DULUTH — A room full of Minnesota’s tourism industry professionals listened Thursday as staff from Zeitgeist and the Upper Midwest Film Office talked about how forging relationships has helped attract millions of dollars’ worth of local film production activity.
Film festivals and film productions form a virtuous circle, bringing people to the area and often inspiring them to return.
“They’re seeing what’s in front of them, which is your community,” said Nell Lawrenz-Wareham of Explore Minnesota Film, who moderated a panel at Explore Minnesota’s annual tourism conference. “They take that back to wherever they live, (whether) that’s New York or L.A., and they’re saying, ‘Oh my gosh, have you been to Duluth?'”
Jay Gabler / Duluth Media Group
As Executive Director Lauren Bennett McGinty indicated in a plenary address at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, Explore Minnesota sees the state’s growing film industry as an important mechanism for bringing more people here — to visit, to spend and perhaps even to live.
To that end, the afternoon panel titled “Reel Impact: Film, Festivals and Creative Tourism” offered conference attendees an opportunity to learn from the successes industry advocates have had in the Northland.
According to UMFO, recent years have seen an estimated $13.5 million spent on film productions in St. Louis County.
“That’s $1.3 million in lodging, over 13,000 hotel nights, 60 projects and about 1,100 locals hired,” said UMFO Executive Director Shari Marshik.
Contributed / JoAnn Jardine / Hallmark Media
at the city, county and state levels have made the Northland newly competitive among potential filming locales. Introduced just a few years ago, the incentives are so new that many filmmakers nationally are not yet aware of them.
“I get called ‘the incentive girl’ at (industry) gatherings, which is great,” said Vera Bianchini, director of the Zeitgeist Minnesota Film Festival. “People are like, ‘I didn’t realize the incentives were that good.’ I’ve had filmmakers tell me I’m lying, and I’m like, ‘I swear to God.'”
Film festivals like Zeitgeist’s not only drive tourism, but they also are critical in bringing filmmakers from outside the region to see what the Northland has to offer, Marshik said. “(UMFO Chief Production Officer) Riki (McManus) puts them in a car, and she drives them around, and she’s telling them the stories.”
McManus points to some of the area’s signature attractions — “She’s showing them the top of Spirit Mountain, she’s putting them on the Timber Twister” — but the most popular location requests are more generic. “The most asked for are small towns, spooky houses … and desolate spaces,” Marshik said.
Once the completed films are released, they can bring another round of visits as fans come looking for the locations where their favorite movies were made. SetJetters, a mobile app for tourists, highlights Duluth locations where scenes from
and
were filmed.
Jay Gabler / Duluth Media Group
“A few years ago,” McManus said, “someone called me and said, ‘I’ve got a bus tour that I would like to have you take them to some of the areas where you shot some of the sets.’ We did two bus tours, and they stayed overnight, they spent money, and dang, we had a good time!”
Partnerships and close cooperation among filmmakers, nonprofits (like UMFO and Zeitgeist), for-profit businesses and government entities have been key to the Northland’s success, panelists said.
“Our goal is to bring production to the region,” Marshik said. “To do that, we need to have a healthy and thriving ecosystem that supports film.”
Bianchini and Zeitgeist Executive Director Tony Cuneo also highlighted the educational component of their organization’s work in the film industry. An internship program, for example, sees certain productions receive financial contributions in exchange for bringing an intern on set to gain experience.
“We’re killing two birds with one stone,” he said, “in terms of advancing an established (or) emerging artist and getting their project off the ground, while also bringing in the next generation.”
Building a local film industry takes time, Marshik said, but years of work developing that industry in the Northland are paying off.
“We have had people who have taken Riki’s tour in 2018, 2019 come back and say, ‘I’ve been thinking about this place since I was here the last time, and now I have a project,'” Marshik said.
Arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2022. His previous experience includes eight years as a digital producer at The Current (Minnesota Public Radio), four years as theater critic at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, and six years as arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He’s a co-founder of pop culture and creative writing blog The Tangential; he’s also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Minnesota Film Critics Association. You can reach him at [email protected] or 218-409-7529.
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