Monday 1/27 7:30PM

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In 2011, three filmmakers from New York, New York decided to embark on a trip to Minot, North Dakota. The plan was to capture footage for a documentary centered upon an individual, Nick Smith, aka "Ulillillia". Nick was a game designer who was single-handedly creating a game called Platform Masters, and chronicled its development online; not only was the game itself and the creative process on display massively intriguing, Smith himself was quite the character, hence his eventual status as an early internet celebrity.

What the filmmakers did not anticipate was a massive flood that was set to hit Minot on the same day as their arrival. The Souris River Flood of 2011 was the worst flooding in Minot's history, which forced nearly a quarter of the city's population to evacuate their homes, and resulting in over one billion dollars' worth of damage. Yet the people came together to help each other; as The Platform Master's website states: "Ultimately, the story of Minot’s flood is not simply one of tragedy, but the story of hope, community, and the best aspects of humanity." Naturally, the filmmakers decided to capture all this and incorporate it in their documentary.

To some, the end result was not what they were expecting; a letter from the producer in 2013 cites: "In truth, the first edit of the film wasn't very good, but what we lacked then in experience we make up for with integrity and shrewdness." Hence the decision to delay its release and produce a new edit, but for 7 years there was silence... until, on the very last day of 2019, the aforementioned unreleased director's cut and only official edit was finally released. According the filmmakers on YouTube: "Please note that this is an unfinished edit and not a completed film, so there is no audio mastering, colour grading, or other fine-tuning that are customary to an indie documentary today. This is as far as we got with in before we cancelled its release in 2012, planning to try a completely new edit that was just about Nick and not about the flood. Though started, this also never came to be."

It was also revealed that a "Ulillillia-only re-edit" by one of the producers, as well as the raw footage, will all be released later this year.