Ish Meets a Mermaid

Written and directed by Duluth’s Jonathan Thunder, the short movie Ish Meets a Mermaid was produced in 2025 and premiered at the Historic State Theater in Ely during the Ely Film Festival in March 2026. It recently made its Duluth debut at the Zeitgeist Minnesota Film Festival.

Synopsis: In the lakeside city of Duluth, some legends are older than America. Ish Meets a Mermaid blends Ojibwe legend with the spirit of tragic artist biographies such as Basquiat, Frida and Loving Vincent.

It follows the story of an artist in a slump who meets a mysterious woman from a realm beneath Lake Superior and finds success in the last place he ever expected: death.