Not sayin, just sayin …
By baci on Feb 2, 2013 in Art, Bitching, Creepy Stuff, Media Watch
Ok, I had written this a week or so ago, then didn’t publish, but now with the next film showing up … I have to say something …. is Duluth the epicenter of icky?
With several filmmakers coming to Duluth and making films which extol the … er … um grittier nature of our fair city, I’ve come to wonder if we aren’t letting others define how others see us with their films. Firstly, hats off to anyone who can herd all the cats and get a film or video made, I know because I’ve done it. I’m not decrying the fact that these director/producers are here and making us look “horrible” or licentious or evil cultish. Truly, thanks for shooting your show here! But come on! Isn’t Duluth worthy of something cute, quirky, poignant, beautiful or at least just mundane? You are correct to say, “STFU Baci and just make a film yourself!” and you’d be spot on to say so. I wish nothing more than I had the time to put toward making a film, set in Duluth, that showcased how perfect our days here are.
Lance Karasti, who’s making the movie Cult, was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota.
And let’s not forget that there are people here making movies that are cute and quirky as well as poignant and beautiful.
Yep, I gathered that. And it’s great that he’s coming back to make a film here! I know about Jason (4track) and Mike (Wild Bill’s Run) … and all the people who make cool music videos … but it just hit me strongly with the last three (possibly with a greater exposure) that the tenor reflects negatively on Duluth. It’s really no biggie, more an observation than a pissy thing.
Until a snuff/porn kickstarter project is announced, I’m not too worried about the current crop of cinematic masterpieces.
I was about to post this in the “Cult” comments and then realized he was asking for help and this isn’t being helpful.
I have no worries about a “good” or “bad” portrayal of Duluth. Do people just grab shit out of the air when they’re making these things up?
To be lost in guffawed wonder, or more precisely a naysayer, placing an extremist cult in Duluth is kind of like planting a palm tree on Park Point. Check the history out, I know of only one “commune” that barely resembled a cult and far from extreme. We’re more likely to organize ourselves into group, drive snowmobiles together for a cause (?) or drink ourselves into a lonely stupor than join an extremist cult. Cults just aren’t part of our social fabric. (Anyone who’s actually a part of one please prove me wrong.)
Why doesn’t someone make a movie about the potholes of Duluth or explore this town as the context for “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” This is the city where the sidewalks end, right in the middle of the block. Accomplishing that would be creative. Making shit up and placing it in some beloved town as the vehicle for a character study. Yawn. Anyone seen, Fargo?
I’m not too excited to watch a film about a cult, but I’d be much less excited to watch a film about potholes.
Interesting that the previous post is for Cloud Cult and the one before that is for the film about a cult.
There have been plenty of poignant, beautiful films made in Duluth.
Hey guys, this is Lance Karasti. I’ve lived in this city my whole life and I love it. It is not my intention to show the city in a negative light, but to contrast the innocent nature of the city against the dark plot.
This film is something I have been writing for a while. It is dark, but I in no way want to show the city in a bad light.
If it isn’t your thing that is fine, but I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I am some guy coming down here to exploit the city and make it look bad. I would never do that.
Also, you would be surprised at the cultish activity going on in this city. There are some extremely weird groups that are going very strong. I decided to write this after learning about what is going on. I was just as surprised as anyone.
Lance, thanks for making a movie here. I hope you understand the gist of what I was saying … Duluth is so awesome, it’d be great if that shined through on to a film somehow.
That is my goal. In the film, Duluth basically represents freedom. A majority of the film takes place inside of one house. The city is meant to be beautiful. It is meant to invoke a sense of wonder.
I think there was a Y2K cult just north of Duluth, not of any other details though.
Pretty soon filmmakers are going to be trying to keep their projects off of PDD for fear of the inevitable torches and pitchforks… :/
The Perilous Inlet
I lived in and around Finland, MN around 2002-03. At the “airbase” there at the time, there was a group of folks who’d survived the Waco thing. They were definitely a weird little cult. I have stories.
At the same time, there was a family/group way out on the Heffelfinger Trail who were End Of Days types. I would occasionally stay at a friends cabin out there; they would drive by on the way to their compound and eye me with a large degree of suspicion.
Yeah, BadCat! If I could delete the post now I would. I didn’t realize there would be such backlash against a local trying to spread word about his project. I should have predicted the “Duluth is Horrible” guy would have everyone on their toes.
Hey Lance … please don’t take this as backlash …I never intended it that way .. I’ve said several times, I’m glad anyone is making a film here! It’s just that the slate of the recently announced films in production seemed, to me, to have painted Duluth in a negative light. I observed it and commented on PDD … that is all.
Oh, I understand where you are coming from.
I think this post is awesome. I would love to help either Baci or Lance make a movie if I knew how.
I know that I over use the term awesome but I really mean it this time.
No need to worry about a bit of local commentary, I funded ya!
Thank you so much!
Wildgoose, Herzog overuses the terms shitnammi and masterbatorial. Stranger yet is that no one has called him out on it. I can only attribute this to the MN nice/passive aggressive philosophy. ‘Just let him spin his wheels until he wears out, then it will all be over, someday…’ They’re probably waiting for him in some dark alley with a few change-filled woolen socks.
Herzog also claims to prefer the whimsical interpretations to the sinister Baxi. So don’t feel bad. That is why he’s rescinding his bold assertions toward Ramos, in light of the latter’s obvious talents toward satire, though I also suspect it was during this chapter he somehow became indebted to Carlson. What Herzog has yet to determine is whether his film was produced before or after Chappelle’s appearance in For What it’s Worth. If it was before, which he thinks it was, then Ramos was truly ahead of his time.
Anyway Lance, you really don’t need to make this town out to be any darker than it already is, especially in February. We’re already reeling from the bizarre fact Texas claims Duluth as the number-one location for sex trafficking. So really, you couldn’t paint it any more David Lynchy than it already is. But I can’t blame you for trying, as it is not in man’s nature to be second best. Now I just want to see films about soft kitties, puppies and daisies though.
All right, go ahead, we want to hear about the twisted shit too.
Whatever you do Sammydayfuss, never try to film on a full bladder, it will turn out as sloppy as that last paragraph. What’s the name of that town in northern Arizona recently in the news for the cult, Fredonia? That was some freak artist shit going on there boy. I always was a sucker for these body snatcher themes.
methinks the Herxog protesteth too much. Really WTF is wrong with sharing an observation? Since when did doing so become passive/aggressive? I think I did a good job of delineating the complexity of my observation. Kee-rist ina nighty dude you huff and puff so much, you make me think you got something to prove .. don’t worry people “seem” to like you.
Herzog I honestly have no idea what you are trying to say me.
I’m filming in Duluth, not only for thematic reasons, but because I don’t have the budget to film somewhere else even if I wanted to. I live here, and I think it would be a waste of money to leave and film somewhere else.
I understand the subject matter is morbid, but I think the more films made here the better.
I love Herzog’s comments because they are snippets of brilliance sandwiched in slabs of stoner fog.
It must have been the stoner fog that led Herzog to believe I was involved with the making of “My Three Scums.” I wasn’t, in any way. I just thought it was a poignant, beautiful film.
I love Herzog’s comments for the reason that Carla says; I love Carla’s observations and am glad to see her back here; I love Ramos’s forthright observations.
It’s a PDD lovefest and I know I’m making everyone sick. Sorry.
Is Herzog the new, less-coherent Burly? Or is Burly the old, more-coherent Herzog?
Did you first become aware of this during the physical act of love?
Clench those essences dude.
Samsdayfuss, or Lance, yours is a great reason to make a movie in Duluth. Because you are here. I applaud you for it. My thoughts turned more into trying to make a point by the time they were typed out. “Comments” are a horrible place to try and make a point because in them a point is seldom made and any statement can be dissected into a thousand versions of “I’m right, you’re wrong”. Opps, I just tried to make a point again. So my apologies for pissing on your ideas and artistic endeavor. I hate when people do that. Ever thought about including a pothole in the film?
I, for one, am looking forward to auditioning.
Herzog is just playin’ Baci, but I don’t think he really too much fuck cares what yall think, deep down inside, mostly he’s jes trying to impress hisself, it’s a Mark Twain thang! If anything, he is naturally stoned… on the trails at Lester, and simply wants you all to try to be more like Kai regretting the few times he wasn’t. Remember, it never pays to be a Pussychicken.
Samydayfus, Im sure Herzog approves of your and any other film worth its salt. Let her buck.
Oops, I meant to instal the extended version of Kai’s interview, you can access it at Superbeast.
Thumbs up America!
We’re all perfectly flawed.
To try and tie this all in, if any, Fresno, Phoenix, LA have to be the epicenter of icky, and I’m glad Duluth ain’t those, even though I love me some desert and mountains. It’s the people who live on the coasts that think nothing is here is what keeps this place possible, but they’re coming. You’d have to think the very presence of TBT has paved quite a few folks’ paths here.
I like the example of Kai the hatchet-wielding hero because stereotypes can sucker us into thinking the well-spoken dude is always going have the greater moral compass, and in this case the stoner surfer dude did, maybe because he is free of those normal societal restraints, which somehow relates to Lance’s whole film theme in that the evil and negative components that hide in otherwise healthy societies can often go ignored or unnoticed because of the society which fosters them. I’m continually amazed how many sects can be jammed under one religious heading.
And evil, as we found during the Bush era, is sometimes where you least expect it. We’re always looking for the clean smoking gun single answer to problems. Our reptilian brains love the pomp and circumstance that leads to herd thinking which leads to genocide.
Am I getting paid for this shit?
H-Zog,
The totality of the hipster whateverness of which you speak is nonesuch such evil, get it? That post thingy you refer to, or not, not to confuse such posts as it were, blah, and so on…Look! A flower!… But I digress.
Evil is, you know? I comment in code because Don Ness and Duluth and the West Coast and films. Certainly this tundra in which “you all” profess to live sucks up the hinds of Vincent Herzog. Anarchy and art is cold…obvious I think. Meantime, I love me (modern grammar rulez!) some fun. Out. Get it?
Hatchet-Wielding Moral Compass: my new mantra.
Finally some brilliant shit. Breaking it out ee cummings style. Paul, why can’t you be more like Vicarious? I need some mfkn probiotics now.