Bearded Child Film Festival Tour

Thu, Sep 8
8:00pm
$5

Northern Minnesota's Bearded Child Film Festival will be taking the
nation by storm this Fall with a selection of experimental, low-
budget, and extremely bizarre short films. For the past five years,
the festival has thrived within the obscurity of Grand Rapids,
Minnesota-- a mill town of under 8,000 people located 150 miles
northwest of Minneapolis. In order to develop a niche within the
crowded world of festivals, the Bearded Child specifically seeks out
work that is often "too weird" or too "lo-fi" for many festivals. The
festival has encouraged filmmakers to push the boundaries of
corporate film culture, while entertaining local crowds of pseudo-
lumberjacks and old women in the process-- a curious venture to be
sure. According to Dan Anderson, festival founder, the festival was a
near wash back in 2002-- in large part due to an area fiddle contest
taking place that same weekend.

"I'm not sure if anyone really understands the festival up here, but
at least they seem to appreciate it," says Anderson. "People are so
polite here, that it's actually kind of hard to tell..."

"It's really about giving them the option more than anything else.
Plus, there are very few festivals out there that show anything
really crazy-- we try to tap as far into the fringe as possible."

After five years of obscurity, the Bearded Child Film Festival will
spend the next three months criss-crossing the nation with a
selection of "All Star" films from the past five years. While the
tour will hit major cities such as San Francisco, Montreal, and New
York, their main focus is on smaller towns and rural areas. "Cultural
missionary work!" says Anderson. The tour will hits such sites as
Kirksville, Missouri and Harrison, Arkansas, along with several stops
in the Deep South. The tour will kick off at the Burning Man Festival
in late August, and will continue well into the Christmas holidays.
To assist in travel expenses, Anderson will be selling wild rice
roadside out of a 1978 Chevy van during off days. "Even Brakhage
needed to work for a living!" he says.

Attendees should expect a mix of experimental films, oddball
comedies, and the bizarre. Many of the films have never been shown
outside of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. "Craziness is our number one
priority. After that, it better really rock our socks!"

Bearded Child Film Festival Tour
Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Venue:

Artists' Television Access
992 Valencia Street @ 21st
San Francisco
(415) 824-3890
http://www.atasite.org

Additional Info:

www.beardedchild.com