DETROIT LAKES

— Though Detroit Lakes’ Historic Holmes Theatre is known primarily as a live performance venue, the theater installed a giant movie screen this past summer, and now the staff wants to show it off.

Back-to-back film screenings are scheduled at the theater this Thursday and Friday, Nov. 9-10, with a 7:30 p.m. start time for both.

“This will be our first public movie showing!” says Grace Davidson-Thooft, the Holmes Theatre’s performing arts director. “We hope to find ways to broadcast local events, national and international arts programming, and other movies as we learn what the community is most interested in seeing on our screen.”

The first screening on Thursday, Nov. 9, will be a film that is familiar to many: “Mamma Mia!” The 2009 movie musical will serve as a prelude to the theater’s live tribute show,

“ABBA-solutely Fab,”

which takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. Both events showcase the music of the Swedish supergroup, ABBA, which includes hits like “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “Fernando,” and of course, the movie’s title track.

Admission to the Thursday night movie will be just $5 per person, while tickets for the live show on Saturday are $30 for adults and $15 for students.

Sandwiched in between the two ABBA-themed nights will be the showing of another movie that is much less familiar — because it is a world premiere.

“Rising” is a short film that was recently completed by Minnesota’s own Tiffany Besonen, who directed the film as well as creating a series of sculptures that feature prominently in its narrative.

A Frazee native, Besonen currently lives in rural Menahga and teaches art to seventh, eighth and ninth graders at Menahga Public School.

She says the impetus for the film was, in part, the sense of isolation experienced by those who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

“It’s been a three-and-a-half-year process,” she said. “You’d think it would be a 2-3 hour feature film by now, but it’s a short film.”

In fact, the run time is approximately 10 minutes. “Rising” follows the journey of a young woman out of the isolation of an unidentified location in the woods, through a series of obstacles before finally discovering self-empowerment.

Besides Besonen’s talents, the film also prominently features the music of another Frazee-area native, Damian D. Anderson, who graduated from Frazee High School with Besonen in 1989.

“I brought my sculptures to his house, so he could actually touch them and live with them for a while,” Besonen said. “He wrote the music so quickly, it was amazing.”

The film’s star, Anika Campbell, is also its dance choreographer, and there are four other Minnesota artists who were also involved in its creation: Dancers Emily Bradt and Autumn Moe, directing consultant Julie Kjenaas, and videographer/editor Rob Whiteside.

The involvement of Kjenaas, a longtime friend, came about when Besonen realized that she would need a little help figuring out this new creative medium. “Film is definitely an art form, but it’s a new one for me,” she explained.

Whiteside, meanwhile, is a former student of hers, while Bradt and Moe have both danced with Frazee’s Northern Lights Dance Academy.

Filming for”Rising” wrapped up in May, and those involved in its creation will finally get to see the outcome on Friday night. Besonen said that she has also submitted the film for consideration as a Sundance Film Festival selection, but hasn’t heard back yet. Funding for the project was provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, which provided Besonen with two grants for creative support, through a legislative appropriation from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

During each of the days leading up to the trio of shows at the Holmes Theatre this weekend, the

Holmes Art Show

will be taking place in the Midwest Bank Ballroom (located across the hallway from the main theater).

More than 30 regional artists will fill the ballroom for all three days of the show, which runs from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, and 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10-11. Live music will be a part of the art show as well: Classical pianist Greta Johnson will be performing on Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and musicians Fern Belling and Todd Voss will be performing there on Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In addition, the Detroit Lakes Community and Cultural Center’s Engage group (a social club and activity group for DLCCC members age 50 and up) will be serving up homemade treats and coffee in the ballroom during all three days of the art show, with proceeds to go to support Engage activities throughout the year.

And that’s not all: The Holmes Art Cellar (located in the theater’s basement) will host an open life drawing class on Friday at 10 a.m., and next door at the Becker County Museum, the Da Vinci exhibit will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.