(ABC 6 News) – Pop’s Art Theater hosted Rochester’s International Film Festival on Sunday, with a Minnesota filmmaker featured amongst the line-up.

As the credits rolled for Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank’s film “Brooklyn, Minnesota,” people quietly discussed the movie as Jenson made his way to the front of the theater to talk about his journey creating the film.

Joining him in front of the audience was Rochester International Film Festival Co-Director, Nick Evert who began asking questions to Jensen for the crowd.

No less than 10 minutes into their conversation, Jenson brought up how two days after he and his team finished shooting the film, he found out he had stage four colon cancer.

“Get your colonoscopy,” Jensen said jokingly.

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Jensen explained how he thought his life was coming to an end. He heard the words “stage four” and thought that was it.

He still had to edit the movie with his co-director, Jessica Blank and co-writer Han Shan, and in a way it was healing.

“My wife says this, I don’t know if it’s true or not but making this movie saved my life,” Jensen said.

The crew was very accommodating toward Jensen, who had to take frequent breaks for chemo treatment. Jensen thought “Brooklyn, Minnesota” would mark the end of his filmmaking career, so he paid a keen eye in attention to detail.

“I put a lot more thought and heart into the decisions that we were making because I thought it would be the last movie I ever make,” Jensen said

When Jensen asked the crowd during his Q&A if he got anything wrong about Minnesota in his movie, the crowd went silent.

The Rochester International Film Festival showcased seven other films from outside the United States that had never been shown in Southeastern Minnesota Theaters.

Jan Behrens one of the film festivals co-directors said it was an honor to host Jensen’s film.

“We were so lucky to have a filmmaker come to our international film festival because the rest of our films are not Minnesota made.”

Many told Jensen after the movie how much they loved it and the theme surrounding family.

The next time “Brooklyn, Minnesota” will play in Minnesota theatres will be on April 14 at the Main Cinema in Minneapolis.