Northern Lights

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. Dramatizing the formation of the populist Nonpartisan League in North Dakota in the mid-1910s, Northern Lights captures the plight of immigrant Dakotan farmers as they toil and struggle against the combined forces of industry and finance. Amid this paroxysm of class tension, two young lovers find themselves swept up in the tide. Shot on location (on grain-rich black-and-white 16mm) in the dead of winter and featuring an astonishing cast of nonprofessional actors, this handmade masterpiece remains a stirring monument to collectivity.

The 4K digital restoration of Northern Lights was created by IndieCollect and Metropolis Post in collaboration with directors John Hanson and Rob Nilsson.

"John Hanson and Rob Nilsson have accomplished a small miracle on a smaller budget." – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"Tough-minded and tender...A fictional drama with a stark documentary flavor, Northern Lights is a remarkable, moving recreation of a long-forgotten period of American history: when long-abused, frustrated farmers slowly and reluctantly joined the Nonpartisan League, elected their own legislators and ran the state government for the next six years." – San Francisco Chronicle