of his Native American photos have been permanently curated by the North Dakota Historical Society and a plate of Evander Holyfield was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution.

He also operates a globally-renowned natural light wet plate studio in Bismarck, ND. With a single 10 second exposure pressed with silver on glass, Balkowitsch captures his enduring visions.

“Balkowitsch” will screen at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18 at the Fargo Theatre. The film’s subject Shane Balkowitsch and directors Chelsy Ciavarella and Gregory DeSaye will appear live on stage for a Q and A immediately following the film.

Tickets go on sale at 12:00 p.m. on February 24 at the Fargo Theatre.

The Fargo Film Festival is proud to announce a screening of “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street,” with very special guest Mark Patton.This highly acclaimed, crowd-pleasing documentary premiered at Fantastic Fest in September and has taken the festival circuit by storm ever since.

At the time of release, The Advocate dubbed 1985’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” the “gayest horror film ever made.” For the film’s closeted young star, Mark Patton, such a tag was a stark reminder about the homophobia rampant in Hollywood at the time—and the painful experience he had making the high-profile film and living through the polarizing critical aftermath.

This new documentary highlights Patton’s time in the horror spotlight and gives him the chance to set the record straight about the controversial sequel, which ended his acting career just as it was about to begin.

“Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street” follows Patton as he travels to horror conventions across the United States. Each new city unwraps a chapter from his life as he attempts to make peace with his past and embrace his legacy as cinema’s first male “scream queen.”

“A touching, poignant film about how one man took control of his narrative and used it to empower not only himself, but millions of queen horror fans around the world.” — Trace Thurman, Bloody Disgusting

“Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street” will screen at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 20 at the Fargo Theatre. Mark Patton will appear live on stage for a Q and A immediately following the film.