FARGO - Former North Dakota Gov. Art Link and his wife, Grace, weren't instantly sold on the project when film-maker Clay Jenkinson told them he was interested in making a documentary about the governor.
"In their characteristically modest way, they said 'maybe,'" Jenkinson said at a reception at Prairie Public in Fargo before the film was shown at the Fargo Theatre.
Talking with a stream of visitors at the reception as he sat at a table with Grace, Link retained that modesty.
"This wasn't our idea.
We're not people to seek popularity," said the 94-year-old, who served as governor from 1973 to 1981.
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Asked his opinion of the one-hour film, "When the Landscape is Quiet Again: The Legacy of Art Link," he said: "We were satisfied with it. We were mostly interested that things were factual."
It was a tough night to be demure. Several hundred people - including two other former Democratic-NPL governors, George Sinner and Bill Guy - attended the free screening. Jenkinson praised Link before the film, saying the speech that supplied the movie's title and focus was an influential articulation of an agrarian vision for society.
"I think it's one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in North Dakota," Jenkinson said of the address Link gave in 1973 insisting coal mines be environmentally regulated, a dicey political position during the energy crisis of the time. "In some respects, it's been North Dakota's creed."
It's an issue Link is still passionate about. He's eager to dig in and explain the specifics 35 years later. "You've got to save the top-soil," he said at the reception. "You couldn't grow a turnip on soil that's 30 feet down."
Harvey Link, the youngest of Grace and Art's six children, credited his father's background with informing his environmental passion.
"As the son of immigrant parents, he understood the value of the land," said Harvey Link, vice president of academic and student affairs at North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton.
Having people recognize those efforts means a lot to both of his parents, Link said, because it shows "the hard work they did ending up making a difference."
The event was also notable for the collection of three former governors, though Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. - who both planned to attend - stayed in Washington to work on the financial system bailout bill.
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Guy, who was recently hospitalized for 20 days with a ruptured blood vessel in his nose, said he learned a lot from Link while serving with him in the statehouse before they both became governor, albeit too much to explain in short notice. He did recall Link as a politician appreciated on both sides of the aisle.
