Northern Spotlight

04/06/2024

From Tom in our June newsletter:

This spring we launched our 10th set of stories, approximately four years after we launched the first issue. Since our start we’ve shared 38 different stories from nine different filmmakers and storytellers. We’ve highlighted individuals and groups from the Twin Cities, the Iron Range, rural Iowa, and more. We started with videos and have since launched podcasts and written articles.

It’s been fun to watch this website grow and to collaborate with such an amazing and thoughtful team. And most importantly it’s been an incredible experience meeting and sharing the stories of incredible people across the region who are working tirelessly to strengthen and lift up others around them.

I hope you enjoy these three new stories from our latest issue, including a touching portrait on Moe Kayongo and his goal to build a boxing gym in his hometown back in Uganda, an interview with Esther Brown about her journey from a Nepali refugee camp to Minnesota, and a behind-the-scenes look at a documentary about the most prolific bank robber in Minnesota. Plus, we’ve got 35 other great stories from our issues past. Enjoy.

Our Spring 2024 issues features two stories of people that came halfway around the world to Minnesota, working to make an impact at home in their local community as well as the home of their birth place. And we interview Mark Brown about his documentary "The Fishing Hat Bandit."

08/05/2024

Moe Kayongo left Uganda to chase his Olympic dreams. Now he coaches kids at Northside Boxing Gym in Minneapolis. See the full story at https://www.northernspotlight.com/spring-2024/kampala

30/04/2024

Back in Kampala, Uganda, boxing was a form of therapy for Moe Kayongo, but it soon turned into a chance for something greater. As a coach in North Minneapolis, Kayongo is working to inspire youth to see what boxing can do for them, as well as others back in his native Uganda.

Watch the story at northernspotlight.com

The first part in our story on Ugandan boxer and Moe Kayongo, recounting his past and his passion for coaching in North Minneapolis.

23/04/2024

For our second episode of “Voices of Roseville,” Amanda Becker sat down with Esther Brown to talk about her path from Bhutan to Roseville, Minnesota. Although born in Bhutan, Esther and her family are Lhotshampa — Bhutanese but of Nepali descent. Her family fled Bhutan when Esther was a child, and they lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 20 years before eventually immigrating to the U.S.

They talk about what “America” means to a kid living halfway across the world in a refugee camp, and how Esther feels we can instill the promise of this country into the next generation and in people all over the world.

In the second episode of our podcast series “Voices of Roseville,” Esther Brown discusses her journey from a Nepali refugee camp to Minnesota.

17/04/2024

John Whitrock was less than a year away from the end of his prison sentence. He was serving 15 years for robbing 23 banks across Minnesota, when he received a letter from a stranger about sharing his story in a documentary. “I was assuming it would just be a short documentary,” said filmmaker Mark Brown, recalling his first interview session with Whitrock several months after his release from prison.

Now, seven years later, The Fishing Hat Bandit is premiering at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, detailing not just Whitrock’s crime spree, but the damage it inflicted on the bank tellers and his journey to forgiveness.

Read our story with Mark Brown about his creative journey making his first feature-length documentary. And check out the premiere of "The Fishing Hat Bandit" this Friday at MSP Film Society in Minneapolis.

Filmmaker Mark Brown goes on a seven-year journey to share the story of Minnesota’s most prolific bank robber.

16/04/2024

Northern Spotlight’s 10th Issue is up now at northernspotlight.com!

Our Spring 2024 issue features two stories of people that traveled halfway around the world to Minnesota. Boxer Moe Kayongo left Uganda to pursue his olympic dream and now trains the next generation of boxers in North Minneapolis, while Amanda Becker sits down with Esther Brown to recount her journey from a refugee camp in Nepal to Roseville, MN. We also interview Mark Brown about his documentary "The Fishing Hat Bandit," and his seven-year creative journey to complete the movie.

Enjoy these stories and our first nine issues at northernspolight.com

Our Spring 2024 issues features two stories of people that came halfway around the world to Minnesota, working to make an impact at home in their local community as well as the home of their birth place. And we interview Mark Brown about his documentary "The Fishing Hat Bandit."