The Main Stream

Since he was 18 years old, Blake Eckard has written and directed six feature length films in his hometown of Stanberry, Missouri (population 1186). Aside from a short distribution deal in Canada and a few festival screenings, his movies have largely gone unseen.

As climate change erases the Louisiana coast, the last two teenagers on Isle de Jean Charles fight to stay on an island that's been in their family home for generations. Feature film continuation of a short of the same name.

Louisiana filmmaker, Pat Mire, teams up with veteran filmmaker and cinematographer, Charles Bush, to capture the natural drama of handfishing in this award-winning documentary. Highly visual, the film examines the thrilling regional phenomenon of Cajuns who wade in murky bayou waters to catch huge catfish and turtles by reaching into hollow logs and stumps with their bare hands. Friends and family accompany the handfisherman to the bayou banks for Cajun music, festive cooking, and storytelling, and to witness this increasingly rare tradition. Told from the inside with multiple voices, Mire and Bush explore the chain of events set off by man's attempt to "improve" his environment by dredging bayous in this remarkable study of the relationship between cultural and natural resources.

This award winning film is a fast paced, humorous look at the colorful way the residents of New Orleans express themselves - why they talk the way they do, where the words come from, and what it means to talk with a New Orleans accent.

In King Crawfish, we watch the Cajun spirit being poured out on a communal table even as the wild harvest is diminishing. At the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival we see everthing Cajuns value take to the stage: their language, music, food, and crawfish. As the film traces the thousands of pounds of crawfish served up at the festival to their natural habitat, the Atchafalaya Basin, fishermen from Catahoula tel stories of their fight to retain their way of life. It is an old story in Louisiana: the pople and land suffer from the exploitation of the oil companies. What is at stake is the loss of the most productive swamp in the world and the people's connection to that land.

25 years after the pro wrestler shocked the world when elected Governor of Minnesota, it's high time to explore the people, values and experiences that shaped him.

Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.

The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America chronicles for the first time the complete story of this great American symbol… from Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and St. Louis’ role in westward expansion; to the eventual construction of the largest stainless steel structure in history.

For over thirty years, three women have languished in Missouri State prison under unjust sentences for killing their abusive husbands. Denied the opportunity to enter the abuse into evidence, each of the women represents a system broken by outdated and media-sensationalized stereotypes. When a greater understanding of the "battered" syndrome change legal practices in 2000, Missouri's Governor crafts a new law demanding the parole board reevaluate each woman's case.

A retired teacher investigates the shadowy history of his rural Missouri community, including the origins of a looming structure known as the Rockpile.

Paul Wellstone was the charismatic Minnesota progressive who used grassroots organizing to get elected and give ordinary people a stake in government. His 3rd election campaign was cut short when his small plane crashed into the north woods of Minnesota just 11 days before the 2002 election. Wellstone! explores the origin of his politics, his controversial road to the United States Senate, his deep bond with his wife and 'co-senator' Sheila, and the legacy of a life of progressive populism.

High up in the Northern California mountains there is a place, where not too many get to visit. Its called - The Emerald Triangle, real mecca of Americas cannabis game. Follow a ukrainian journalist Luka on a journey that explores lifes of real growers and hustlers and the dangers that come with it.

The film "Hurricane on the Bayou" is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2007, 11 years after one of the most influential American punk bands, Jawbreaker, called it quits, the three members, Blake Schwarzenbach, Chris Bauermeister, and Adam Pfahler reconnect in a San Francisco recording studio to listen back to their albums, reminisce and even perform together one last time. Follow the band as they retell their "rags to riches to rags" story writhe with inner band turmoil, health issues, and the aftermath of signing to a major label. Featuring interviews with Billy Joe Armstrong, Steve Albini, Jessica Hopper, Graham Elliot, Chris Shifflet, Josh Caterer and more.

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

Simply the best chronicles a remarkable year for the world champion Minnesota Twins. This video captures the 1991 championship season in it’s entirety from spring training through game seven of the World Series.

When twenty-six-year-olds Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn quit their Hollywood jobs, packed up a borrowed car and hit the road, it was with the deeply felt conviction that somewhere, shrouded in the din of talk shows and tabloid headlines, they'd discover the real America, alive and well in all of its regions and demographics.

Errol Morris interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals: a lion tamer shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener devotes a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.

An inside look at Jessica Piper, a Democratic Candidate running for a House seat in District 1 of Missouri. This is a snapshot of her mind and what it feels like to run a campaign in an overlooked place.

Explore the boundless nature of creativity in Central Minnesota. From local galleries to hands-on workshops, see how Community Art Centers create a unique environment where everyone is invited to participate, create, and belong. This is the first installment of Lakeland PBS's "Up North Arts"