Al Milgrom was the kind of guy who always seemed young, even when he wasn't. At age 96, he came out as the "oldest emerging documentary filmmaker" with the premiere of "Singin' in the Grain," his portrait of a multigenerational Minnesota polka band.
Milgrom is better known for fostering the Twin Cities film scene.
He founded what is now the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul, taught cinema at the University of Minnesota and launched the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. Along the way, he built an audience for foreign and independent films while bringing such famed directors as Werner Herzog, Jean-Luc Godard and Milos Forman to town.
He seemed unstoppable, celebrating his 98th birthday just weeks ago. But last week he had a stroke and died Sunday at his home in Dinkytown.
"When he turned 98 a month ago, I was like, 'What are we going to do for his 99th?' " said his daughter, Marsha Milgrom of St. Paul.
Milgrom had been holed up at home recently, determined to finish a documentary about a trip he took to Russia in the 1950s.
"He was hoping to get that done this year," said his protege Randy Adamsick, who led the Minnesota Film Board from 1990 to 2001. "He had footage taken in the 1950s and '60s when no one was really even allowed to go to Moscow. He had access to the world."
For decades, Milgrom worked seemingly without sleep, stapling fliers onto telephone poles, buttonholing potential filmgoers at cultural events and working the phones from his cluttered office to land obscure European gems for the audience he had long cultivated.
The Coen brothers even name-checked him in their 2013 film "Inside Llewyn Davis."
Always, he was driven.
"He was a very complicated man," said his son, Benjamin Milgrom. "His bright side was very bright and his dark side was very dark. There was no middle ground with him."
His daughter, Marsha Milgrom, recalls a childhood spent in the basement, watching movies endlessly with her dad.
"I remember watching Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton films," she said. "I don't know if other kids grew up that way. The kids in the neighborhood might have had other things in their basement.
Raised in Pine City, just north of the Twin Cities, Al Milgrom was born Nov. 21, 1922, the eldest of three children of Russian-Jewish immigrants who made their way to Minnesota through distant relatives.
Milgrom is predeceased by his parents, Louis and Pauline; brother Morris ("Mo") and his first wife, Ina Linares.
He is survived by his sister, Elle Stern of California; ex-wife Jeanette Hofstee Milgrom and their children Marsha and Ben; daughter Jackie Lechner (from his first marriage), and two granddaughters.
Services will be held sometime in the future.
This obituary will be updated Tuesday with more details about Milgrom's career.
@AliciaEler • 612-673-4437
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Godfather of the Twin Cities film scene Al Milgrom dies at 98 - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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