Woods Hole Film Festival Dinner and a Movie

The Woods Hole Film Festival Dinner & A Movie series continues Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, with the feature documentary FOLKTALES by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, US, Norway, 106 mins., English and Norwegian.

In Norse mythology, the three “Norns” are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans’ futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. FOLKTALES tells the timely and emotional story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional “gap year” learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world.

Exhausted by loneliness, social anxiety, and all the crushing pressures felt by Gen Z, three teenagers make the daring decision to leave the comforts of home to enroll in a traditional “folk high school” in the wilds of northern Norway. Dropped in the arctic wilderness for one year, Hege, Romain, and Bjørn Tore must rely on themselves and a pack of loyal sled dogs as they take the daunting step from childhood to adulthood. Freed of technology, social media, and the noise of modern life, this brave trio learn to face themselves for the first time – and experience an unexpected, wondrous transformation. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them.

For nearly two centuries, Scandinavian folk high schools – some of which are rooted in the lessons of Norse mythology – have emphasized the power of nature, simplicity, and community to transform young lives. “We hope we can wake up your Stone Age brain,” Pasvik instructor Iselin tells her students. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Academy Award®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, WHFF alumni, are the co-directors of Jesus Camp (Academy Award nominee), The Boys of Baraka (Emmy nominee), 12th & Delaware (Peabody Award winner), DETROPIA (Emmy winner), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, One of Us, Love Fraud, and Endangered. They are the co-owners of Brooklyn-based production company Loki Films.

ABOUT DINNER & A MOVIE

Dinner & A Movie is a program of the Winter/Spring Film Series, twice-monthly in-person screenings of independent film from September 2025 through June 2026. The screenings will be held in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Redfield Auditorium, located at 45 Water Street, Woods Hole.  

The film begins at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $18, $12 for members and $10 student/military. Tickets are on sale in advance at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org and at the door if they are not sold out in advance.

Before the screening ticket holders may receive a discount on the meal portion of dinner at the Captain Kidd Restaurant and Bar, 77 Water Street, Woods Hole and Quahog Republic Leeside Pub, 29 Railroad Ave, Woods Hole. Ticket holders must make reservations directly with the restaurant.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025: A CHERRY PIE CHRISTMAS, a new holiday film by John Stimpson. Tickets, $20, $12 for members and $10 for students and military.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2025: VIVA VERDI, feature documentary by Yvonne Russo and Christine La Monte.

The Festival is supported in part by grants from the Woods Hole Foundation, the Falmouth Fund of the Cape Cod Foundation, the Cape Cod Foundation, the Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation and Cape Cod 5. The Festival is sponsored by Liam Maguire’s Irish Pub.

For more information email info@woodsholefilmfestival.org or call (508) 495-3456.