Earlier this October, the stage was set in the arts district of Duluth for Catalyst Story Institute & Content Festival-- an annual, five-day event dedicated to showcasing dozens of artists’ content on the big screen.

A few of Duluth’s theaters and venues participated in the festival; including the Zeitgeist Teatro and Zinema, the Kitchi Gammi Club, Blackwater Lounge and Fitger’s Spirit of the North, where creators and writers shared their stories and ideas through a series of planned events. 

Viewers could watch a wide array of shows, including content showings, scripts and table reads, panels, workshops and even an event called “Pitchworld,” where creators and writers shared their pitches and story ideas to the audience.

I had the privilege of attending the final day of the festival at the Zeitgeist Teatro and Zinema, which by the way, had some of the best tasting popcorn I’ve had in my life. Even if you don’t want to go watch a whole movie there, I’d recommend you just go there for a popcorn lunch. 

I managed to watch a handful of content when I visited, so I think it’s only appropriate that I give my reviews. Though I’m no film critic (I spend most of my time rewatching X-Men movies), I’ll do my best to give these creators the props they are due, as well as giving some critique. That being said, let’s get into the reviews!

The Content

The content screenings were formatted in a way where certain genres were played in blocks at a time, and I caught a 12:30 showing of three web series in the comedy genre; How Do You Jew?, My Film School and Theater People: Their Town. 

How Do You Jew? 

Dir. Mason Rosenthal and Paul Kruse

How Do You Jew? is a web series following Geoffrey Giraffe Jr. (a.k.a. A divorcee in a giraffe costume), joined by his co-host, Mr. Potatohead, running a local television show for educating young Jewish boys about their heritage. The humor was crude, sometimes a little shocking to the audience, but was focused enough where everyone could understand and laugh at the jokes.

The concept in itself was also quite ridiculous— a recently divorced guy in a giraffe costume, living in a warehouse of a failed toy company, hosting a shoddily made Jewish history show with a potato doll. Out of the three showings that day, this was by far my favorite, and based on the reactions of the crowd, most of the audience enjoyed it too.

Now, like the rest of the content that was in this showing, How Do You Jew? Was shown to the audience in two episodes of a web series. According to the creators, the show spans over an entire arc and features many more episodes, so my critique is focused on the two pilot episodes I watched, and not the whole series.

First off, comedy is one of the hardest genres to get right! You’re aiming for the audience to give a physical reaction continually throughout the film/show. If the audience stops laughing for too long, they will consider the show to be boring. But, for a small-time web series, the creators did pretty well! I was actively excited to watch what happened in the coming minutes.

The only critique I have would be the cinematography; many shots were framed a little too close to the characters, cutting off the tops of heads sometimes. It was a little distracting at times, but it was a very easy thing to get over. After all, Vines weren’t cinematic masterpieces, yet we still laughed at them in 2015.

Overall rating: ★★★☆☆

My Film School

Dir. Tolu Awobiyi

My Film School follows a young man living in Lagos who has been inspired by American action movies from a young age. Now grown up, he aspires to be a filmmaker. In a third-person monologue, he tells us of his one-room film school, filled with all sorts of characters with different jobs behind and on the camera. Unlike the previous web series, the audience was shown only the pilot episode of My Film School.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I thought the concept for this web series was interesting enough! It had potential, and it was a basic enough concept to build plenty of jokes and plenty of drama-ensuing subplots between its large cast of characters.

However, that highlights one of the many problems with My Film School. First, the audience was introduced to way too many characters in way too short of a time frame. The camera would freeze on a character and in less than five seconds give us their name, role in the film school and what “stereotype” they were. With about 10 characters all squished in one room, it was information overload. The first introduction was funny enough— the narrator described the character as just plain stupid and it got a laugh out of me. However, after that, the introduction concept got a bit old.

Another big problem was the audio, so much so that I checked out for minutes at a time just because the only thing my brain could register was the visuals. It was very difficult to understand the dialogue from the actors, as the microphones would clip, be too quiet, or in some parts, be way too loud. Even so, from what I could understand raises another problem.

Much of the comedy in this web series episode was at the expense of women’s bodies, which, try as you might, is a comedy cliche that died in the 2000s and will stay dead. Sorry to anyone who didn’t want to hear that. 

Too many bits of the episode featured the male-dominated film school gazing at their lead actress’ body as she left the room, sat down, or did literally anything. And of course, as the cliche goes, the woman didn’t resist or even notice any of it. 

Aside from its comedy, the plot was very difficult to follow as well, making this a pretty incohesive first episode. My Film School’s concept was interesting enough, but it was disappointing that its first on-screen execution didn’t live up to its full potential.

Overall rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Theater People: Their Town

Dir. Matthew G. Anderson

Theater People is an anthology series following “the drama behind the drama.” The web series covers an array of theater cultures in the run of their multi-season series, with each season representing a different theater environment. Their newest season, Their Town, follows a group of theatermakers trying to show the experiments of theater in a small, conservative midwest town. Already, the concept is interesting and entertaining already, so I went into the show a bit more optimistic than the last web series.

My only critiques—and I feel as though this was inevitable— is the overly Millennial humor. Now, I’m not saying that every piece of media needs to be catered to me (I can still laugh at like 5% of Modern Family’s jokes if I really try), but I do feel that even to Millennials, the jokes wouldn’t fly.

For example, there’s this scene where this girl is protesting by herself, yelling about how their local theatre should have a gender-neutral bathroom and the punchline is that the theatre only has one bathroom anyways. It’s kind of funny, sure, but the joke is strewn on for way too long, and the protest chants they gave the girl to say got annoying after her repeating herself 10 times.

However, that’s a cherry pick! I do really see a lot of potential in this season, and I’m looking forward to checking out Theater People’s previously filmed series online.

Overall rating: ★★★☆☆

That’s a wrap on the review for just a few of Catalyst’s web series that were on display. If you would like to check out the series I listed here or any of the other films and series shown at Catalyst, feel free to visit Catalyt's site and take a look. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in low-budget (or no budget!) films localized right here in the city of Duluth go check out Catalyst Content Festival next year!