A collection of recently created short films includes an iconic setting familiar to many Bridgeland neighbors — the Witch’s Hat Tower in Prospect Park.

The annual ScreenLabs film competition — for which local screenwriters and filmmakers make original films with grassroots connections to Minnesota — requires participants to write, produce, film and edit their movies while following a theme and including a specific Minnesota location. This year’s films had to include the tower and a theme of unrequited love.

Though 33 people registered for this year’s competition, nine completed films appear on the ScreenLabs website. Visitors to the website can vote on which is best. The films will be screened, and winners will be announced, on Oct. 11 at the annual meeting of the Screenwriters’ Workshop at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

ScreenLabs Executive Producer Robb Mitchell views the challenge as “a discovery process, as filmmaking is a highly collaborative effort; and in order for the writers, directors and talent to be successful in this art form, they must form teams of talented individuals and then focus and channel those abilities collectively.

“We put forward these obstacles and see what happens, what comes out of it,” said Mitchell. “This encourages people to be imaginative and get involved with the community.”

One challenge was the inclusion of the Witch’s Hat Tower, which is only open to the public once a year (during the Pratt Ice Cream Social). Some filmmakers, like Chris Durant, paid for permits and insurance to film inside the tower, while others found other ways to include the tower.
For his film Speaking to the Sky, Durant paid permit fees of $400 (discounted because he is a student) to shoot in the actual tower itself. “The Witch’s Hat Tower became a significant piece of the story,” he said, “as it became a special place for one of the characters in the story.”

Speaking to the Sky is about a young man who has floated from foster home to foster home since the age of 13, because of his family’s inability to accept their son’s sexuality. “I like that my story deals with a subject matter that is often unacknowledged,” said Durant, who said he’s “experienced hatred as a member of the GLBT community.”

In another film, Chris Jones’ Out of Time, the tower was used as not only setting but as a metaphor for unrequited love. An artist sketching the tower meets a jogger in the park at its base. “No matter where I stand, I cannot get a view of the entire tower, top to bottom,” he tells the woman. “The top of the hat is missing; it is as if she always wants to keep a part of herself hidden.”

The woman reveals that she has keys for the tower, and the two climb to the top, where the film culminates with a love-ballad musical number.

Julie Kane Meyer found her own way of including the monument. Instead of paying “big bucks for permits,” Meyer decided to film the tower from the street and use a set of woods located in Bloomington with the same feel as those around the tower.

Meyer wrote the winning film in last year’s challenge and added the roles of producer, director, composer, and graphic designer for her 2008 film, Good Love Rises, about a nursing home orderly who takes a woman and her catatonic husband for a picnic on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Meyer said her film “has a brightness to it that offsets some of the sadness associated with loving someone who can’t love you back.”

Though Meyer is finding a new way to challenge herself this year by taking on a bigger role in the production of her own film, she has not lost sight of what she feels is most important in the competition.

“We are all helping each other by proofing scripts, getting equipment, acting as extras, [giving] general advice on where to find things and who to cast,” she said. “I believe you can’t do anything in this world with a zero-sum-game mentality. We’ve got to help each other to get better, to build up the community in the Twin Cities in whatever way we can. It’s all about making art.”

The ScreenLabs Challenge gives out four awards for the submitted films. A jury will select the best film, runner up and best screenplay, while a fourth award will be given for audience choice.

While winning is a nice perk, recognition is not the top priority for the filmmakers. Durant said he’s excited for people to see his film, although he wouldn’t mind winning. “I invested some serious pennies and time into this production,” he said, “but I did this challenge because I was moved to.”

Meyer feels the same. “It’s gone beyond competition, into the realm of community,” she said. “I can truly say we are a community of artists and writers, and it’s fun. It’s great just to see movies being made, and it sure beats having all those wonderful stories sit in the drawers.

“Their victory is your victory,” she said. “And vice versa.”

last revised: September 5, 2008

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