Documentary film by Gus Ganley explores the Mississippi River
A free screening of the documentary is open to everyone at 7:30 pm on Friday, October 25th. This screening is sponsored by Viking Library System and the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and it is funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.
Twilight of the Mississippi is a haunting look into the troubled environment and psyche of the American Heartland. It follows the quixotic journey of the Unseen Ghost Brigade, a theater-troupe that built a raft and traveled down the Mississippi River in 2010. The story plunges into the marginalized communities of America, a dense-patchwork of endangered worlds, with the river cutting through the middle of them all. Winona LaDuke, the National Park Service, industrial farmers, fishermen, spiritualists, anarchists, river rats, a black shaman, and the Army Corps of Engineers: here are the stories, the secrets, and the dark comedy of America’s River.
In 2010 a traveling theatre troupe, the Unseen Ghost Brigade, built a raft and journeyed down the Mississippi River touring a circus-influenced street-theatre show, Death on the Mississippi and the Adventures of the Unseen Ghost Brigade. The play was inspired by the culture, politics, and history of communities living along the banks of the Mississippi River. Exploring the margins of society, Death on the Mississippi and the Adventures of the Unseen Ghost Brigade took audiences from the brothels of New Orleans to the backwoods of Tennessee, revealing the truths and realities of life in marginalized communities living along the Mississippi River. Throughout Unseen Ghost Brigade’s tour of Mississippi communities the audiences they performed for had their own tales to tell of the Great River. Interviews with politicians, activists, spiritualists, river rats, farmers, Army Corps of Engineers and more culminated in more than 900 hours of video footage which has become Twilight of the Mississippi, a 90-minute documentary of the theatre troupe’s 5 month journey.
