For the Common Good:
The History of the Työmies Newspaper

The film history of the Työmies Society of Superior, WI, the Finnish “Workingman’s” organization which lasted, amazingly, for a hundred years in the Great North Woods. Includes interviews with the ‘Last of the Mohicans.’

Produced by Tom Selinski of Duluth, MN

DVD

SUMMER SALE: $15

Only 2 left in stock!

For ordering details email gemATsuperiorreading.com

The Old Finn Hall Variety Show
Parts I & II

From the late 1800s through the 1950s, Finn Halls created a thriving social network for Finnish-American immigrants. This uplifting two-part Variety Show (recorded before a live audience in 1997) illuminates and celebrates the Finn Hall tradition by displaying the richly diverse entertainment these Halls provided. Fiddles and accordions, guitars and mandolin, a brass band, a kantele ensemble, folkdances, couples dances, a children’s dance group, dramatic recitations of poetry, and of course, songs of many sorts—a lively array of well-paced performances, all ably MCed by Oren Tikkanen. You don’t have to be Finnish or Finnish-American to appreciate, and learn from, the Old Finn Hall Variety Show!

Directed by Eric Peltoniemi
Produced by Ralph Tuttila
Master of Ceremonies - Oren Tikkanen
Detailed list of performers
VHS (120 minutes)

See also the Finn Hall CD of Finnish & Finnish-American Dance Tunes in our Music Section.

 

The Polka Mass
Presented by Father Frank Perkovich

An opportunity to view two of Father Frank Perkovich’s Polka Masses in their entirety—one filmed in 1984 at Resurrection Church in Eveleth, Minnesota (where the first Polka Mass was celebrated on May 5, 1973), and the other filmed in 1993, at the International Polkafest in Chisholm, Minnesota. During an interview introducing this video, Father Perk talks about what inspired him to use traditional Slovenian and Croatian folkmusic in Catholic liturgy. And his sermons for the two Polka Masses express his view of this liturgical experiment eleven, and twenty, years after he celebrated his first Polka Mass.

Though time and the environment have degraded this tape’s audio and video quality, its historical relevance and power to inspire justify continuing to make it available.

VHS (120 minutes)

This archival Polka Mass video collection is also available on a DVD entitled More Songs & Hymns from the Polka Mass.

SUMMER SALE: $15

Only 2 copies of this DVD left in stock!

For ordering details email gemATsuperiorreading.com

The biographical DVD described below and the related items in our Music and Additional Titles sections are excellent supplements to the Polka Mass video collection.

The Life & Times of Father Frank Perkovich

This “montage of meaningful memories” created at the time of Father Frank Perkovich’s 2004 retirement from active ministry draws upon family photo albums, videotapes, and mementos, as well as upon interviews, varied media coverage of The Polka Mass, and the memories of friends, to present a lovingly detailed account of Father Perk’s background and a tribute to the fifty-year ministry of the man inspired by the Second Vatican Council to develop and popularize a Polka Mass.

Produced by Tom Moeller
DVD (60 minutes)

SUMMER SALE: $15

Only 2 left in stock!

For ordering details email gemATsuperiorreading.com

A VHS of the Polka Mass in its entirety is described above. Other related items are available in our Music and Additional Titles sections.