We recently connected with Dawn Mikkelson and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn, appreciate you joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

Historically I’ve worked with one to two other people to drive a film forward. Sometimes they were a co-director, sometimes they were an editor, sometimes they were the participants in the film. I’d periodically hire folks who had skills I didn’t, like sound mixing, etc, but largely I was on my own or with 1-2 other people in terms of making sure that this film was made and found it’s way into the world. This was particularly true when it came to the distribution of the film.

With FINDING HER BEAT, the film’s story is all about powerful women working in isolation, who come together to create something that none of them could have done on their own. We’ve called it a “gathering of the unicorns”. That is how I have come to see the experience of creating the film as well. We worked with the top female/nonbinary cinematographers, composer, sound editing team, and other who were empowered to do what they do best as a collaboration. This was particularly true for the core team of Keri Pickett (co-director/DP), Jennifer Weir (producer/participant), and Megan Chao Smith (associate producer/participant), a group we eventually started calling the “dream team”. Each of us brought a unique set of strengths to the table from the creative direction, Keri being more focused on the visuals and myself on the sound throughout the process, to the audience and partner engagement and outreach which Jennifer and Megan excelled in as seasoned producers of live-performance productions.

Besides creating an incredibly high-quality production together, that benefitted from ALL of our strengths, it also took the pressure off of me to be the one driving the film to completion alone, experiencing both the joy of successes and the sting of rejections (festivals, grants, etc) as a group and keeping our spirits up. I actually started enjoying getting rejections, due to the fun email banter that they inspired when I’d send them to the team. Not to say this film had a lot of rejection, as it has screened at over 40 festivals and won over a dozen awards to date and is still gaining momentum. This has EVERYTHING to do with the team behind it who were fiercely committed to the project and one another.

When we selected folks to work with in the distribution of the film, we only moved forward with folks who seemed to GET our film and who were genuinely excited about it. Growing our “dream team” with other dreamers.

So what did I learn? Although it can be fun for the ego to do it alone or with only a couple of unicorns, filmmaking is a team sport and is better played that way. It is more fun to share the process with a herd of unicorns who are equally committed to it’s outcome and passionate about the story. Moving forward, I am not interested in working solo, as the process itself is so much more rewarding when done as a herd. Not to mention that a better film will be created when you are working with the top creatives in each of their fields, who see this film as THEIR film too.

FINDING HER BEAT brought the joy of filmmaking back to me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been making documentary films and related content for over 20 years. My work reflects where I’m at in my own life. What themes I’m wrestling with. I’m largely drawn to the stories of other women. The ways in which we overcome the systemic barriers placed upon us, while also struggle with universal themes of belonging and finding our unique voices.

My most recent films, which premiered in the last year, are FINDING HER BEAT (co-directed with Keri Pickett) and MINNESOTA MEAN. Both films explore what it is to be powerful and vulnerable in two dramatically different worlds. FINDING HER BEAT features the stories of the top female taiko drummers in the world, as they come together for the first time to claim their place center stage in an art form that has shut them out of top performance positions due to gender. MINNESOTA MEAN follows the Minnesota Roller Derby All Star team through one season, as their players balance the pressures of being a top athlete as an individual and a member of a team, while also juggling the pressures women face today of family, career, identity, and aging.

These films are still touring the international festival circuit and will be available for streaming in 2024. FINDING HER BEAT just launched a North American theatrical tour.

Heading into the future, I’m still quite interested in following powerful women (in all the ways in which we define power) as they navigate the struggles we all face. As a mother of two young girls, ages 9 and 11, I love bringing new perspectives of what it means to be a woman to the big screen. The ways in which we are different and the ways in which we’re similar. Filling the screen with fully realized female role-models who are both inspiring and deeply human. These are the types of characters who were lacking in the media of my childhood and early adulthood. I’m currently developing docu-series with teams of respected collaborators in the world of roller derby and demolition derby.

I am also committed to helping other filmmakers, particularly from marginalized communities, tell their stories as a producer, editor, and consultant. I love authentic storytelling from within the community that the film explores and am committed to having the team behind the camera reflect the community in front of the camera. Toward that end, FINDING HER BEAT had a largely female/nonbinary, Asian, and/or queer production team, elevating both the authenticity of the storytelling AND the access to it’s participants.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

There is a myth that if you make a really great film and send it to festivals, your film will get distribution to top broadcast, theatrical, and other sectors and you will benefit financially. I’ve always been skeptical of this myth, but at the end of the day, I still had hope that dictated my decisions that was rooted in this myth.

My reality is that even when a film is largely “successful”, defined as tons of festival accolades, great reviews, enthusiastic audience members, it can still fail to receive ANY offers of distribution. This is even more the case in the current climate for documentary films. The majority of documentaries that premiered at Sundance this year did not receive distribution offers, even in the “golden age of documentaries” (which is another conversation for another day). The reality is that when you are building a film, you’re not just telling a story, you’re starting a movement. As part of that movement, you will be significantly involved in distributing your film. Even if you do receive a distribution deal, often the key marketing and audience building is expected to come from the filmmaker.

This lesson has changed how I decide what is next for me as a filmmaker. Do I believe there’s an audience for my story who, regardless of traditional festival and critical success, will show up to see my film? Is that enough for me? If so . . . I’m there! But I need to like a story and want to live in it’s world enough to not only see it through production, but also be there for it an equally long number of years as it goes out into the world.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think that filmmaking can really be a series of smoke and mirrors. Especially for those who are not in the industry. There’s a lot of “fake it ’til you make it” going on. Posting huge awards on social media and never talking about the difficulty behind it.

My spouse remarked last week that I do “CEO-level work with the income of a teenager”. He is not wrong. I think it’s important that we start becoming more honest about the sacrifices we make for this work. That is not to say that I don’t love the awards and screenings and all the fun things, but without being honest about the sacrifices, we can create a system where creatives think that they are doing poorly and that everyone else is somehow succeeding.

There is this perpetual carrot being dangled in front of us. If you just get in this festival, win this award, sell to this streaming service, etc . . . then your financial sacrifices will all come back to you. When the reality is that we are all struggling and there is absolutely no amount of personal sacrifice that will guarantee that will change. Even when you grab that carrot, there are new carrots and in the meantime you’ve worn yourself out, as well as potentially made personal sacrifices that you regret.

Knowing that you’re not the only one who is struggling to make a living, in fact most everyone in this industry is, takes a lot of pressure off and also helps one make meaningful decisions regarding sustainability.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emergencepictures.com
• Instagram: @emergencegrrl
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmikkelson/
• Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1380954/?ref_=tt_ov_dr