One cold January in North Dakota, while traveling for his birthday, Eric Clermont Player received word that a coveted film festival had announced its slate, a good week ahead of the published contact schedule, and that he was not on the list.  In fact, not many projects local to the area of the festival were chosen.  This got him thinking:

 

In 1995, the first Slamdance Film Festival was held by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were rejected by Sundance and were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work.  In this spirit, he launched the "Hello From Fargo Film Festival" in April of 2022.  The event is held in Fargo, and specifically open to films and media made by local artists.  Narrative? Doc? Commercial? Industrial? If it is a visual work, and was made in or about the Dakotas or Minnesota, or by filmmakers with a strong connection to those areas, it qualifies for consideration.