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Tickets to be given away to Oct. 18 showing The Ely Echo will be sponsoring and giving away tickets to the Minnesota preview of a movie filmed in Ely.
“Boundary Waters,” which was shot in Ely including at a Harvey Street home, the city park and on and around the school campus, will first be shown to the public at the Twin Cities Film Festival on Oct. 18 in St. Louis Park.
“Boundary Waters” official premiere is at Woodstock, N.Y. on Oct. 19.
Producer Erin Mae Miller was thankful for how much Ely is a part of the film and that the public will be able to see it.
“It will be great to get it out there when you spend so much time working on something that’s such a labor of love. It’s such a reward to see the audience react to it,” said Miller.
Test screenings have been done to allow for slight changes based on audience reactions.
“We’ve done a few test screenings and had wonderful feedback,” said Miller.
The film was directed by Tessa Blake, an award-winning filmmaker and television director.
“Our director says a film is not finished until it finds an audience,” said Miller “Connecting with the audience is the whole point of the endeavor and we’re excited to do that.”
Miller said the film could be shown at the Ely Film Festival this winter.
“We’re exploring that absolutely, we want everyone in Ely to be able to see the film,” said Miller.
The filming in Ely left a mark on Miller’s heart for the warm reception she and her crew received.
“We were so delighted in the response and the welcome we received in Ely.”
Miller said Blake will be filming in Hungary for a major network and will unfortunately miss the two film festivals.
“We’ll likely continue to run the festival circle around the country and we want to be with festivals that connect with the subject matter. We want to make sure we give the film as much exposure as possible. Hopefully we will be able to find a great home for it to reach as much and as broad of an audience as possible. We’re reaching out to organizations and people who have experienced trauma, so hopefully our film can be a resource for people and give people something to talk about.”
An online synopsis of the movies reads “In the Iron Range of Minnesota, 12-year-old Michael is exploring the Boundary Waters with his friends and learning to flirt with girls, when one night his mother is badly hurt. Desperate to fix what happened, Michael struggles to become a man in a world where he learns men cause harm.”
Miller credited the Minnesota film crew for helping to make the film and to Ely for making it unique.
“I feel so incredibly grateful to the community of Ely, from the mayor and the town hall to Chad at the police department to you folks at the Echo and literally the hundreds of people who gave of their times and talent to be stand ins, background extras, serve food and open their homes,” said Miller.
“It was such a community effort and it was such a beautiful setting to make a movie about a town going through some hard things. I think Ely was such a special place to do that. When I think about Ely I get warm and fuzzies.
“Ely is like an island in the wilderness but it made it perfect for our film. I couldn’t possibly say enough about the community. We also included some video from Jim Brandenbug. He provided some beautiful footage in the film that is such an ode to Ely and the area. The beauty of areas like Ely lends to the storytelling.”
Miller said she expects many of the actors to be at TCFF, although she said she has to get up at 4 a.m. the next day to fly to New York for the Woodstock Film Festival.
“We’re trying to get as many there as possible,” said Miller.
The movie stars Etienne Kellichi, Allison Miller and Bill Heck. Miller is best known for her role in the ABC TV Series “A Million Little Things.”
