Ann Prim

Most filmmakers fit comfortably into the broad categories known as “narrative” and “experimental” cinema. Though such labels can be vague and constricting, it remains generally true that directors approach film as either a vehicle for telling stories or an opportunity to deconstruct form and meaning. Twin Cities filmmaker Ann Prim, though, belongs to the nebulous middle ground between narrative and experimental cinema, as her desire to dissect the formal components of film is wedded to an interest in human characters and stories. This elusive position between the well-established spheres of filmmaking is a sparsely-populated territory, resulting in some occasional resistance from both producers and viewers, but it also has the potential to break the mold of established filmmaking practices.

Based in Saint Paul, Prim’s background in graphic design, still photography, and music composition has guided her towards a unique filmmaking style. Her debut short, The Afterling (2010), achieves a surreal, ominous style of stop-motion animation reminiscent of the Quay Brothers, yet her next four films were all “non-traditional narratives,” approaching the complexity of human personality through implication and emotional tone. Her “Vellum Trilogy” explores three female artists—a painter, writer, and dancer—balancing their art and their lives; the first two parts, A Brief Conversation (2010) and Little Words (2012), have already been completed, while the third, Notes from There, is currently in pre-production. More recently, Prim has returned to an abstract, avant-garde aesthetic with the experimental shorts Time Has Peeled Back the Skin of Things (2013) and Filmetto Porta 241 (2014). Prim was kind enough to meet for a conversation (at a Dunn Bros. on Lake Street appropriately perched at the boundary between Minneapolis and Saint Paul) to talk about her filmmaking and artistic outlook.

Before moving to Minnesota, 2015 McKnight Media Artist Fellow Ann Prim lived in Boston where she was an exhibiting photographer and a musician signed to A&M Records. In this film, Prim discusses her evolution into a filmmaker since her arrival in the Twin Cities in 2000 and the importance of light in all her work.