Canvas Rebel: Meet Julie Koehnen
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julie Koehnen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Julie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
In 2015 I returned to Minnesota many times over the course of the year for my sisters wedding and all the events that go along with it (bridal party shopping, bachelorette party, wedding, etc.) She had moved so when I returned I was taken through a new route which included St. Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul is pretty fascinating with all its history and time resistant architecture. this led me to find Summit Avenue. It’s a historical avenue and there are over 370 preserved mansions from the turn of the century (19th-20th). They are a testament to the enormous wealth that was once concentrated in the upper Midwest. This discovery intersected with my love of history and further emphasized some gaping holes in my knowledge of American history. My education seemed to center around war and with the popularity of Downton Abbey, I was curious what had taken place in America around the same time. I soon became obsessed with a railroad robber baron, oligarch, James J. Hill who had the largest home on Summit Avenue. I was working as an editor at the NFL network at the time but the idea that I wanted to dramatize true events that happened in 1893 soon took over. I spent the summer of 2016 (on break from the NFL) at the Gale library at the Minnesota Historical Society. There I pieced together an incredible story of labor and capitalists. I was also interested because I imagined my ancestors, the Dutch and German who came to America for a better life were fighting this fight. This project was also the impetus I needed to move on from editing, return to the Midwest and begin my life as a filmmaker. It’s led to a polished pilot script for the series which is called Summit Avenue as well as spawned two short films, historical dramas that have done quite well on the festival circuit. I’ve also had some personal writing success as a result of the pilot script.
