abstract
| - The following introduction was written by Fargo Theatre Executive Director Margie Bailly, and appeared in the program: The Birth of a Film Festival... A Labor of Love Following a gestation period of approximately 17 months, Fargo Film Festival committee members are prepared to deliver a bouncing baby film festival from the collective wombs of our minds. It is the consensus of festival "parents" that the most identifiable moment of conception occurred at an organizational meeting held on stage at the historic Fargo Theatre in November of 1999. This gathering was held in conjunction with the regional premiere of North Dakotans Todd Bulman and Regge Bulman's award-winning film Dead Dogs. The enthusiastic response to the Dead Dogs screening proved to festival committee members that an audience existed in our area for the presentation of lesser-known independent films - especially films with regional ties. In the months to follow, festival committee members completed parenting courses in the form of research and development on the care and feeding of film festivals. Hard work and divine intervention eventually illuminated for us the John Hanson, Rob Nilsson, David Schickele links to North Dakota via the Cannes-winning Northern Lights and the North Dakota documentary trilogy Rebel Earth, Prairie Fire, and Survivor, featuring North Dakota poet laureate and socialist party activist, Henry Martinson. This basic genetic material, combined with the world's fascination with all things Fargo and the inspired contributions from the late Ted Larson (Linda and That Ice Ticket), gave the festival parenting team the courage to send out pre-birth announcements in the form of festival press releases. In the final weeks of gestation the festival baby has gained significant weight as the schedule has been fleshed out with numerous entries of considerable creativity and artistic integrity. As we hold and release our final collective Lamaze breath and push this baby onto the festival stage, we chant our parenting team mantra... "It takes a community to raise a film festival and we're just the community to do it!" My heartfelt thanks to the inedefatigable festival parenting team and a hearty welcome to honored guests, friends, and audience members of the 1st Annual Fargo Film Festival.
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