‘Xenos’ Special Screening at SMSU Dec. 1

Published Thursday, November 19, 2015

A special screening and discussion of Dana Johnson’s 10-minute film Xenos will be held on Tues., Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Black Box Theater in the Fine Arts Building at Southwest Minnesota State University. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

In the film, a group of aliens come to a rural town and are greeted with hostility by some of the local residents. The film provokes important questions about being a newcomer in a small town, protecting a community's identity and traditions and the masks we wear to conceal our inner identity.

A discussion with Johnson will follow the film. Johnson is the senior producer of Pioneer Public Television’s award-winning Postcards program. The discussion will be led by Lauren Carlson, a Dawson, Minnesota-based writer and poet who recently has been awarded an emerging artist grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council.

Xenos was recently featured in the Portland Film Festival and was nominated for an Upper Midwest Emmy Award. The film was funded by an individual artist grant awarded to Johnson by Southwest Minnesota Arts Council. The project involved more than 30 artists, including the Prairie Lotus Traditional Hmong Dance Troupe from Walnut Grove. The entire film was shot over the course of two days in Appleton, Minnesota.

The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. The event is sponsored by Pioneer Public Television, the SMSU Theater Department and SMAC.

For more information, contact Nicole Zempel, Pioneer Public TV Community Relations representative at nzempel@pioneer.org or at (320) 212-3945.