By Gerry Gilmour
New Century Press
The retired executive director of the Fargo Theatre gets to be a judge in this, the 12th Annual and highly-anticipated Fargo Film Festival, which is in full swing through Saturday in downtown Fargo.
So instead of having to be the point-person for the multitude of screenings and presentations and social functions, Margie Bailly is free to watch the films as have her say as jurist on the Full-length Documentary Committee.
“It’s going to be a lot more relaxing,” Bailly says. “I absolutely love documentaries.”
As many as 2,500 are expected to view movies running nearly constant on the theater’s two screens, one of which seats 870, the smaller one 76.
Emily Beck, a Valley City, N.D., native and Minnesota State University Moorhead graduate, succeeded Bailly in July. She says more than 100 films are being shown this year. Films come from nine countries and 15 different states. A schedule can be found at www.fargofilmfestival.org
Morning and afternoon sessions cost just $6, evening sessions $8. Students pay $5 for any session.
The festival includes five local films. Among the highlights is the 4 p.m. Saturday screening of “High Road,” produced by Fargo-Moorhead-based Northern Lights Films. Jeff Schlossman, senior vice president of Goldmark Schlossman Commercial Corp. of Fargo, is CEO of Northern Lights Films.
If not for the Fargo Film Festival, there wouldn’t be a Northern Lights Films, Schlossman says. His partners in the company are Kirk Roos and Erik Rommesmo.
“High Road” premiered with positive fan acceptance in New York, Feb. 27, March 1 in Los Angeles. The Fargo Theatre screening is the third and final premiere prior to the movie’s formal release.
Synopsis of this R-rated comedy: Upright Citizens Brigade co-founder Matt Walsh directs this improvised comedy about a pot dealer who goes on the lam with his teenage neighbor following a deal gone bad. When his band decides to call it quits, floundering Glenn “Fitz” Fitzgerald (James F. Pumphrey) starts selling weed to support his girlfriend Monica (Abby Elliott), and winds up befriending his 16 year old neighbor Jimmy (Dylan O’Brien). Meanwhile, fame comes fast to his former bandmates, but “Fitz” can’t seem to get an even break. When a deal goes sour and “Fitz” must flee, Jimmy comes along for the wild ride. Saturday Night Live alumni Horatio Sanz also stars in a comedy featuring Zach Woods, Matt L. Jones, and Lizzy Caplan.
The film’s screening is followed by a panel discussion featuring Walsh, Jones and Jo Lo Truglio, who also stars in “Wanderlust,” which is in theaters now.