Nik Nerburn

A film about the legacy of the Fergus Falls State Hospital, alternately known as the Third Minnesota State Hospital for the Insane or, simply, the Kirkbride building. Built in 1890 under the design pl…an of Thomas Story Kirkbride, who emphasized the 'moral treatment' of the mentally ill, the hospital employed hundreds of workers and held 2,000 patients at its peak. The hospital was entirely self-sufficient, with its own farm, dairy, wood shop and orchestra. It served Fergus Falls for 117 years before finally closing in 2007, long after the other large state hospitals underwent de-institutionalization. The building now sits empty on the edge of town, the community cleft between redevelopment and demolition. I made this film while living in a building on the old hospital grounds, talking to people about the legacy this building still has in their small farming community. Completed as part of the Hinge Arts residency for Springboard For The Arts. The title comes from a patient, who is quoted by my friend Michele Anderson in her thesis, titled "Imaginative Fields". "While the building was tucked away and easy to miss if you weren't looking for it, the impact on everyday life in the community, even today as it sits empty, cannot be ignored. Former hospital workers still gather annually to remember their lives in this self-sustaining community, which had its own auto shop, beauty salon, underground tunnels, and parades. A patient-staff orchestra named the Happy Ramblers led weekly outdoor dances on the tennis court, performing on instruments donated by people in the community. Many former nurses have expressed to me how important the arts were to the patients. One remembers a regular saying of one of her patients: "I'm going to kill myself...but first I'm going to dance!" This patient would dance his heart out and drench his shirts in sweat - possibly the most important therapy he needed to get through each week."MORE

The Grand Terrace Photo League was a collaborative eight-week photo ethnography of the Grand Terrace apartment complex in Worthington, Minnesota, made in collaboration with building residents, Lloyd B…uilding Management, the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, and me, documentary storyteller Nik Nerburn.   MORE

In The Shadow of Paul Bunyan tells the story of how the famous lumberjack and his big blue ox became the de-facto protagonists in Minnesota's creation story. At the same time, it spans the unresol…ved histories of conquest and conflict that exist in Paul Bunyan's shadow. This is the hidden part of Paul Bunyan – the stories of the labor strife and indigenous displacement that are hidden within the reassuring myth of the jolly logger. Filmmaker Nik Nerburn criss-crosses both the real and imagined landscapes of these folkloric fugitives, from their humble origins as a joke bandied around lumbercamps and their lives as enduring advertising icons all the way to their mythic roadside entombment in fiberglass. In the Shadow of Paul Bunyan is a deeply personal expedition into the hidden corners of the land we call Minnesota.MORE