North Dakota
Port: Commerce Department didn't turn over email relevant to film grant controversy
MINOT — After the debacle over former Attorney General
Wayne Stenehjem’s
deleted emails, North Dakotans might be excused if they are feeling something less than confident in the willingness of our state’s leaders to be transparent and forthcoming with public information.
Unfortunately, the state Department of Commerce just gave us another justification for our cynicism.
At issue is a controversy over film grants. The Commerce Department contends that it held a competitive process for a $600,000 film grant that
went to a Bismarck-based company called Canticle Productions.
Dozens of North Dakota filmmakers, some of whom bid for that grant, argue it was not a fair process, that the grant was always intended for Canticle and that the Commerce Department’s competitive process was a sham.
Based on the facts in evidence, the filmmakers have the better case.
The legislative record
makes it clear that at least some lawmakers wanted to steer the grant to Canticle. Additionally, the competitive process around the grant
was
abbreviated,
beginning late on a Friday and encompassing just six business days.
A report
recently issued by Auditor Josh Gallion found that this timeline was far shorter than what the Commerce Department was allowed for other similar grants from the recent past.
Now the filmmakers have more evidence coming in the form of an email that should have been included in the response to a previous open records request.
Bismarck-based businessman Matt Fern, who has been
organizing the response to this situation
on behalf of the filmmakers, had a sit-down with personnel from Gov. Doug Burgum’s administration recently. During that conversation, the officials made reference to an email sent from Daniel Bielinski, the president of Canticle Productions, to Commerce Commissioner Josh Teigen. Fern noticed that he had never received this email in response to his records request.
After the meeting, in an Aug. 22, email, Sara Otte Coleman, director of tourism and marketing for the Commerce Department, acknowledged that this email should have been turned over. She provided Fern with the copied and pasted text from the email exchange, and the contents are remarkable.
In it, Bielinski references the legislation from the 2023 session appropriating the funds for the grant, and offers the presumption that the funds are intended for his company.
“My name is Daniel Bielinski. I am the president of Canticle Productions, to whom a $600K grant was award in a bill from this past legislative session,” he wrote to Teigen in the May 26, 2023, email. “I was wondering if we might connect for a couple minutes regarding some logistics for the payout (which I know doesn’t happen until the new fiscal year). Would you have time for a quick call next week?”
“I don’t believe the legislation stated a recipient, which would require us to follow state procurement laws and post for a competitive RFP process,” Teigen responded, directing Bielinski to work with Coleman, whom he copied on his reply.
In passing Bielinski’s email along to Fern, Coleman wrote that it “didn’t come up on previous searches, as it originated from a different email address and slightly different name. We apologize and have improved our internal process to include boarder and separate search terms for public information requests going forward.”
This is a bombshell.
Let’s consider the timeline.
On May 18, 2023, Gov. Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1018, which was the Commerce Department budget and included the appropriation for the $600,000 grant Bielinski was emailing about.
On May 26, 2023, Bielinski emails Teigen, asking, essentially, how he goes about getting his company’s money. Teigen responds the same day, saying that there will have to be a competitive process for the grant, and that Bielinski should work with Coleman.
On July 21, 2023, a Friday, the Commerce Department makes a late afternoon announcement that it is accepting bids on the grant.
On July 31, 2023, just 10 calendar days, and only six business days, after announcing the availability of the grant, the Commerce Departments
stops accepting bids.
On Aug. 3, 2023, Commerce Department officials scored the bids and awarded the entire grant to Bielinski’s company.
Again, the filmmakers contend that certain lawmakers and Burgum administration officials steered the grant toward Canticle Productions, and that the competitive bidding process was just an exercise in going through the motions. The Commerce Department maintains that the bidding process was fair and open.
At the very least, there is a serious appearance of impropriety here. The legislative record indicates that the grant was to be steered toward Canticle. That company’s president certainly felt that the grant money belonged to him. The Commerce Department held what can fairly be called a perfunctory bidding process for the grant, ultimately awarding it to Canticle.
Can the filmmakers, particularly those who took the time to prepare proposals for the grant, be blamed for feeling like they got the short end of the stick? And now, further undermining our trust in this process, Commerce officials just happen to find an email that bolsters the argument that this process was unfair, but only after it was incidentally referenced in a meeting with the filmmakers?
That stinks, and it’s well past time for Gov. Doug Burgum and legislative leaders to admit it.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
On this day in 1943, two North Dakota army officers, Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz and First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson, were killed in separate medium bomber training crashes in Florida and Georgia.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Army Plane Crashes Kill Two N. D. Men
Two North Dakota officers in the army air forces were killed Sunday in bomber crashes during training flights, Associated Press dispatches revealed Monday.
Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz of Harvey (Wells county) was killed with 10 others from the Avon Park, Fla., army bomber base when two medium bombers collided during a routine formation flight. Both planes crashed and there were no survivors.
First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson of Warwick (Benson county) was one of six killed when a medium bomber from MacDill field, Tampa, Fla., crashed near Savannah, Ga. Lieutenant Anderson was co-pilot of the plane.
None of the other victims of either accident was from the Dakotas or Minnesota.
Lieutenant Kuntz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Kuntz of Harvey, was graduated from the army air force navigation school at Hondo, Texas, as a second lieutenant last October, and received his wings as a navigator.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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