A grassroots indie film, Northern Lights dramatizes the founding of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, a populist political movement in the American Midwest in the early 1900s.
Grade: B
Produced, directed, written and edited by John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, it starred Joe Spano, Robert Behling, Susan Lynch and Michel Wagner.
It was filmed on location in North Dakota during the fall and winter of 1977, and used many locals as extras.
The filmmakers shot in grainy black-and-white 16mm as a rejection of Hollywood production values.
About a third of the dialogue is in Norwegian.
Judy Irola’s cinematography has been compared favorably to Terrence Malick 1978 Days of Heaven.
Due to the extreme cold winter weather, many of the outdoor scenes had to be shot in short bursts, as cameras and other equipment only functioned for short time before freezing up.
The film was awarded the Caméra d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival for best first feature film (defined as “the first feature film for theatrical screening (whatever the format; fiction, documentary or animation) of 60 minutes or more in length, by a director who has not made another film of 60 minutes or more in length and released theatrically.”
After self-releasing Northern Lights, John Hanson and Rob Nilsson co-founded the distribution company First Run Features.
Caméra d’Or Winning Films (1978-Present)
Alambrista! (1978) US
Northern Lights (1979)
Adrien’s Story (1980)
Desperado City (1981)
Half a Life (1982)
The Princess (1983)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Oriana (1985)
Noir et Blanc (1986)
Robinsonada or My English Grandfather (1987)
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
My 20th Century (1989)
Freeze Die Come to Life (1990)]
Toto the Hero (1991)
Mac (1992)
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
Coming to Terms with the Dead (1994)
The White Balloon (1995)
]Love Serenade (1996)
Suzaku (1997
Slam (1998)
Marana Simhasanam (1999)
Djomeh (2000)A
Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
Seaside (2002)
Reconstruction (2003)
Or (My Treasure) (2004)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
The Forsaken Land (2005)
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)
Jellyfish (2007)Hunger (2008)
Samson and Delilah (2009)
Año bisiesto (2010)
Las Acacias (2011)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Ilo Ilo (2013)
Party Girl (2014)
Land and Shade (2015)
Divines (2016)
Montparnasse Bienvenue (2017)
Girl (2018)
Our Mothers (2019)
Murina (2021)War Pony (2022)
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023)
Armand (2024)
The President’s Cake (2025)
