One morning in early 2007, just after NoDak Films became a trade name and I dedicated myself to the task of NoDak Films, my 11-month-old daughter wore her NoDak Films sweater jacket. My 2-and-a-half year old son pointed to the logo on the back and asked my wife “What’s that”? She told him and he said, “I have NoDak Films too.”

All day I thought about what my son said in conjunction with an email I received from a young man a few days prior. The young man from North Dakota called NoDak Films and my artistic integrity, “another folksy attempt at culture.” The young man questioned integrity and my son confirmed integrity, but not in the conventional way one perceives an artist.

I am not a “starving artist.” I left a career in education and a steady salary to pursue NoDak Films. The young man told me to make my films and ask questions later. My son told me, indirectly, that art takes time, patience and lots and lots of questions.

I spent over two years writing Last Summer For Boys while working as a High School English Teacher and then Program Coordinator at an educational non-profit, and in that time I asked himself a lot of questions and wrote and re-wrote the script…but I wanted more. I wanted the artistic value of my screenplay on screen the way I envisioned it and that vision was a North Dakota vision. Every shot and every shooting location from Plaza to Minot to Fargo and all the specific locations therein; all the characters and all the people I want to involve, who are everyday North Dakotans and North Dakota business owners and North Dakota towns, musicians, actors, crew, industry sectors, resources and topics.

While writing Last Summer For Boys, two more screenplays began to surface about other North Dakota topics. I realized that my stories are North Dakota stories and they should begin from North Dakota, both creatively and from a business standpoint. Also, NoDak Films should be understood through genuinely enthused words and those words need to be told:

I have NoDak Films too

As Theodore Roosevelt once said of North Dakota,

“It was here that the romance of my life began."

Sincerely,

Nathan Anderson, Founder & Owner