Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Northern Light

UR rating icon
New York Times Critic’s Pick • 1h 45m

Directed by Nick Bentgen and Lisa Kjerulff • Documentary • 2013 • 105 minutes

Set against the backdrop of a town's annual snowmobile race, NORTHERN LIGHT explores the working class experience in a series of captivating personal stories of recession-era America. The lives of three families change profoundly in the north woods of Michigan, where winters are unforgiving, jobs are hard to come by, and the line between living life and simply surviving is razor-thin. This cinematic, observational documentary explores the American working class experience through character-based storytelling.

Filmed over the course of several years spent with the film's protagonists, NORTHERN LIGHT is a fresh and vital contribution to the tradition of contemporary American cinema verite.

"Critics' Pick! There's a stillness to the filmmaking, coupled with Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi's truly lovely original score, that lends specific shots—toddlers bundled up like pastel Ewoks on a snowdrift, or a bakery window glowing like a still life in a gallery—a near-heartbreaking melancholy."—Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

Tags
america, american studies, americas, anthropology and archaeology, cinema verite, cinematography, communication and media studies, community, cultural and ethnic studies, cultural anthropology, doc, documentary films, econjustice, economic anthropology, expository, family, family issues, film and video studies, icarus films, light, lisa kjerulff, michigan, nick bentgen, northern light, nothern, nyt, ovid, ovid_ca, recreation and sports, s_0065, s_0066, s_0074, s_0081, s_0104, s_0108, s_0263, s_0306, s_0461, s_0495, small town, snow, snowmobile, social studies, sociology, sports, the, the industrial heartland, title_n, title_nopqrs, united states, usa, world regions

Up Next in New York Times Critic’s Pick

  • Windfall
    1:22:52
    Windfall

    Windfall

    Directed by Laura Israel • Documentary • 2010 • 83 minutes

    Wind power: it's sustainable... it burns no fossil fuels... it produces no air pollution. What's more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil.

    That's what the people of Meredith, NY first thought when a wind developer looked to suppleme...

  • Violeta Went to Heaven
    1:49:36
    Violeta Went to Heaven

    Violeta Went to Heaven

    Directed by Andrés Wood • Drama • With Francisca Gavilán, Cristian Quevedo, Thomas Durand , Roberto Farías, Gabriela Aguilera, Juan Quezada, Marcial Tagle • 2013 • 110 minutes

    Violeta Went to Heaven tells the story of famed Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra, tracing her evolution f...

  • If The Dancer Dances
    1:26:53
    If The Dancer Dances

    If The Dancer Dances

    Directed by Maia Wechsler • Documentary • 2018 • 177 minutes

    IF THE DANCER DANCES invites viewers into the intimate world of the dance studio. Stephen Petronio, one of today’s leading dance-makers, is determined to help his dancers breathe new life into RainForest (1968), an iconic work by the l...

×