Bodhi Werner, a local Duluthian, has taken his chosen home for over a decade and made it not only into a novel but an award-winning short film as well. Bodhi expressed of how he took inspiration from the sights around him and the nature abundant in Duluth.

“Here we are, Old Main Park. This is one of the primary inspirations for my sci-fi horror novel, North Port 1999.” I met with Bodhi and his mother in the Old Main Park to listen to his process and how he went from script to film presenting in multiple festivals in the fall of 2024.

North Port 1999

Some locations of the park are direct influences of his original novel that later became the TV script that he adapted to the 3D short film.

“My writing projects are one, my horror sci-fi horror novel, North Port 1999, which is set in a fictional reimagining of Duluth in the 90s.”

“There’s this laboratory over there, which I’ve always thought is beautiful, epic, and kind of spooky. What’s going on inside the laboratory? So that’s an inspiration for my novel. I’m into spooky stuff.”

Unreal Engine is Bodhi’s tool for his film as he animates it all by himself. Unreal Engine being a video game design program that is used in recent years to help filmmakers make 3D animations & scenes swifter. Once he understood the program, he brought others to help.

“We got to work with five local voice actors. And it’s just so great that it’s going to be premiering in a theater here in Duluth, and I get to introduce these talented people to the world. Couldn’t be more proud of it. It was my first animated film. It was a big learning journey.”

Production in the Family

With his mother at his side, they run their own business of MotherSon Productions. As they choose Duluth as their home, both of them have been creating art and projects all over Duluth. From documenting the restoration of their home, to many other projects with Duluth’s artist community.

“I have a family lineage here. My great-great-great-great-grandfather Jerome Cooley wrote what’s thought to be the first book about Duluth, Recollections on Early Days in Duluth. Yeah. And my mother, the lifelong artist Clare Cooley, she taught here.”

“She came here to discover her lineage where her father was born. And multiple people asked her to stay and to teach art. And that’s how she started her career. She got hired by Miller Dwan and the public schools as an art teacher and creativity coach.”

With Bodhi being a camera nerd and technology enthusiast alongside his mother, a lifelong multimedia artist, the two of them plan to only keep growing and creating. The two of them worked together to make his mother’s memoir, Incandescence Rising Above Darkness, into a TV adaptation as well.

Festivals & Awards

His writing projects and films were selected for the Catalyst Content Festival, Minnesota Web fest, and the North Shorror Immersive Art experience.

“So, I adapted my novel to a TV script and then a TV pitch, and then we adapted it into a 3D animated short film. And that’s the part that got selected to the Minnesota Web Fest,”

“I’m so grateful to these local festivals and organizations for how they’re bringing the community together and offering opportunities to local, aspiring storytellers like myself to connect and to continue collaborating.”

Twin Ports’ Artist Community

Throughout his work and the interview, Bodhi made it clear his appreciation for not only the place he calls home but also the people who live there.

“Like I said, my book is set here. I love this place and the people and the artistic community.“

From writing, to screen, to festivals, Bodhi and his mother found connection and gratitude for the artistic community in the Twin Ports. Both of them plan to attend this year’s festivals and encouraged many others to join them.

“For anyone who’s an aspiring filmmaker, writer, storyteller, or interested at all in this area, go to these festivals. When I went to Catalyst Content Festival, I met the co-founder of Sundance, Cirina Catania. She interviewed my mother and I on her podcast, and now we’re friends, mind blown.“