Have You Ever Wanted to Work in Media?

We're less that four weeks away from the first Duluth-hosted Catalyst Content Festival, a potentially much bigger event than most Northlanders have yet to realize. It's actually been years in the making in a pair of ways.

First, there have been years of investment in making Duluth the remarkable place it's become. After the collapse of it's industrial base, it took quite a while for the Twin Ports to find its footing. Over time, with much investment, Canal Park, Downtown and Lincoln Park have been transformed.

Second, ITV Fest's first 13 years enabled it to find its own footing as regards what it is and how it fits into the new media landscape. Now in its 14th year and bearing a new name, Catalyst has come of age. In short, for a variety of reasons it appears to be a perfect marriage.

Friday night St. Scholastica hosted a Catalyst Content Preview Event in Mitchell Auditorium. The room wasn't as packed as when Low or Trampled By Turtles performed, but it was a healthy, appreciative crowd. Clearly, something special is coming to town.

We were welcomed by St. Scholastica marketing director Ira Pavala who shared a few remarks including, "We're proud to be a part of this." St. Scholastica is a two year sponsor and will he home to the Storyboard Academy beginning January. "The aim is to lower the barriers to entry into this industry," she stated before introducing Catalyst executive director Philip Gilpin.

Philip Gilpin

Gilpin was upfront that the aim here is jobs, and helping people to find their place in this massive industry. Where do you fit in? We're all familiar with the actors and extras who appear on the screen, but part of this event is helping people see the scale of infrastructure and staffing needed to bring stories to the screen.

In addition to story developers, directors, producers and casting, their are all kinds of other roles and needs to fill. A few of these categories include:
Props, Set Direction, Locations, Art Department, Camera, Grip, Lighting, Production Sound, Special Effects, Transportation, Greenery, Paint, Craft Services, Catering, Publicity, Music, Post-Production, Picture Editing, Visual Effects.

Greenery? Well, yes. For example when Marlon Brando was chasing his grandson through the garden in The Godfather, somebody had to be taking care of the plants, someone with a green thumb. That's greenery.

To see the full range of jobs required to make movies and shows, visit GetInMedia.com

Mitchell Auditorium Friday evening.

Here's a surprising detail. Last year, more films were shot in Georgia than in Hollywood. Why? Because they have the infrastructure in place for all these various needs.

Part of the Catalyst Festival is simply bringing people together, and part of it is training so that there is more talent in the industry. A third part is simply having fun for a week, sharing ideas and watching films.

Gilpin stated that there were 800 submissions for this years festival from all over the world. 60 to 70 films will be screened during the five day fest. A requirement for the selected films is for the film makers to be present, so we can ask questions, get to know them and their motivations.

How We Got Here

Gilpin shared how he met Riki McManus last year in October. Riki’s and others’ work has made this possible. Duluth has much to offer and was selected because there was a sense that with the industry at an inflection point there might be more rapid growth than their Vermont home could accommodate.

As has been noted here in the past, Minnesota believes in the arts. There's an infrastructure here that believes in and supports the arts. The City, the County, the people, the sponsors… "It's a town with great energy, which makes something like this possible."

He also cited the five year commitment the Abrams Artists Agency has made to Catalyst. There is a hunger for narrative episodic content, but with technology advances  costs have been greatly reduced, making it possible to produce quality material for pennies on the dollar compared to the big budgets Hollywood must fork over.
 
Six months ago when this event was first announced, it had an air of unreality about it. Could it really work? Could they really pull it off?

Today, as we stand on the threshold, it's apparent that a lot of work has preceded this moment. It's not a misty phantom but rather something firm, solid and really taking shape before our eyes.

Have you ever wanted to work in media? This is a great opportunity to see what it's about.

Related Links
Catalyst Home Page
Festival Schedule
ITV Fest Re-Branded as Catalyst
Sign up to as a Volunteer
Unremembered Histories: Six Stories with s Supernatural Twist
(I included this last link because I believe some of these stories might make thought-provoking and entertaining short films, with the title story a multi-year episodic series.)

Peter Spooner Talks About the Art of Sister Mary Charles (Part 2)

continued from yesterday

Sister Mary Charles in her studio.*

When Sister Lois Eckes spoke to the gathered crowd last week at the Tweed she noted the beautiful weather that was embracing us that day. "Spring blossoms... Heaven and earth are saying this is the right time to be holding this event." Indeed there could not have been a more perfect moment to honor this artist and woman of faith. "It feels like a family gathering," Eckes said. "We all have our stories."

Here are some additional stories from guest curator Peter Spooner.

EN: What was the most interesting part of this project for you?

Peter Spooner: Meeting the many people whose lives she touched, and working closely with members of the Benedictine Order at St. Scholastica Monastery. The Monastery as been and is a very special place in our community, and the positive work and vibe of the Sisters there is enormous. Christianity does not happen to be my spiritual path, but I have one, and the experience of working on this project with the Sisters has added to it in a beautiful way.

It I s always satisfying to create an exhibition and book from the ground up, when no one has really tread the territory before. It was a team effort, and one I feel fortunate to have worked on.

EN:  What has been the most challenging?

PS: Negotiating between the needs of the museum (consistency of aesthetic product) with Sister Mary Charles' ecumenical view of art's function - her art is purposefully communicative on its face - uncomplicated, largely bereft of theory or irony - the kind of art that often seems vapid or sappy to audiences steeped in brews of irony, self-reference and analytical discourse. The book probably does a fairer job explaining what she and the breadth of her making were really about -- the exhibition may be a bit artificially narrow. So that has been a wee bit 'o challenge -- but in the end, it suggests that perhaps there should be another Sister Mary Charles exhibition at some point in the future, one casting the net a bit wider, presenting an entirely different set of works.

EN: I assume you saw the full range of her life as an artist. In what ways did she develop as an artist over the years?

PS: Sister Mary Charles was a very capable designer and draftsperson. She drew and drew and drew. I believe she would have found or made success in the "secular" world had she gone that way. In Duluth in 1943, coming from a struggling family, art was probably not going to be her meal ticket. As it was, Sister Mary Charles entered the Monastery and was given an opportunity to study art and education at the exact time the Catholic Church sought to reinvent its public face for the modern world, through a self-assessment known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II (1962-65). She discussed this in terms of finding her role as an artist in ministry, and she held herself to the task of answering that question - what is my ministry as an artist? How do I serve my community as an artist? In 2000, her essay "The World Will Be Saved By Beauty" was published in Sisters Today. In it she reflects on and answers those questions.

She was well trained, earning an MFA at Notre Dame - she prepared herself broadly, taking courses in all media. This served her well, as she ended up working in a variety of them in creating works for churches. In the early 1970s or so, she focused primarily on woodcuts as a medium, while still making commissioned sculpture for churches and dabbling in watercolor; after 1990, when she received instruction in creating traditional icons, that became her focus. She created about 100 icons between 1990 and 2006.

EN: Did you know her personally and, if so, what was she like?

PS: Sister Mary Charles died in 2007, when I was first learning about her work. I never met her, but I feel her presence, especially via the Sisters at St. Scholastica Monastery, and other people who knew her well, and with whom it has been my great fortune to collaborate. Everyone I met who knew her described her as warm, kind, and always willing to talk to people about what she was making at the time. She was earthy - loved animals, the outdoors, swam, skiied, gardened, and hiked. She was understandably protective of her time as well -- look at how much she art she made!

* * * *

To read more about the exhibit, see Christa Lawler's story in today's DNT.
Photo of Sister Mary Charles courtesy Duluth News Tribune and Derek Neas
Portions of this interview originally appeared in The Reader Weekly.