Wellstone documentary debuts at Central Standard Film Festival

by Cathy Wurzer, Minnesota Public Radio

The documentary "Wellstone" will premiere Thursday at 7 p.m. at The Heights theater in Columbia Heights as part of the Central Standard Film Festival. Through archival footage and interviews with friends and family, the film looks at Paul Wellstone's upbringing as the son of a Russian immigrant and his evolution from college professor to U.S. Senator. Wellstone grew up in northern Virginia and met his wife Shelia in high school. They got married while he was a student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In this excerpt from the documentary, Jim Stimson, a longtime friend of the Wellstones, talks about how Paul's graduate school research changed the course of his life.