This expedition was successfully completed. You can learn more about it below and check out this student-created film.
Dates: August 10-31, 2023
Location: Ely, Minnesota
Enrollment: 12 participants
Cost: $6,000
Meet Your Mentors
Cirina Catania
Cirina is CEO of Catania Studios, an international filmmaking company, one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival, and former Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists.
Cirina is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, IATSE Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer’s Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery.
Ben Thwaits
Ben is founder and director of Blue Fractal. Prior to this new adventure, he worked as a photographer, nonprofit executive, and founder/director of the In a New Light therapeutic nature photography program. There, he guided hundreds of young people on high-adventure therapeutic nature photography expeditions around the US and abroad. He has also guided expeditions for college-age students to Costa Rica, the Caribbean, and Central America. To date, Ben’s students’ award-winning photos have been featured in over 60 exhibitions around the US, as well as on national TV, film, books, a TED talk, and other media.
Who is this expedition designed for?
This is for creatively-oriented people from all backgrounds and expertise seeking either to take their creative work to the next level, define and refine their creative voice, and/or reinvent and recalibrate their creative/life paths. While filmmaking and photography are the media we will use to teach universal principles, a background in film or photography is not required.
Expedition Objectives:
Create documentary films and photographs that evoke deep meaning and emotion, and reveal important stories that will be shared with the world.
Identify and understand your unique and valuable voice, and learn how to infuse your work with your voice.
Through intensive individual and group mentorship sessions, achieve new clarity on your life’s journey, with a focus on specific career directions.
Gain insight into your strengths and weaknesses, your unique skills and blind spots. Learn how to leverage your strengths and weaknesses—both technical and emotional—to your advantage.
Why Wilderness?
Couldn’t we just do this thing at a nice hotel somewhere a little more civilized? Sure we could. But it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. A deep creative dive is practically spiritual, but you already know that. That’s why you’re drawn to creative pursuits. For the sake of maximum clarity, maximum focus, and maximum group bonding, removing the distractions of the outside world is necessary. But it’s also deeper than that. Our creative vision becomes slowly and silently boxed in by the world we see around us every day. As the months and years pass in our familiar worlds, the tethers gradually and imperceptibly tighten. The most effective way to burst out of our tethers is to create a whole new world for ourselves. We like to call this “therapeutic disorientation.” The location of this course is indeed a new world of dramatic beauty, dramatic simplicity, and the dramatic truth that radiates from all things truly wild.
Location:
Your home in storytellers’ paradise, The Low Lake Wilderness Field Station
Have you ever lived on a true wilderness lake with few traces of human impact other than your own footprints? The Wilderness Field Station is one such rare and magical place. Normally used by colleges for biological research and teaching, we will be taking over the entire field station as our home base for storytelling.
The station is located on Low Lake, near end of a small gravel road about a 15 minute drive outside of Ely, MN. Ely is nationally known as the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of the most spectacular and important wilderness tracts in the U.S. Home to some of our greatest adventurers like photographer Jim Brandenburg and polar explorer Will Steger, Ely is the ultimate human-wilderness interface.
While the Wilderness Field Station is our home base, we will travel throughout the region, following the characters and wild places that fuel our films and photos.
Accommodations and Food
Rustic yet comfortable, the Wilderness Field Station is designed for nature to be the predominant force on campus. Normally housing up to 40 students, our small group will have the entire facility to ourselves. Participants will have their own bedrooms, spread out among small cabins and a dormitory. Please bring your own bedding. The facility has running water, electricity, and laundry. You can bathe with a bucket shower in a glorious sauna. Or, if you want, you can just jump in the lake whenever you want. Large classroom facilities will give us plenty of space for creative work. The facility does not have wifi, but there is decent cell phone coverage. Those living at the facility typically hotspot their phones for computer internet use.
All meals are included in the expedition fee. Our very own cook will live on-site to provide delicious, healthy, and filling home-cooked meals and snacks with special attention to any dietary restrictions or preferences you may have. Do you want to take your turn in the kitchen to show off your favorite dish? Go for it!
What’s included?
Besides food and housing, we will provide the following:
-Travel to and from Duluth, MN. We can pick you up from the Duluth airport and bring you back there. If you’d prefer to drive you own car to Ely, that is okay, but be aware that the road to the field station is rugged in places. Directions will be provided.
-Individual mentorship sessions with Cirina and Ben. This is where we dig into the specifics of navigating your creative and life path. There’s no set limit to the number of sessions you will have.
-Guest speakers. The Ely area is full of people who have taken big risks to live unique, creative, and inspiring lives. We want you to meet them.
-Film and photo equipment is provided. However, if you have your own camera that you want to bring and use, that is perfectly okay.
-Transportation during the expedition. We will use a 15-passenger van for group day trips.
-Recreation equipment: Our group will have everything we need to explore our surroundings by canoe. Do you have your own canoe or kayak you’d like to bring? Sure! We’ll also have a handful of fishing rods, binoculars, and other items to enjoy the spectacular wilderness out our back door. Feel free to bring your own recreation equipment as well, such as mountain bikes or stand-up paddle boards.
Sample Daily Itinerary
8:00 breakfast / group morning reflection / discuss plans for the day
9:00 Film/photography lesson of the day
10:00 Individual or group project work
12:00 lunch
1:00 Group filmmaking excursion
4:00 free time / independent work time / individual mentorship sessions with Cirina and Ben
5:30 dinner
6:30 free time / independent work time / guest speaker
8:30 evening group reflection / campfire