Being born in the mid-seventies, I grew up with a pretty severe lack of exposure to computers for the majority of my schooling. Sure we had a computer lab where we would learn how to use a computer, but that was rarely more frequent then once a week and the majority of that time was spent playing Oregon Trail. My family didn’t even have a PC until I was in High School, and even then most of my teachers preferred papers to be typed rather then printed on computers. Even when I went off to school at a Big Ten university in the mid-nineties, computers still were not a huge component of the work I did. Though it was in college that I finally began to use the Internet. First on Gopher and later through the World Wide Web. Back in those days 28.8k modems was scorching fast, and texting wasn’t even a blip on anyone’s radar.

Today college is a vastly different environment. Most students own their own laptops, attend classes online and have never lived in a world where computers and the Internet weren’t simply a seamless extension of their lives. So when director Melody Gilbert came up with the idea of filming a documentary about three students (Mitchell Lundin, Andrew Tate and Caitlin Magnusson) at Carleton college who choose to not use any computers for three weeks, I was immediately intrigued. Just how would they pull this off, and just how miserable will they become trying to accomplish such a task?

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Thanks to Switchblade Comb for the heads up on this. I only had the chance to catch one of the films in this series last time, and it was absolutely fabulous. Their are several more in this one I would like to watch, and hopefully a few more people will turn out to watch these locally [Minnesota] produced films. Also, after every screening their will be a Q&A with the cast and crew, while Pepitos will be running Homegrown Happy Hour specials next door. Come one, come all for a fantastic time of true Independent film making at its best.

Homegrown Cinema Series
Monday Nights, September 8 - October 13
The Parkway Theater
Minneapolis, MN
7:30 PM l $8

SEPTEMBER 8 - Married at the Mall & Whole, two early films by Melody Gilbert. Married at the Mall is a delightful documentary that features an assortment of lovebirds who tie the knot at the Chapel of Love in the Mall of America, while Whole takes you into the world of people obsessed with becoming an amputee.

SEPTEMBER 13 - Stimulus, directed by Jason Schumacher. For most people, the nebulous time between high-school and college is a prime opportunity to develop and implement a plan for the rest of their lives. For Simon and Bert, it is much easier to spend the time aimlessly taking courses at the local community college or serving coffee for minimum wage. As the summer goes on, however, they are forced to reconsider precisely what their friendship means, as well as what kind of people they are developing into.

SEPTEMBER 22 - When the Sidewalk Ends, directed by Joseph Larsen. Haskel travels the midwest in search of vengeance for past, unspoken crimes. His journey doesn’t go as planned, however, as he instead spends his time apathetic in anonymous hotel rooms. From bizarre anime conventions to a femme fatale who might be working for the enemy, Haskel’s directionless path wears him down to where his ultimate destination no longer matters. The film is a hypnotic tale about a road trip to revenge, and how lonely and tedious such a journey can be.

SEPTEMBER 29 - Murphy’s Law, directed by Todd Pitman and featuring local band Look Down. For three weeks in July of 2006, one camera followed Look Down cross-country in a borrowed van on their first tour. Things quickly unravel as they deal with canceled shows, car trouble, label problems, and simply trying to get across the country with as little fuss as possible.

OCTOBER 6 - The Reception, directed by Jason Mitchell. The Reception is a feature length narrative/documentary hybrid shot entirely in 12 hours. Guests of the faux wedding reception ate and mingled as if at a real reception, with cameras rolling. A screenplay worked as a framework for a film where everyone used their own personal background to improvise strikingly realistic exchanges. A small two-camera high definition video crew captured candid conversations in a documentary style along with the scripted narrative. The result is a film that is funny, honest, and at times uncomfortably real.

OCTOBER 13 - The world premiere of Love: A Documentary, directed by Dave Ash. In the fall of 2006, videographer Ethan Burroughs was working on location at Cratech Industries producing a promotional film about the company. While taping interviews of employees, Burroughs befriended John Stevens, a mid-level financial analyst that was unresponsive to direct questions about the company. Instead, Stevens spoke earnestly and passionately about how he believed that God had recently chosen him to spread love and happiness throughout an uncaring world.

Sunday, October 12 will also be a Homegrown Grab Bag Day of features playing from 11 AM until 4 PM. This line-up has yet to be finalized.