The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival is running now through April 27. It's the 42nd annual, and it is back: it's screenings, documentaries, feature films, shorts, panels. I know some are available to stream, but really it's back and it's in person in a number of locations.

I looked at the list for the Minneapolis International St. Paul Film Festival, and a number of titles caught my attention. But when my eye landed on Cue the Strings - a film about Low, I wanted to know more about it, and so we reached out to Minnesota filmmaker and director Philip Harder. He's made a number of music videos, and has had a lot of work in the commercial world. But he also made music videos and short films with Low, and he was there from the beginning and throughout Low's 29-year career.

I invited Phillip Harder to chat with me here on The Current. Here’s our conversation.

Interview Transcript

Edited for time and clarity.

Jill Riley: Hello, Philip. 

Phil Harder: Hello. 

Jill Riley: Hi. Well, thank you so much for for joining. And it's Cue the Strings - a film about Low. I was able to check out a preview of the film before it screens this weekend as part of the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival. So before we get into, you know, talking about the music videos and the film and the visuals and your relationship with Low, how did you become a fan? What was your entry point to to becoming part of that world?

Phil Harder: Well, in 1993, this was the height of the grunge craze, Nirvana, indie music. And I got a call from the record label, Vernon Yard, who was putting out a new album by a new band from Duluth. And they sent me the track for "Words," it's the only track I received. And they said, "You live in Minneapolis, you make indie music videos, maybe you should go up to Duluth and do something with these guys." And it turns out there was a woman in the band too. I mean, I didn't know much about them, except for I had one song. And I got this music and I was like, "Wow, this is really different." At the height of the loudest music possible, they came out with the quietest, slowest music possible. It really grew on me. It still had that vibe; there's power in it.

I went up to Duluth, met them in a record store. They were sort of shoe gazing. I remember Alan didn't quite look at me; I think he was really super shy, I'm not sure. Quiet like their music. And I'm like, "Well, so what should we do?" I was about 10 years into my career at the time. And they said, "Well, you know, maybe we should just go get a boat and push it around on frozen Lake Superior." I'm like, "Wow, that sounds cool. OK." And it was literally 30 below zero windchill, and I had a camera, 16 millimeter, of course — that was the thing. And so we went out on this lake. My camera was freezing up, the batteries were dying. I loaded the film wrong with cold fingers, one of the two reels, scratched the emulsion off it. Dust came out of the camera. It was just the worst disaster Alan slipped and fell. He got a concussion. The wind was blowing this boat around. It was maddening.

And when I got this film back, back in Minneapolis and we're doing a telecine with Lynn Worley, I looked at the footage and it was completely white. Everything went wrong with this footage. I overexposed it, it was a really weird film stock I was using. And then she dialed it in, and this beautiful, crazy, grainy thing came into view. And I'm like, "I've never seen anything like this." You put that to Low's music, and I felt like we accidentally stumbled into something new. Then the band came to Minneapolis, we shot them, so I kept the vibe going with really long dolly takes. They were kind of nervous with this big camera right next to their nose and stuff, but they did great. That was the first music video for Low. It's the most special music video I've ever done.

And it really, for me, it became a very important part of my filmmaking career because it turned me from DIY, quick edit, you know, in-your-face band to this, wow, there's something in cinema that has more depth. And I've always been attracted to Low's music for that. I felt like with Low's music, you could shoot trash blowing down the street and it would look cinematic. I did three videos right in a row: 94, 95, 96. Twenty-nine years later, we shot their last show, in September. I didn't know it was the last show. No one did. That's what this whole movie is: before their first record till their last show.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Minnesota filmmaker and director Philip Harder. And we're talking about this film Cue the Strings - a film about Low. Philip, when you mention that there was kind of like a theme starting, when I watched the film, I was kind of blown away at the fact that this story arc was starting to reveal itself as the videos sort of progress. It really started to feel like there was this evolution starting, and I thought, "How do you do that if you don't have the plan from the beginning?"

Phil Harder:  Well, the film, you watch the band grow older. They start — what are they? — like, 23 years old? You listen to their music get louder and louder, more aggressive. I tried to follow suit with the visual themes. I think we started to realize there might be more to this around 2002, when we did "Canada"; I started to put some of the themes back in. The second video, I met a man, I thought he was from Germany, he turned out to be just right here from Minneapolis, Baron von Raschke. I said to the band, "Hey, this guy, he'll play the role of the sad man handing out balloons in the music video. His name is Baron von Raschke." And they went, "Oh my God, yes! That's awesome!"

And for the movie version of it, we found a take of Mimi that she sang the whole song in this one, slow-motion take. And that was the first thing we did for the movie, when we found that take, we thought, there's more to this; we could undo music videos and present them differently. And that's kind of part of the experiment of Low, I think it's an experiment and minimalism; you know, their record covers, their sound, they just stuck to it all those years. And I think that was the inspiration moving forward: keep it minimal, keep within the Low vibe. Textures are very important. I keep mentioning 16 millimeter, the grain and everything. That's part of their texture too, you know? Analog, the way they made sounds, all the way to their last two records, where they just went into an insane Grammy-nominated production on those. When I first got the last record, I put it on the record player and I thought, "Something's wrong with my needle. I don't know what's going on here." I love that experimentation that they've done. 

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Director Philip harder, who for 29 years, working and collaborating and being creative on the visual side of Low and their music, and Philip, how much of the visual concept would you say was you? How much of the visual concept would you say was the band? You know how much input and collaboration was going back and forth?

Phil Harder:  It's pretty equal. The first video, that was Alan, or maybe the band's idea. I didn't have that idea. I thought it was fantastic. The second video with the balloons was my idea. Sometimes we mix ideas, sometimes there's co-directing credits. I think Alan said for "Canada," he goes, he wanted to do this thing like a clown car, like all this stuff comes out of the van as they're stopped at the border: drums, guitars, bass, and then more and more and more impossibility of coming out of this van. It's kind of cute. I liked that idea. Whoever has the best idea, that's what we shot

Jill Riley: Not only did you work creatively with the band, but in 29 years, you had to have developed a very close friendship and relationship. And I'm glad that you mentioned you know, the humor of that that video "Canada" because just based on the music, or the presentation, something that could be maybe assumed about Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker is that they took things too seriously, when in fact, you get to know them, and we worked with them a number of years here at The Current, but those little moments of humor would start to come out, and I found them both to be very, very funny people.

Phil Harder:  Oh yeah, Mimi would always laugh. We'd see her after show or whatever, and a lot of people know this, she didn't want to talk about the music. She wanted to talk about things like traveling and family and kids and food, and she would laugh all the time. And she was just so warm and welcoming, and she just made you feel at home when you spoke with her.

Jill Riley: We're talking about the movie Cue the Strings - a film about Low. I'm with Minnesota filmmaker and director Philip Harder. The film concludes with a  performance and footage from the final Low show, which was in Duluth at Bayfront Festival Park, that Water is Life festival. People didn't know that this was the final show. But I found that when I was watching the film, for it to start this, you know, frozen Lake Superior setting, and then to conclude right on the shore of Lake Superior, I just found it to be this really beautiful, like almost bringing it into this full-circle conclusion to this documenting of a band. 

Phil Harder:  It was an amazing show, and they're doing it for great cause with Winona LaDuke and Honor the Earth — that's Low, you know? Contributing for something they feel is important, and Mimi had to have been pretty brave to play that show. You know, that was a full set, full on. I don't know how she did it, but it was an amazing performance.

Jill Riley: Twenty-nine years to be someone helping a band create the visual side, because that's such a big part of music, as we hear it, but then to have something to see. Sometimes the music video, it's like, "Well wait — what does this have to do with the song?" And I wonder if there were any moments there where it's like the visuals, you know, maybe they're telling a different story.

Phil Harder:  Low's music is very abstract. Everyone who listens to that takes different meanings from those lyrics. And when we first started doing music videos, I did some stuff with Babes in Toyland, Soul Asylum, Magnolias, very cool bands in town. Some of those early videos were very literal. I quickly learned you don't need to do that. People will put their own meaning to it. If you force-feed them with a concept, it's kind of boring. I've read so many comments about Low's music; someone says, "Oh, this reminds me of driving across country"; someone else was, "This is when my grandfather died." "Oh, this was when I lost my girlfriend." Everyone has a different meaning. I would hope the visuals could do that.

People know Low's music videos, but we barely have shown those in their entirety. I want to make it clear that the movie is very different than the music videos. There's some of those in there, of course, but we also uncovered a lot of rare takes, outtakes, we recut things. And there's a lot of material we didn't release. Around The Great Destroyer time, 2005, we did an extra video, it was kind of a iPod take on Iraq — little I, big R — iRaq, with the black silhouettes on colors with white wires. It's a very aggressive video commenting on the disaster of the Iraq War at the time. Low just wanted to turn up, you know, they weren't political at all before that. Alan told me on this one drive, "It's time. You know, we have to say something." And so we created this video, we were deep into production, just a side video for no money. And I got hired to do iPod commercials. So I said, "Let's bury that Low video." That was it. I just said, "It can't come out, we can never show it." And it wasn't even quite finished. Well now, you know, it's time, we can release that again. And I'm so glad we did, because it is radical! I just love it! You know, unseen by anyone. And there's a lot of that in this movie.

Jill Riley: There are some really beautiful moments captured over the years. I think of of Mimi Parker and the way she was captured on film, that it's almost like you can kind of just see her spirit coming out. And I imagine that anybody attending this screening, that it will be just a really beautiful kind of emotional experience. 

Phil Harder:  Yeah, Alan, when we discussed making a film, he thought it was important to do this now, not a year from now, not two years from now. And I think it's going to be incredibly emotional, uncovering clips that take on new meaning today. Some of these images that just, I didn't think about it 1996, whatever, but now it looks so different. And he said, yeah, her lyrics have taken on new meaning for him.

Jill Riley: I'm glad that you noted that, that there is a lot of footage that people haven't seen before. And you'll be able to see it if you attend to the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival. It is running now through the 27th, and it's this weekend, there are two screenings: Friday, April 21; Saturday, April 22; and I do want to note that Saturday afternoon, my friend and former longtime Current host, now columnist for The Dispatch, Mary Lucia, she's going to have a talk with director Phillip Harder, and Alan Sparhawk is going to be there as well. And I think that's going to be, I think, a really special conversation. 

Phil Harder:  So Alan and I are also doing a panel discussion at two o'clock on Saturday. And we're going to be discussing music for film, because not only did we do these Low music videos and short films together, we've also done feature work together. Low did original music for my 2020 film Tuscaloosa. I think that's going to be a fascinating panel, where we discuss the makings of music for film, which this is all about.

Jill Riley: Thank you for taking the time to talk about this movie, Cue the Strings - a film about Low, and for giving us some insight and sharing, you know, what it was like for that 29 years to have this great artistic and creative collaboration. I'm with Minnesota filmmaker and director Philip Harder. We're going to go out here with some music from Low. Again, this film is screening this weekend, Cue the Strings - a film about Low, as part of the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival. And you can find more information, just check out the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival page. You are listening to The Current. Philip, I thank you for your time.

Phil Harder:  Thank you.

Credits

Guest - Philip Harder
Host - Jill Riley
Producer - Rachel Frances
Digital Producer - Luke Taylor

External Links

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival - official site

Phil Harder - official site