“Stories from Exile” is a collection of short films by Erik Janzen’s Red Card Production that will be screened Tuesday, Nov. 17 at Lush Food Bar. Janzen took selected poem’s from Ragan Fox’s 2009 book “Exile in Gayville.”

“I felt a personal connection to these poems, they all relate to something my friends and I have gone through,” Janzen said.

Janzen says the films will be screened at Lush with selected music video played between them. “I chose to use this format for ‘Stories from Exile’ because I want the audience to be able to discuss their reactions to the films. More than that what they liked or didn’t about each piece but how each film relates to them and their friends. ”

Ragan’s book, Exile in Gayville, has earned critical acclaim for its funny, raw and powerful statements.

“Ragan Fox’s multi-faceted personality is on full display here. He’s flaming, he’s serious, he’s funny, he’s angry, and he’s himself. With poems for horrible times, punch-drunk times, and everywhere in between, Exile in Gayville deserves a big audience,” wrote EDGE Publications, publisher of the Boston EDGE.

“Ragan Fox’s searing chronicle of growing up gay is an anguished autobiography composed of poems unerring in their ferocity and their truths,” wrote Patricia Smith, a four-time individual National Poetry Slam champion. “These stanzas, which seem to be scraped directly from the surface of the poet’s skin, are both gut-twisting and impossible to turn away from. No edges are blurred, nothing is held back. Sharpening a creative signature that already sported a razor edge, Fox grants us witness to the crafting of an unapologetic life.”

Janzen will be giving life to those poems — at least his artistic interpretation of that life — with the short film collection. The “Stories from Exile” event promises to be one of the more interesting events lined up this week.

Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 7 pm
Lush Food Bar
990 Central Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN

For more information on Red Card Production, visit their Facebook page.