This year the twelfth annual 41 North Film Festival hosted by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts runs from Nov. 3 to 6. In addition to the films shown in the Rozsa Center, some films will be in Fisher 135 with the help of Film Board. The four-day event is set to bring to the Houghton community the best of award-winning independent films, their producers, directors, performers and industry professionals from all over the world to Michigan Tech’s Rosza Center, and will also feature special musical events. According to the organizers, the festival aims at providing the chance to audience for a critical reception of the most acclaimed films shot in recent years and in world-wide distribution because of the quality they exude.
Headlining this year’s festival are Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind and Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams with their film “Life, Animated,” a documentary based on Suskind’s bestselling memoir “Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism,” according to Dr. Erin Smith, director of the festival. “These are films that have been seen at film festivals across the country this year. The combination of engaging storytelling and important issues makes it a great opportunity for both entertainment and reflection,” said Smith. The film screens Friday at 7:30 p.m. A reception in the Rozsa Lobby will follow the showing.
The 2016 festival is particularly special given the varied themes that the films address. One of the films, “Music by Prudence,” is a documentary exploration of the power of music in changing the main character, Zimbabwe’s Prudence Mabhena, from a life of hatred to one of love and possibilities. This film won Best Documentary Short in 2010 and the film director, Roger Ross Williams, will be present at the screening and engage in a discussion following the film. Williams is also the first African American director to receive the Academy Award, which was earned by this film. The African Students Organization has specifcally been invited to participate in the discussion as this film focuses on the continent. “Music by Prudence” will be shown on Friday at 6 p.m.
Another film, “Romeo Is Bleeding,” is an adaptation of the Shakespearean play “Romeo and Juliet” to fit into contemporary times, speaking especially to the issue of racial discomforts. It tells the story of Donte Clark who writes poetry as a therapy for transcending the violence in his community in California. Through his poetry he motivated other people to use drama to speak about the problem of the community. Whether Donte succeeds in achieving his goal of a violence free community or whether he gives up his ambition is still to be determined.
Jason Zeldes, a documentary director and editor, best known for his work on the Academy Award-winning film ”Twenty Feet From Stardom’”(Neville, 2013), will lead a question and answer session following the film, which will be shown on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Other films that promise surprises include the “Invention of Trust”, a story about social media in Germany; “El Enemigo,” about sanitation in Central Havana in Cuba; “Counting Wolves”, a film about research during winter on Isle Royale. “Bacon and God’s Wrath” in which Razie Brownstone uses Google to help her prepare to eat bacon for the very first time in her 90 years on earth; and “Operation Avalanche” a movie about NASA’s race to the moon, this time, a fake one that landed them in trouble with the White House.
Tolulope Odebunmi, an usher for the festival and a composition instructor also said “students should use this opportunity to collaborate through discussions about the films, learn and have fun” because she will “integrate the analysis of some of the films into composition classes, especially in the area of multimodal composition.”
Admission to the festival is free for everyone and open to the community, however donations to support the festival are welcome. All Michigan Tech students must bring an identification card and enter through the south door of the theater to tap their identification cards upon entrance to each film.
The 41 North Film Festival started as the Northern Lights Film Festival. It has been acclaimed as one of the best cinematic festival in the country. Since its inception, the festival has screened the best films in the areas of documentary, feature films, mystery, science, history and animal life. This year’s festival has 21 sponsors from Michigan Tech and 18 community sponsors.
A schedule of this year’s events can be found online at http://hdmzweb.hu.mtu.edu/41north/2016/ index.php/schedule/.
