Star Tribune
Winter Carnival medallion,
found on film

DEBORAH CAULFIELD RYBACK
January 22, 2005

In 2001, New York filmmakers Trent Tooley and Jackie Garry decided that the St. Paul Winter Carnival's annual medallion hunt would make a good documentary, and came to the Twin Cities to shoot it.

Four years, 300 hours of footage, their marriage and two children later, "No Time for Cold Feet" is ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille. The filmmakers will premiere it this weekend at the Bell Auditorium at the University of Minnesota.

"We promised the medallion hunters that they would be the first to see the film, and want to make good on our promise," said Garry, who was born and raised in Rochester.

Tooley said they also are anxious to reassure the hunters who agreed to participate in the project that they wouldn't become victims of "the 'Fargo' effect."

"You know, that we were going to make fun of them," like the Coen brothers' movie that made "yew betcha" a national punchline, Tooley said.

"No Time" covers several years' worth of medallion hunts, one of the highlights of the Winter Carnival. Guided by a series of clues printed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, searchers comb city parks for the medallion, which carries a $10,000 prize.
Tooley and Garry didn't expect the project to take as long as it did.

"In 2001 there was a nice snowfall, but they found the medallion really early that year," Tooley said.

In 2002 and 2003 there wasn't any snow.

"It's Minnesota; we needed people digging in the snow," he said, adding, "How were we going to sell this if we showed people raking grass?"

Last year they lucked out with good snowfall and a good hunt, and decided they had enough footage to start editing.

Garry joked, "You're always worried that if you don't go the next year, there'll be 6 feet of snow and it will go all the way to the 12th clue before it's found by a little old lady who's been digging her whole life.'"

Deborah Caulfield Rybak is at dcrybak@startribune.com.