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Two days after the Minnesota House passed a broad anti-bullying bill, a group of local lawyers, advocates, teachers, and other figures have teamed up to present the acclaimed 2011 documentary Bully for free at the Riverview Theater, and to open up a dialogue about bullying in the community.

"When I first saw the film, I bawled," explains Tracy Reid, whose law firm, Cooper and Reid, organized the event. "It's dually inspiring. As you grieve about it, I think it changes you, because you can't be apathetic to the issue after you see it."

See also:
- COVER: Gay bullying must end: In wake of suicides, schools face federal scrutiny
- Bullied Anoka-Hennepin students: It got better [VIDEO]
- Anoka-Hennepin settles lawsuit with bullied students


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Courtesy erpb Film

Folks may want to brush up on Henry David Thoreau's Walden: (Or Life in the Woods), as what it has to say about retreating into nature provides a key element in Upstream Color, a new film showing at the Walker Art Center this Friday and Saturday. Much like Thoreau's classic, the movie draws its subjects out of their consumer-culture immersed lives and pulls them into a much more primal state of existence.

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Marcel, King of Tervuren

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival is now in full force. If you didn't get a chance to check out the festival last weekend, you've got until April 28 to get over to St. Anthony Main before it's over. Not only are there lots of great movies from around the world, the event also highlights homegrown filmmakers through its Minnesota Made series. Craig Rice, who curated the series this year, says he chose films with input from committees that weighed in on each of the different categories of film, using criteria such as story and technical quality.

The Minnesota film community is special, as there's such a "strong desire to make things that are really unique," Rice says. "You can literally walk outside, and in a half an hour you'd find half a dozen people to make a movie without getting paid."

The following is a short list of great Minnesota films at MSPIFF that you still have time to see. The first four are part of the Minnesota Made series, and the fifth is an MSPIFF special presentation. 
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Antiviral

For those with only a passing familiarity, the term "independent film" can evoke a stereotype of ploddingly disillusioned characters sharing existential musings in lieu of an actual narrative. The world of independent filmmaking, as evidenced by the eclectic diversity in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, thankfully offers far more than varying degrees of ennui.

Over the run of 18 days, the 2013 MSPIFF represents a global showcase for virtually every cinematic genre. Of the 200 scheduled features, few defy expectations quite like these 10 suspense driven selections, each geared to lure audiences to the edge of their seats and leave them clutching their armrests.

Related stories:
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival [this week's feature]


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Photo by Myleen Hollero

As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, perhaps it's time to take a look at alternatives to the exploitations of big corporations. Shift Change, which gets a screening at Trylon Microcinema this Thursday, is a documentary by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin that explores employee ownership, telling the stories of various cooperative models all over the world.

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Courtesy Travel in Spirals

At the Black Dog Café this Sunday, filmmakers Justin Schell and Tou SaiKo Lee will be screening Travel in Spirals, a documentary about spoken-word artist Lee's journey back to his birthplace of Thailand in 2008. The two will be on hand to talk about the film after the free viewing.

See also:
Justin Schell, hip-hop diaspora academic [2011]


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Alan Markfield

Max Irons and Jake Abel are two of the stars of The Host, Stephenie Meyer's latest best selling book turned movie. We met up with the two to chat about the flick. However, before discussing the details of the film, Irons explains that he changed shirts before the interview due to a "wardrobe malfunction." He was having a hard time wearing his button-up shirt because it was too tight. "I had two steaks last night!" he exclaims.

Irons also wanted to set the record straight that, contrary to a previous interview, he is in fact a Justin Bieber fan. "I don't want to say anything bad about Bieber. I love Bieber and his Beliebers," he jokes. "[His fans] come after you is what I've been told. I love him, and I want him to continue to prosper."
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Copyright Gregory Smith

Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund

Last November, director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station) spoke to Walker Art Center members who had been invited to a pre-screening of his new film, On the Road. During this visit, Dressing Room talked with Salles about his five-year documentary (which preceded the film), his love for "road" movies, and what it was like working with actor Garrett Hedlund, a Minnesota native.

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