Please note: This was screened in July 2025
Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, the sui generis Northern Lights marks one of the most moving and committed works of political cinema from the late 1970s America.
Dramatising the formation of the populist Nonpartisan League – a Union by any other name but strategically avoided to encourage the conservative farmers to join - in North Dakota in the mid-1910s, Northern Lights captures the plight of immigrant Dakotan farmers as they toil and struggle against the encroaching combined forces of big industry and corporate finance. Amid this heightening tension, two young lovers find themselves swept up in the politics of the moment.
Shot on location on grain-rich black-and-white 16mm in the dead of winter - the cinematographer would often have to stop filming to defrost the camera - and featuring an authentic cast of non-professional actors, this handmade masterpiece drawing on an intriguing hybrid of influences from activist filmmaking and Igmar Bergman remains a stirring monument to collectivist and radical filmmaking.
The 4K digital restoration of Northern Lights was created by IndieCollect and Metropolis Post in collaboration with directors John Hanson and Rob Nilsson.