Director elizabeth chatelain to attend human rights film festival

Director Elizabeth Chatelain will attend the 2018 North Dakota Human Rights Film festival in Fargo, North Dakota.

Her film “Sundogs” will have its North Dakota premiere on Thursday, November 15 at the Fargo Theatre. The narrative short “Sundogs” features the story of a single mother and her 4-year-old daughter as they struggle to survive a homeless night in the oilfields of North Dakota.

A North Dakota native, Chatelain has directed several documentary and narrative shorts including “My Sister Sarah”, winner of the International Documentary Association’s Award for Best Student Documentary, Student Academy Award Finalist, and the DGA’s Best Student Director – Women’s Category Finalist. Her short documentary “The Lost Girl” was winner of the Ruth Landfield Award for Women Filmmakers in 2009. Her work primarily profiles working class women struggling against everyday adversity.

Her films have screened at festivals across the country and the world, including Interfilm Berlin, Sarasota, IFFBoston, Athens Film + Video, MSPIFF, and SXSW. She is currently working on her debut feature project, “Sundogs,” which participated in the Berlinale Script Station in 2016 and was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist. She holds a BA in Film and Media Culture from Middlebury College, and an MFA in Film and Video Production from University of Texas at Austin.

“As a young girl growing up in North Dakota, I wanted nothing more than to escape the brutal cold and live elsewhere,” said Chatelain.

“After spending years outside my native state, I felt compelled to return and share the stories of the dramatic changes occurring there. In 2012, with the advances in technology of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, once rural areas and small towns boomed. Desperate wanderers flocked from all areas of the country for the opportunity to start over. Some of them found success; others left even more desperate than they came. “Sundogs” is an exploration of the effects of this boom phenomenon on two of these struggling transplants: a mother and child.

“Sundogs” screens on Thursday, November 15, at the Fargo Theatre. Tickets cost $12 in advance, $15 at the door, and $2 for seniors and students. A Festival Pass to all screenings in Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks is available for $40. To get your tickets, visit Fargo.

The mission of the North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival is to educate, engage, and facilitate discussion around local and world-wide human rights topics through the work of filmmakers and artist. 2018 is the second year for both the film and art festivals.

The 2018 North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival is made possible through the generosity of the Consensus Council, the City of Fargo’s Human Relations Commission, the City of Fargo’s Native American Commission, the Awesome Foundation: Cass Clay, and The High Plains Reader, and through partnerships with Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, the NDSU Memorial Gallery, the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition. The Fargo screening of the film “Home.” was funded in part by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the screening of “Home.” do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities North Dakota or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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