Past Event

Frozen River Film Fest at Pop's

From: Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 4:00 PM • To: Sunday, February 25, 2024 at 9:00 PM

Save the date: Southeast Minnesota's premiere documentary film festival, FROZEN RIVER FILM FESTIVAL, is coming to Pop's Art Theater this February from 2/22 through 2/25!

FILMS SHOWINGS

Thursday, Feb 22nd

• 7:00pm | IRON OPERA - 2023 | 68 min | Dir. Mike Scholtz: It’s not easy to stage an opera in the middle of northern Minnesota, but this is the Iron Range where the people are stubborn and the music of the Old World still runs deep in their veins. Watch as a renowned concert pianist teams up with an Ojibwe language teacher, a skateboarding accordionist, and talent imported from every corner of the Earth to pull off the impossible.

Friday February 23rd

• 7:00pm | SPACE, HOPE, & CHARITY - 2023 | 79 min | Dir. Sandy Cummings: "Space, Hope and Charity" follows the remarkable journey of Charity Woodrum as she overcomes poverty and then tragedy while chasing her dream of becoming an astrophysicist. Charity was a first generation high school graduate, a young mom and wife, when she returned to college to study physics. Her life felt perfect. It was suddenly thrown into chaos when her husband and son died tragically. With help from mentors, childhood friends and perfect strangers, she got her life back on track. The film highlights resilience and the life-changing power of human connection.

Saturday February 24th

• 4:45pm | THIS MUCH WE KNOW - 2023 | 110 min | Dir. L. Frances Henderson: Grieving the suicide of a friend, Frances Henderson heads to Las Vegas, the suicide capitol of the nation, to seek answers. There she learns about the shocking death of a local teenager who leaped from the roof of the city’s tallest casino. While investigating the suicide epidemic further, she finds that the city is also burdened by a national problem scrambling to bury decades of nuclear excess in a nearby mountain. Artfully maneuvering between two stories burgeoning with existential questions, THIS MUCH WE KNOW masterfully links these seemingly disparate subjects of self-annihilation and environmental issues into something supernatural, unforgettable, and transcendent.
• 7:00pm | MINNESOTA MEAN - 2023 | 81 min | Dir. Dawn Mikkelsen: A year in the lives of six members of the Minnesota Roller Derby, as they compete to win the Hydra, the top international prize of the sport. When the star of the team gets injured, will her teammates find their own power?

Sunday February 25th

• 2:30pm | THE WATER SET - Selection of short films: This set will feature a series of short films centered around humanity's most crucial resource: Water. These beautiful and impactful documentaries will make you think about humanity's relationship with water, the science behind it, and the importance of water in our everyday lives.
• 5:00pm | Greener Pastures - 2023 | 85 min | Dir. Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian: Greener Pastures captures the day-to-day lives of four small, multigenerational family farms over the course of four years. Through an intimate, observational lens we examine the various farm stressors, policies and politics farmers must maneuver to survive, connecting the dots between mental health, industrialization, food production and climate change. It is a story of perseverance, patience and determination that tackles nothing less than the future of farming in America.

About the Festival:
FRFF launched in January 2006 as a collaboration between Theatre du Mississippi, Winona State University, Winona Convention & Visitors Bureau, and MountainFilm (a Colorado documentary festival). Founders visualized an engaging winter cultural event. Over the years, FRFF has excelled at building numerous partnerships in Winona and beyond and with filmmakers around the world. FRFF operates as a 501c3 nonprofit and is a five-day multimedia event, offering independent documentary films and arts programming.
The festival has typically presented about 80+ films at the Winona Festival, occurring Feb 4-11, 2024. FRFF seeks films that tell engaging stories and teaches people something new. 

Learn more at frff.org