A master of Japanese drumming and a Korean adoptee from Minnesota boldly convene an all-female troupe to perform Taiko, the Japanese drumming art that has been off-limits to women for centuries. As the early menace of Covid rumbles in the background, the group faces down hurdles to prepare for a historic performance in snowy St. Paul. Buoyed by dynamic drum performances and do-or-die spirit, Finding Her Beat is an energizing and uplifting story of music, cultural expression and sisterhood.

Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Dawn Mikkelson and Writer/Director Keri Pickett

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

DAWN: Jennifer Weir, the principal participant and producer, has been a friend of mine for over 20 years. We have admired one another's work for years. One day she asked me to lunch and we were sharing our experiences as women who work in male-dominated arts, while juggling parenthood. She shared her vision for a concert bringing the best female and nonbinary taiko players from around the world together to play for the first time and asked me if I could film the concert. I was immediately inspired by her vision and said, "Jen, this is a film." She agreed and this began our journey together. I brought Keri Pickett, a fellow filmmaker whose work I've always admired, onboard as DP and Co-Director and together we envisioned a crew that reflected the women in front of the camera. So the majority of our crew is female/nonbinary, Asian, queer, or a combination of these identities.

KERI: Women hold up half the sky and yet women remain marginalized in front of the camera and behind the camera, and Finding Her Beat has become a springboard for excellence for all involved in the film. The dream at the center of the film is both a unique and universal opportunity for women to come together to excel and learn from one another could play out in many fields but the fact that women have traditionally not been allowed to perform on a traditional taiko made this a very exciting film to make as we all knew we were recording history. Now that the groundbreaking concert has happened the vibrations continue to make change in the lives of the women and in the art form. In our film, Asian women, spanning the spectrum of sexuality are claiming their power and we are all more powerful because of their journey. As a filmmaker, the opportunity to work with a crew that mirrored the diversity in front of the camera was a first for me and I loved having a predominately female and non-binary group of creatives on the team as it facilitated openness and intimacy in the filming. This film needed to be made and we made it at the right time.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

DAWN: This is one of the most inspiring stories I've had the honor of witnessing. Female/nonbinary performers who have been denied their place center stage, believing in themselves and creating a stage that changed an art form and their lives. The film inspires viewers to follow their dreams in spite of the barriers thrown in their way.

KERI: This film inspires, uplifts and challenges personal greatness.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

DAWN: As I mentioned above, this is about following your dreams. We've all experienced being told we don't belong. Particularly gender and racial minorities. Beyond the inspiring message of harnessing one's dream, this is also about the importance of raising up the dreams of others along the way. As the late Sen. Paul Wellstone once said, "We all do better when we all do better". That belief is reflected both within the film and how it was made. It continues to change the way I do my work.

KERI: Finding Her Beat is a journey revealing how one person can make a huge difference. As Jennifer Weir helps manifest the dream of her wife Megan and friend Tiffany by hosting artists from around the world we learn that dreaming big can have an impact big enough to change a tradition thousands of years old.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

DAWN: We always knew that we were heading toward the final scenes being the big concert in February 2020. What we did not know was, how MANY performers from around the world would enthusiastically come together (18 performers total) and that the concert would end up being one of the final moments of the "before times" when COVID changed the world. Particularly for those in the performing arts. Editing this film, it became close we had come to not having the concert at all. In addition, the personal journey that each of these performers when on was powerful and unexpected. This is why I love documentary films. You can guess where a story might go, but your guesses will likely never be as good as the reality.

KERI: When we started filming in 2018 we had an idea about the strength of the art form and the strength of the artists but as filming progressed we realized that many women still questioned their abilities and there were many more struggles in the story than we expected and then all of a sudden we had the totally unexpected turn of the emergence of Covid which threatened the story in many ways.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

DAWN: We have been invited to over 40 festivals within a 6-month timeframe of our World Premiere at Mill Valley Film Festival. We have won a number of Best Documentary and Audience Awards at those festivals. We have been honored that the film is not only doing well at Asian-American and LGBTQ+ festivals, but documentary and mainstream festivals as well. Currently, our "Tomatometer" on Rotten Tomatoes is 100% and the love from critics has been amazing. Audiences cheer and cry throughout the film and during the Q&As. I feel very lucky to have been a part of this story.

KERI: The feedback has been phenomenal. Audiences have said they feel inspired to follow their own dreams, and they have shared how the film moved them to laughter and to tears. Many have commented on the intimacy of the film, the engaging pacing of the film and the beauty of the filming.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

DAWN: I will say that I was surprised how many people wanted to help us along the way. It was the perfect time for this story to happen and whenever the dream was shared, from the moment Jen had the audacity to speak it out loud, to our festival experiences, people have said "YES" to us far more often than "NO". I have also learned how to ask for what I want as a producer with more confidence, from watching Jen ask for her dreams. One way that paid off was when I asked the folks at Skywalker Sound what it would take for them to help us master the 5.1 Surround Sound mix and they generously donated their time to do it. All of this has been a dream come true.

KERI: We knew that Asian audiences would be interested in the film but everyone seems to be empowered by this story. We knew that LGBTQ audiences would be interested in this film but weren't expecting so many to say that they were happy we didn't make a big deal of the queerness of the film - rather Jennifer and Megan's marriage was presented without controversy. One woman said she loved the way that queerness exists in our film as a given rather than a hurdle or an issue.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

DAWN: I just want people to see this film and be inspired to beat their own drum. Whether that is a literal drum or a metaphorical drum, doing something in their lives that they are passionate about, regardless of what the gatekeepers say.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

DAWN: Of course, we'd love to see any and all of these folks come together. We have signed exclusive educational distribution with GOOD DOCS, but the rest of our rights are free. And much like the women in this film, we have decided to do it ourselves and launch an Oscar Campaign this fall. In the coming months, we'll be making those plans and I'd love to have partners in this journey. Sales Agents, Buyers, Distributors, Journalists, and Film Festival Directors all have different ways they can help and I hope they'll be inspired to get in touch with us, as we're going to have an exciting next 6 months!

KERI: We would love this film to have distribution and are seeking help with this effort.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

DAWN: We believe this film will inspire marginalized people to follow their dreams and take their place center stage. Beyond our Oscar Campaign, we have developed an Impact Campaign with Impact Media Partners that includes screening tours and other ways for folks to engage with this film and its vision for folks to follow their dreams. If folks would like to learn more about that, please follow us on social media or reach out.

KERI: We would like to uplift and inspire others to follow their dreams and to give voice to communities whose voices and stories have not been put into the spotlight. We are interested in helping taiko evolve and grow as an art form and to lift up taiko groups to have more professional opportunities.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

DAWN: What do you dream of doing that you have been told you can't do?

KERI: How can we help one another achieve greatness?

Would you like to add anything else?

KERI: I have produced all my previous films myself and I have never co-directed before and working with so many talented women has been a revelation and a great experience that I would like to have happen again in the future.

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

DAWN: I premiered another film about powerful women and nonbinary folks in the world of roller derby, Minnesota Mean, in April 2023. That film is just starting its festival journey and will screen next at Cinequest in August. In addition, I'm developing a docu-series based on that film and am open to new ideas to tell stories of powerful women doing powerful things.

KERI: I am working on a number of films: Ribbon Skirt Warriors about indigenous women standing up to a tar sands pipeline; Uncle Roy about a pioneer in gay photography and The Magnificient TT about a gender non-conforming kid who dreams of becoming an artist.

Interview: June 2023

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

Finding Her Beat

Length: 1:28:36

Director: Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett

Producer: Dawn Mikkelson and Jennifer Weir

Writer: Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett

About the writer, director and producer:

DAWN MIKKELSON is an Emmy award-winning producer and McKnight Filmmaking Fellow, whose work has been broadcast and screened internationally. Festival screenings of her feature documentaries include: the Galway Film Fleadh, Cinequest, Mill Valley Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, DOC NYC, Frameline Film Festival, and American Indian Film Festival. In Spring 2023, Mikkelson premiered her seventh film in the world of women's flat track roller derby (Minnesota Mean).

KERI PICKETT is an award-winning artist, producer, director, and cinematographer. Pickett’s documentary films First Daughter and the Black Snake and The Fabulous Ice Age have won multiple awards and screened at festivals around the world, breaking records in attendance, and streamed on Netflix. A well-known photographer, Pickett has published multiple photography books, with photographs displayed in international and national museums and has appeared in Life, Time, People, Stern, and Geo magazines, and she has been awarded fellowships from the Bush Foundation, McKnight, Jerome, and Target Foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Key cast: Jennifer Weir, Megan Chao Smith, Tiffany Tamaribuchi, Chieko Kojima, Kaoly Asano

Looking for: sales agents, distributors, journalists, film festival directors, buyers

Facebook: Finding Her Beat, Dawn Mikkelson

Twitter: @Emergencegrrl

Instagram: @findingherbeat, @emergencegrrl

Hashtags used: #FindingHerBeat, #Taiko, #representationmatters

Website: www.herbeatfilm.com

Other: IMDb

Made in association with: Emergence Pictures & TaikoArts Midwest

Funders: Kickstarter, John S. and James L Knight Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Awesome Without Borders, Ceridian Cares, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and MN Production Rebate

Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?

Doc Edge Film Festival/Auckland, New Zealand - May 27; Satisfied Eye International Film Festival/Epsom, England - May 28; Mendocino Film Festival/Mendocino, California - June 3; Doc Edge Film Festival/Wellington, New Zealand - June 10; Bentonville Film Festival/Bentonville, Arkansas - June 15