Northern Lights won the 1979 Cannes Camera d’Or and was hailed worldwide as a classic of American independent cinema. Directors John Hanson ’64 and Rob Nilsson used beautifully spare black and white images of the Dakota prairie to dramatize the battle that small wheat farmers waged against the bankers, railroad magnates, and grain monopolists who were pushing them into bankruptcy.
Their movement caught fire, and their party — the Nonpartisan League — won the elections of 1916, but at great personal cost. In the words of the lead organizer, Ray Sorenson, “You struggle for a good life, but you never get to live it.”
Screening at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, January 13 in the Weitz Center Cinema, this showing is part of the national theatrical release by Kino Lorber of the 4K restoration of Northern Lights after its premiere at the 2024 New York Film Festival.