The first-ever Vortex Film Festival kicks off Sep. 20, at the Coyote Twin Theater in Vermillion.
We chat with Shannon Cole, the Executive Director of the Vermillion Cultural Association for a preview.
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The following transcript was auto generated and edited for clarity.
Krystal Miga:
Can you start by telling us a little bit about the Vermillion Cultural Association in terms of what you do, what you're all about?
Shannon Cole:
The Vermillion Cultural Association is probably best known as the organization that owns and operates the Coyote Twin theater in downtown Vermillion. So, we are a non-profit and then we run the theater as a nonprofit business.
So that was how we were originally founded was to save the downtown theaters. Since then, we have expanded more into different arts and part of that is because attached to our theater is what you used to be a video rental store, but, of course, no one needs a video rental store anymore so we can convert that into a gallery and it's a rotating gallery space where we exhibit local artists.
And then from there, you know, people just come into us with other projects, you know, and we just we just kept saying yes.
Krystal Miga:
Did I read that correctly? This is the first year of the Vortex?
Shannon Cole:
It is. I'm just so tickled by the fact that the festival itself, which will be September 20th, is our kickoff date. It will be one year, one month and one day from the time that Casey Kelderman looked at me and said have you ever thought of doing a festival?
Yeah, it's pretty incredible that we got it all together. And again, it was a long-term plan of the board. So it's not like it was a surprise, but it was the first time we had, like I said, the resources the time and the right partners to start putting this together. And we knew we wanted it to be local because the idea of the Vermillion Cultural Association broadly is that it's the Vermillion community and area and uplifting local arts. And so of course, we expanded the idea of local arts to sort of regional Midwest states for the purpose of the festival and there's just no better way to like make people feel like what they're doing means something than to give them a venue to exhibit it.
And as Casey would say, visual artists have exhibitions and musicians have concerts and music festivals. Filmmakers need film festivals. That's how you develop your art. That's how you make a community and learn more about your art. And we thought you know; we have the perfect venue to do that.
Krystal Miga:
I love that. So, speaking of those artists, what can people expect to find at the Vortex Film Festival? Can you tell us about some of the highlights that are going on?
Shannon Cole:
Absolutely. Oh man for first-year festival, this is really exciting. We're kicking off the festival with an actual feature movie that will come out in November to a nationwide audience. But we get the South Dakota premiere because the director is from South Dakota. Andrew Kightlinger grew up in Pierre and he has directed a movie called Lost on a Mountain in Maine. It's produced by Sylvester Stallone's production company Balboa Productions.
And you know, we just kind of shot the moon and said, 'well, he's a South Dakota filmmaker. Maybe we could get him home to show this movie.' And again, he said yes, and that was incredible. So, Friday night is our big film South Dakota premiere of Lost on a Mountain in Maine, but that's not the only worthwhile thing, you know, like that's awesome. But there's a lot more going on.
So then Saturday itself is full of shorts. So those are the short films that local and regional filmmakers have submitted and there is a smattering of everything. We couldn't even form the blocks around genre because everything was so scattershot.
We've got seven different blocks of short films and some of them have loose themes. For example, Block B is the pizza block because both of the movies have to be a little bit longer and they're both about pizza. It is a coincidence. So, we when we were looking for sponsors, we reached out to the Vermillion Pizza Ranch and said, 'you know, we have this block that's all about pizza. Would you want to sponsor this block?' and they said, 'sure we'll bring pizzas.' So, we scheduled it during the lunch hour so that people can actually watch the movies about pizza and eat pizza at the same time.
You know, there's a mix. Most of the films are fictional. There's a documentary block. One of the projects that we do as the Vermillion Cultural Association is the Fool's 48 Short Film project. Every year, we send out teams or teams volunteer to make a short film within 48 hours over April Fool's weekend—hence Fool's 48—and we're going to be reshowing all of their films. We usually do a showcase right after that weekend, but we're going to show the Fool's 48 showcases as well during the festival.
The Power of Possibility documentary that's on Sunday morning is free and open to the public. It's the one thing that anybody can come to, and they don't have to have a festival ticket. It is specifically about arts in South Dakota, and it ties into my mission as an organization. I'm particularly proud that we got that one. So, there's a little bit of everything.
Krystal Miga:
One thing I struggle with at some events... If there are multiple sessions going on at once—like on Saturday, you've got the Badger Clark Poet Among the Pines Q&A and then on the other side, you've got a workshop about directing your first independent feature. What if I wanted to go to both? Any expert advice on how to choose?
Shannon Cole:
Well, you unfortunately chose the most impossible situation where you do make a tough choice. Everything else... What we've done—because we have the two screens—is then on Sunday, we sort of flip-flopped the schedule and everything except for the workshops that you may have had to miss on Saturday, you can then see on Sunday. So, you're going to have a chance. Every block plays twice.
Krystal Miga:
That is brilliant. I appreciate the thought that went into that one for sure.
Shannon Cole:
So yeah, we call Sunday sort of the encore showing. So again, we don't have an encore showing of the Badger Clark documentary because we'd have to engage the director again, so that's the only impossible choice. Everything else, you should be able to catch twice.
Krystal Miga:
Anything else you'd like to highlight from the Vortex Film Festival?
Shannon Cole:
I want to emphasize that although I knew we could do this, and I was enthusiastic about the idea—me just me personally—I had no idea it could be this cool. It sounds uppity to be shocked by your own success. But I am in awe of my organizing partners again, Casey Kelderman and Sam Lenz. I put together the grant for what I thought would be travel money for people to drive down from Minneapolis. And he's like, 'oh no we're bringing filmmakers from LA. Can we get them plane tickets?'
For a first-year festival, I feel crazy lucky that we get to introduce this to our community, and I can only hope that people come and experience and understand what this can do and how it can still grow because I feel shocked in a great way.
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The inaugural Vortex Film Festival runs Sep. 20 - 22 in Vermillion at the Coyote Twin Theater.