In popular opinion, mainstream filmmaking is seen as too cost-prohibitive and too risky to pursue as a profession for anyone living outside of Hollywood. However, a breakthrough in digital technology has lowered the cost barrier and enabled filmmakers to produce high-quality work that can be edited on a laptop and released directly to an audience via streaming platforms.
Filmmakers are taking advantage of the newfound flexibility, and as a result, a new wave of film festivals are popping up across the U.S., with many embracing regional flavors.
Since its inaugural year in 2014, the
Soo Film Festival, based in Sault Ste. Marie, has become an annual showcase in the eastern U.P. for filmmakers operating out of the Great Lakes region, which in addition to Michigan, includes New York, Indiana, Ohio and Ontario, Canada.
I spoke with the filmmaker and festival president Jason Markstrom about some of the trends he’s observed as the festival has evolved, the new opportunities available to aspirant creators, and the general state of filmmaking in the Midwest.
The Soo Film Festival originated in the Soo Theatre Project, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing diverse arts and culture to downtown Sault Ste Marie. In a trend that echoes similar renewed interest across the U.P. surrounding historic theater preservation, the nonprofit acquired the Soo Theatre in 2003 and has made regular progress in subsequent years on a major restoration of the vaudeville era event space.
As these spaces are converted into multi-use performance arts centers, film festivals with a unique perspective have become increasingly important programming goals. Thus, as is evident with the outdoor-themed
FreshCoast Film Festival out of Marquette, and the multidisciplinary
Emberlight Festival out of Ironwood, the Soo Film Festival came about as another expression of Sault Ste. Marie’s creative community.
Markstrom describes the festival, which takes place each year in September, as an avenue to bring a wide array of films to the Eastern U.P. that would otherwise never have been screened elsewhere. Besides a programming emphasis on work made regionally, there’s also special attention given to films made within the indigenous communities native to the region.
To underscore the cultural importance of the film festival, Markstrom points out that Sault Ste Marie currently has no operating multiplex theaters, with the nearest major theater chains requiring a trip south across the Mackinac Bridge or north into Canada. Post-pandemic, vintage theaters that are typically located in historic downtowns have seen a renewed relevance as entertainment venues that cater to their communities with a more personal touch.
As the festival has grown each year, Markstrom has also noticed a commensurate increase in the technical accomplishment evident across the board based on the festival’s submissions, which is remarkable even at the student level. This shouldn’t come as a surprise – the capacity to produce a digital cinema image that rivals the fidelity of what was once only achievable on 35-millimeter celluloid has been possible since the late 2000s.
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Cinematographer Michael Johns and Director Seth Anderson (with his son Aidan) on the set of the U.P.-based series "NORTHBOUND."
As we both discussed our background in filmmaking, Markstrom, an alumni of Northern Michigan University’s Cinema program, sketched out a late-90s film school experience that echoed my memories of working laboriously with 16-millimeter film on arcane editing machines.
These machines would bewilder the TikTok generation with how grueling each step of the filmmaking process was only 20 years ago. We both marveled over the advent of drone photography, which has made an aerial shot that was once only achievable with a helicopter or crane, something that is just another tool any undergrad can use in their student film. But who’s worried about film school anymore? YouTube has made it possible for younger creatives to find a more direct and monetarily lucrative way to hone their craft while saving money on tuition.
When asked about the outlook for those hoping to make a living in a new regional creative economy, Markstrom feels the time is right to make a go of it in Michigan, but he cautions that there is still difficulty in finding the customer base to maintain yourself.
With video being a ubiquitous mode of communication, not just in terms of entertainment but across a wide swath of marketing platforms, the need to retain and train talent raised in a culture permeated by social media will only increase. Still, a lack of economic support systems will continue to make it difficult for creators to decide on Michigan when plenty of work is available in New Mexico, Georgia or Louisiana -- three states that are giving California a run for its money, thanks to competitive film industry tax incentives.
We both lamented the loss of Michigan’s aggressive film tax incentive program, which brought major productions such as ‘Batman v. Superman’ to Michigan and stimulated a film production boom from Detroit to Grand Rapids, only to be abolished in 2015.
The loss of this program was a great blow to the Michigan film community, precipitating a film professional brain drain to new production hotbeds like Atlanta, which has become a second Hollywood for major media giants such as Marvel Studios and Netflix. However, Markstrom believes Michigan is underutilized and that incentives coupled with a healthy network of permanently based creative professionals would create fertile soil for the state to lead the midwest as a hub for major film production.
With a new incentive program being touted thanks to the effort of the
Michigan Film Industry Association, Markstrom remains focused on the work being done locally in the Soo. He hopes to cultivate talent and open more doors for the next generation of filmmakers that may opt to stay local and tell stories that reflect an underutilized region of the country.
As I mentioned how the natural beauty of the U.P. has never quite been captured for a worldwide audience, we both speculated on the films that could be made on Lake Superior or in cities like Flint or Detroit. If video is an unrivaled mechanism for empathy, a way to grab the viewer and place them in another person’s experience, then resources like the Soo Film Festival are performing a vital service for their growing communities.
As our conversation winded down, Markstrom mentioned his itch to work on a new screenplay, and we talked shop about some of the incredible lens possibilities that are available with the new iPhone. While filmmaking may still seem like an improbable pursuit in rural communities, technology has made it easier to bring more eyes to this corner of the world, and more communities are finally realizing how valuable it is to support that.
Writer and Filmmaker Seth Anderson co-founded the media and communication company Mountain Media House in 2021 after returning home to Upper Michigan with his wife in 2018. He is the co-creator and director of NORTHBOUND, an Upper-Michigan based digital series that screened at the 2022 Soo Film Festival, and will premiere its final season exclusively on the streaming service Seeka TV in early 2023.