Submitted Photo Twenty-five filmmakers have signed a letter to Gov. Burgum raising concerns over the awarding of a $600,000 grant for in-state motion picture production. (Pixabay)

At the end of July, InDak Media, a Minot-based video production house, submitted a pitch for the Motion Picture Production and Recruitment Grant introduced during the last legislative session.

InDak’s owner Eric Thoemke and his creative partners aren’t new to independent filmmaking, having several productions under their belts, including a submission to the Sundance Film Festival. With $600,000 in grants up for grabs, Thoemke leapt at the chance to secure critical funding to bring their creative vision to reality, despite the 10-day window between the announcement and the deadline for submissions.

“More time is always great, but I’ve filled out a lot of grant applications. Compared to most, this one was easy. We really thought our pitch had legs,” Thoemke said.

While he agrees the 10-day window did them no favors, Thoemke said circumstances were such that getting a pitch together wasn’t an insurmountable task. InDak had already been gestating a project for a pilot episode of a gritty historical drama akin to Paramount’s “Yellowstone” that followed Native Americans in North Dakota before the arrival of homesteaders, a concept that was bolstered by a collaboration with the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

“With the support from MHA Tourism, we thought we could really make a splash. They were going to hook us up with bison and real cowboys,” Thoemke said. “When I got the email about the grant, it was last minute for sure. But for us, because we had been talking about it and developing it, the idea was already there. It was intended to be a pilot that we would sell. We were looking to hire top Native American acting talent from L.A. I stayed up late for six hours working on it to make sure I got it in.”

Other filmmakers in the state, including another Minot-based producer and podcaster Jonah Lantto of The Good Talk Network, were caught flat-footed by the announcement, which was dropped on a Friday at the end of July. Lantto said he had first heard about the grant on Aug. 22, but that by the time, the full process had been circulated and it wasn’t feasible to mount a campaign for a pair of documentary projects. In total, only four grant applications were submitted to the North Dakota Department of Commerce, including InDak’s.

The only guidance for the application process that was given by the Commerce Department was that respondents send an email detailing the applicant, amount of funding requested, the intended uses for the funds requested, examples of previous or similar films and the production’s desired outcomes.

Fourteen days after the grant’s announcement, the Commerce Department revealed the $600,000 had been awarded to Canticle Productions from Bismarck, the producers of independent neo-Westerns that include “Sanctified” and “End of the Rope.” Canticle had previously been awarded a grant of $100,000 by the Commerce Department in 2021, which was used to fund the production of “End of the Rope.”

Criticism has been levied at the Commerce Department in the aftermath of the announcement, with 25 North Dakota-based video producers and production companies signing an open letter to Gov. Doug Burgum regarding the fairness and transparency behind the process. Lantto was among the signatories who felt the $600,000 was a substantial sum to dole out to a singular entity, especially after what he calls a rushed application phase that was rife with communication issues.

“For budding studios with big ideas, funding is everything, and we can make a little bit go a long way. Isn’t diversification one of the major rules of wise investment? Of course it is, so if the idea is to fund creators who will make content that leads to awareness for North Dakota, then there is no doubt in my mind small awards to more companies accomplishes that goal more efficiently than dumping all the money into a single organization,” Lantto said. “At that point you’re not only limiting the potential of the funding, you’re limiting the potential for more ideas that reach more people.”

No grant applicants were signatories to the letter. However, Thoemke echoed some of the Lantto’s desires for additional competition and clarity, saying some necessary changes to the process would better cultivate filmmaking in North Dakota.

“I’m curious why they didn’t award more projects with less money. I also would’ve liked to have seen another round to further pitch the production and provide art and other stuff and really sell the idea. If we had gotten the money, we would’ve been ready to go,” Thoemke said.

As explained by Kim Schmidt, communications manager for Commerce, the department determined the Legislature intended for the grant to be awarded to a single company. Schmidt also pushed back against allegations from detractors who claim it had been subtly hinted in committee testimony that the grant had been earmarked for Canticle, saying the legislative intent was always for there to be a competitive application process.

“Commerce works hard to fund the best projects to benefit the state of North Dakota while adhering to the intent of the Legislature,” Schmidt said.

A committee of three members of the department’s staff reviewed and scored the applications on a variety of factors, from the quality of the storylines, the productions’ desired outcomes and the applicant’s history of making impactful films. The open letter sent to the governor includes a statement alleging Canticle’s submission failed to meet requirements typical in such film grants, such as company addresses, and detailed accounting for the projects budget, production timeline, cast and crew information and a sample of the script.

Another concern raised by one of the signatories, Matt Fern, was the lack of clarity over what kinds of pitches the grant was seeking. Thoemke and InDak had scrambled to prepare their pitch for their Native American-focused television/streaming pilot, as had C Three Media for its modest request for $75,000 to produce a 10-minute documentary short related to agriculture or aviation — neither of which is destined for the silver screen. Of the four furnished applications, only one was proposing a feature film production, that being Canticle’s.

Sara Coleman from the Commerce Department responded to a request for clarification by citing the news release from July. She didn’t further define what preferred medium the “impactful motion pictures” being sought were intended for but responded that none of the applicants were disqualified based on their chosen format or medium.

Canticle Production’s winning pitch was for a pair of historical dramas focused on heroines who have left indelible marks on the North Dakota cultural fabric. The first film, “Hazel,” would tell the tragic true story of Hazel Miner, the Center farm girl who perished while saving her younger siblings during the great blizzard of 1920. The second, “Medora, Empress of the Badlands,” would tell the true love story between Marquis de Mores and his wife Medora, leading presumably to the founding of the town that currently bears her name.

Canticle Productions launched a crowdfunding campaign for the two films on Friday morning, seeking $10,000 to aid in the production of its two films. The campaign makes no mention of the recently awarded grant. Calls and emails were sent to Canticle Productions founder Daniel Bielinski, but he did not respond as of Friday.