Ely
Minnesota
Ely Film Festival 2025
Arts and Entertainment
February 17, 2025
From: Ely Film FestivalThe Ely Film Festival is a promise of exposure, exploration, and cultural enrichment, and we invite you to bring your creative energies! It’s an event that fuses the magic of cinema, the richness of our shared stories, and the pristine beauty of Ely, Minnesota.
Schedule of Events
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
In the Land of Palm Oil
Greenstone Cinema
3:00 PM
IN THE LAND OF PALM OIL focuses on the casualties, both human and environmental, of palm oil exploitation in Indonesia. The film fuses first hand accounts of villagers -- victims of land-grabbing by large global corporations who pay off local and national officials -- and vérité observations of young Dayak activists who are trying to expose the brutal human rights violations.
Antarctic Voyage & Where the Wind Takes You (short)
Ely's State Theater
4:00 PM
"Antarctic Voyage" is a new documentary from award-winning filmmaker Kevin Schreck about a biological research expedition to the remote island of South Georgia, starring charismatic field biologist, Dr. Samantha Monier. Part modern-day adventure film, part visual tone poem, "Antarctic Voyage" sheds a light on the current state of the polar region's majestic wildlife, and the intrepid explorers who are dedicated to preserving and understanding what remains of our fragile, vital natural world, all through a refreshingly unconventional manner from the standard nature documentary genre.
The Birds Who Fear Death
Greenstone Cinema
6:00 PM
Two brothers, disinherited and desperate for cash, journey into the Canadian wilds to find themselves, their people and their fortune.
Boundary Waters
Ely's State Theater
7:00 PM
In the Iron Range of Minnesota, 12yo Michael is just learning to flirt with girls and find his place among his friends, when one night his mother is badly hurt. Desperate to fix what happened, Michael tries to become a man in a world where he learns some men cause harm. Director Tessa Blake, Producer Erin Mae Miller, and leading actors Allison Miller & Bill Heck in attendance!
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Neighbor to Neighbor: Sharing Our Stories
Ely's State Theater
3:00 PM
Those of us who live here, in Northeast Minnesota know how to survive a cold winter and how to cultivate squash and tomatoes, despite a short growing season. Routines are set and potlucks are attended. One neighbor plows and another brings brownies over to the new family on the block. But how did we get here and what drives us to live in such a way? This block explores our own relationships and stories, and the way our past interacts with our present and future. Hear reflections from your neighbors, including Lonnie Dupre, Lacey Squier, and Dave Hicks.
So You Think You're Funny?
Greenstone Cinema
4:00 PM
The best laughter comes when we’re with friends, doing something we love. These filmmakers uplift and celebrate that experience! This block showcases the joys for a shared passion amidst pals.
Opening Ceremony, Electric Indian & Keith Secola Performance
Ely's State Theater
6:30 PM
Our traditional EFF Opening Ceremony will take place in the State Theater on Thursday, March 13th at 6:30 PM (please note the time change from 7 PM). We will kick off with a performance from Waabani Noodin Drum, remarks from Indigenous cultural leaders & representatives from Ely Film Festival and Ely's Historic State Theater, followed by a showing of the regional documentary film Electric Indian. Filmmaker Leya Hale will be in attendance, with a special appearance by Keith Secola who scored the film! Q&A after the film will be followed by a live concert with Keith Secola and friends. A documentary from filmmaker Leya Hale, The Electric Indian follows Ojibwe hockey legend, Henry Boucha. A stand-out hockey star from Warroad, Minnesota, Boucha impressed on the ice from the 1969 Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament to the 1972 Olympics to the NHL, but an on-ice assault and injury ended his athletic career that unexpectedly led to a journey of healing and cultural reclamation.
Never Not Yours
Greenstone Cinema
8:00 PM
30ish siblings Michael, Ellie, and James drive to their family cabin to visit their parents Jonathan and Maddie. But when their mom and dad unexpectedly announce their divorce, chaos ensues.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Decolonizing Our Youth & Life in the Land (The Mighty View)
Ely's State Theater
10:00 AM
These two documentaries chronicle land based teachings from Indigenous communities and how they're carried forward. Read more about each film below: "Decolonizing Our Youth": How can we rethink our Education system? Can we trade cinderblock square classrooms for the open skies and river valleys of our ancestors? Join our land based classroom to meet various Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and Elders that will share the importance of the traditional land, culture, and the language here on amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Beaver Hills House), also known as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Are you ready to decolonize your learning and come be a student with us? "Life in the Land": Iikooshtaka’atbaatchaache, home of the Mighty Few. Through grassroots efforts, the Mighty Few are guiding actions that create necessary healing, economic opportunities, and self-determination to thrive into the future. For more information visit [email protected]
Dibaajimowin Shorts
Greenstone Cinema
10:30 AM
Storytelling is the way knowledge, lessons, and teachings are passed on in Indigenous cultures. These stories take us back to our roots and share the values of our communities, local and abroad, using a variety of techniques. Filmmakers in attendance!
Singing Back the Buffalo
Ely's State Theater
1:00 PM
In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.
Chuckleheads
Greenstone Cinema
1:30 PM
They say that all’s fair in love and war - I don’t know if all that’s true, but you’re sure to find a little humor throughout both love and war. Sometimes, laughter really does give us the best therapy.
Preserving Tradition Shorts
Ely's State Theater
4:00 PM
This shorts block travels the globe, meeting folks trying to keep old ways alive. We’ll be confronted with the question of how cultural practices evolve. How do we meet tradition and how does tradition adapt alongside us?
KAM Theatre Lab: The Old Same Story
Greenstone Cinema
4:30 PM
KAM Theatre Lab explores an experimental theatre collective based in a remote northern town in the 1970s-80s. The group combined clown and mask performance with the social commentary embodied in the back-to-the-land movement. The struggles KAM Theatre Lab faced when balancing the motivations of individual artists, the ideals of the collective, and the attempt to earn a living in a marginal town, led to schisms in the troupe. All the exhilaration and tension that come from close personal and creative relationships—while striving for uncompromising artistic and political vision—were manifest in KAM Theatre Lab.
February (Or: Si Nos Dejan) & Ultimate Citizens
Ely's State Theater
7:00 PM
These films celebrate immigrant lives with two unique angles. "February": A recent immigrant, Miguel (David Ezekiel Duran), struggles to fit into a small town in Wisconsin in February until discovering ice fishing. A portrait of family, resilience, the immigrant experience, and the things we have in common. In ULTIMATE CITIZENS, Jamshid is an Iranian who came to study in 1970’s America, and due to the Revolution, never went “home.” As a guidance counselor in Seattle Public Schools, Jamshid’s best work takes place out of the building and on a playing field with “his kids,” the children of refugees and immigrants. Their parents are in the grips of their own struggles to make a living and a home in a strange land. Mr. Jamshid is the charismatic, fiery, funny human with a Frisbee in hand, who is the first to show that "love wins" on the field, off the field, at home with family, or boldly forging a new community, in a new country - one kid, chicken, extreme mile and friend at a time.
Horror, Eh?
Greenstone Cinema
8:00 PM
Sometimes the most terrifying situations teach the most important lessons in life. Warning: Some of these films present disturbing images. Viewer discretion advised. Filmmakers in attendance, including "Boundary Waters" star Allison Miller in the director's chair!
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Animation, Bears, and Chuckles: ABC Shorts
Ely's State Theater
10:00 AM
This hour long block is sure to capture the attention of kids and adults alike. While covering themes from competition and collaboration to identity and family, this block is sure to have the whole family laughing together. Filmmakers in attendance.
Ugra Tales
Greenstone Cinema
11:00 AM
The film is about Yugra residents – Khanty, Mansi and Russians, who chose to live on their land. Five heroes – five stories. Director Bio: Born in 1972 in Leningrad, USSR. Graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television in 1997. Since 1993 worked as a cameraman and director assistant at the Leningrad Documentary Film Studio. He took a special course on co-production and journalism at the Baltic Media Center in Denmark in 1999. Since 1998 he has been working as a director on Russian federal TV channels. Author of more than one hundred documentaries and TV programs.
Identity Outdoors
Ely's State Theater
1:00 PM
What does it mean to be outdoorsy? This block of films will challenge your assumptions about what “wilderness” is and who lives, works, and recreates in it. We’ll travel from Minnesota to Washington State down to Southern Baja and across the world to Mozambique. These films grapple with race, motherhood, sexual preference, immigration, body image, and more as we explore myriad ways of belonging, outside.
Drama, Drama, Drama
Greenstone Cinema
1:30 PM
Experience a range of human emotions, featuring compelling stories of love, loss, and personal discovery from emerging filmmakers around the world. Filmmakers in attendance.
Singing Back the Buffalo
Ely's State Theater
4:00 PM
In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.
Creative Expressions
Greenstone Cinema
4:30 PM
Where does inspiration strike and when? How can the arts help us move through grief and how can grief inspire creativity? Is there a “right way”? How much power does art have to alter our reality? These questions are impossible to answer concretely, but the creatives featured in this shorts block are willing to share with you what works for them. Filmmakers in attendance, including Producer & Artist Sarah Bamford Seidelmann who's hosting a class at Ely Folk School during the festival on Saturday 3/15 at 12 PM.
Boundary Waters
Ely's State Theater
7:00 PM
In the Iron Range of Minnesota, 12yo Michael is just learning to flirt with girls and find his place among his friends, when one night his mother is badly hurt. Desperate to fix what happened, Michael tries to become a man in a world where he learns some men cause harm. Director Tessa Blake, Producer Erin Mae Miller, and leading actors Allison Miller & Bill Heck in attendance!
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Greenstone Cinema
8:00 PM
Prepare to be creeped out and entertained. You will never look at a common lightbulb the same. Warning: Some of these films present disturbing images. Viewer discretion advised. Filmmakers in attendance.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Mollie's Pack
Ely's State Theater
11:00 AM
On January 12, 1995 wolves returned to Yellowstone, 50 years after their extirpation. Mollie Beattie, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, carried the first Canadian born wolf into The Park’s experimental acclimation enclosure, Alpha Female Wolf No. 5. From that day forward, their lives would be forever connected. This is the true story of Mollie’s Pack and the return of wolves to the World's First National Park. This showing will be followed by a presentation and conversation with representatives from Ely's International Wolf Center.
Dibaajimowin Shorts
Greenstone Cinema
12:00 PM
Storytelling is the way knowledge, lessons, and teachings are passed on in Indigenous cultures. These stories take us back to our roots and share the values of our communities, local and abroad, using a variety of techniques. Filmmakers in attendance!
A Sea Change for Superior & Where the Wind Takes You (Short)
Ely's State Theater
2:00 PM
The world's largest lake is now among the fastest warming lakes on the planet. A Sea Change for Lake Superior takes a fresh look at Lake Superior’s natural and cultural legacy, how the lake is fairing in a time of unprecedented change, and how citizens can help mitigate today’s problems and those that the future portends. This showing opens with the short film "Where the Wind Takes You": Embracing the power of the arctic wind just 10 degrees shy of the North Pole, captain Peter Schurke sails North dodging icebergs, exploring remote fjords, and experiencing a close encounter with the ultimate apex predator.
Death is the Road to Awe
Greenstone Cinema
2:30 PM
Death is a part of all life, whether the death of a loved one, a pet, or a relationship. The only way to reach the other side is to move through..grief and pain, yes, but also joy and celebration. Filmmakers in attendance.
Columbia River Canoe Project & Madulu: The Sea Man (short)
Ely's State Theater
4:30 PM
The film follows cousins Robert Lester and Braxton Mitchell as they attempt a 1,300-mile canoe expedition from the Continental Divide near Butte, Montana, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. While following their downstream journey, the film highlights the ecological issues facing the Columbia River Watershed and promotes the importance of environmental stewardship. The Columbia River Canoe Project takes viewers on an adventure filled with breathtaking landscapes, unpredictable challenges, and a wealth of inspiration. This showing opens with the short film "Madulu, The Seaman", a lyrical documentary that attempts to preserve the rich history of a dying tradition in the wake of the economic struggle at the hand of the tourism industry. Interweaving documentary footage with animated sequences of young Amari's drawings, the film uses a touch of magical realism to explore the divide between past and present and new interpretations of old traditions.
Itu Ninu
Greenstone Cinema
6:30 PM
In the not-so-distant future of 2084, Ángel finds himself trapped as a climate migrant in an unspecified smart city, under constant surveillance. Amidst a bleak and oppressive existence, Ángel makes a living by cultivating plants, preserving the fading wisdom of seeds. Within this desolate landscape he crosses paths with Sofia, another climate migrant who works at a recycling facility. Fate intertwines their lives when a chance encounter reveals an unexpected connection: a shared language. Fueling Ángel's longing for human connection and a glimmer of hope, he reaches out to Sofia. Aware of the omnipresent digital monitoring, Ángel decides to communicate with her through the timeless medium of pen and paper, fostering an intimate, clandestine bond. As their secret correspondence unfolds, a friendship grows between Ángel and Sofia as does their desire for liberation from excessive control.
Electric Indian & The Gift (Sweden)
Ely's State Theater
7:00 PM
A documentary from filmmaker Leya Hale, The Electric Indian follows Ojibwe hockey legend, Henry Boucha. A stand-out hockey star from Warroad, Minnesota, Boucha impressed on the ice from the 1969 Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament to the 1972 Olympics to the NHL, but an on-ice assault and injury ended his athletic career that unexpectedly led to a journey of healing and cultural reclamation. This showing will open with the short film "The Gift": Daniel is a young Sámi man who always knew he wanted to be a reindeer herder. The only problem is that his family is not involved in reindeer herding, and he doesn't know how to reach his dream. "The Gift" is a film that lends insight into modern day reindeer herding practices and Sámi traditions. But first and foremost, it's a story about trust, friendship and the liberating power of giving. Filmed in the Árjepluovi region of the unceded territory of Sápmi.
Date: March 12 - 16, 2025
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