Nearly 60 participants joined Bridge and Loukinen for a discussion of the documentary.
In “Pelkie,” three generations of current and former residents weave attachments to people, places and events into a portrait that blends community and ethnic identity in a small town of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula called Pelkie. Much has changed in the idyllic dairy farming community, and although traces of Finnish ancestry remain, Pelkie is now a more ethnically diverse community.
During the event, Loukinen discussed the film’s development, how it is similar and different from his other documentary films, his Finnish heritage and experiences as a boy on a Finnish-American farm in the Upper Peninsula, how the natural resources of the Upper Peninsula influenced the lives of those in Pelkie and nearby communities in the time of the logging and copper mining boom, current life in Pelkie and much more.
Watch the video here:
