Fourth Annual Northern Lights Film Festival at MTU, Apr. 3 - 5

Zana Briski, director of the 2004 Academy Award-winning documentary Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, is pictured here with one of the children featured in the film. It will be shown at 7 p.m. Friday, Apr. 4, in MTU's McArdle Theatre, as part of the Northern Lights Film Festival. (Photo courtesy Northern Lights Film Festival)

HOUGHTON -- The Northern Lights Film Festival returns to the McArdle Theatre at Michigan Tech Thursday through Saturday, Apr. 3-5, with three days of independent films, talks and featured guests Geralyn White Dreyfous and Avijit Halder.

Dreyfous is currently the Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Film Center and was Executive Producer of the 2004 Academy Award-winning documentary Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids. Dreyfous will be accompanied by Avijit Halder, one of the children who learned photography in this inspiring film about the power of art and the resiliency of children. Dreyfous and Halder will be on hand to introduce the film at 7 p.m. Friday, Apr. 4. They will also discuss Kids with Cameras, the international organization founded as a result of the film.

Avijit Halder is one of the child photographers featured in the film, Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids, which will be shown at 7 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 4., during the Northern Lights Film Festival at Michigan Tech's McArdle Theatre. Halder and Geralyn White Dreyfous (pictured above left), executive producer of the film, will introduce and discuss the film. (Photos courtesy Northern Lights Film Festival)

In addition to the presentation of Born Into Brothels, Friday will offer screenings at noon of two documentary shorts -- Kick Like a Girl, about a girls' soccer team that winds up competing with the boys, and Pulling Together: The Little Community that Could, about local fitness director Terry Smythe and the diverse group of people who rowed their way to victory in the North American Indoor Rowing Competition.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, Diane Shoos, president of the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter, will introduce Sisters in Law, the story of two women who began prosecuting domestic violence cases in a small Cameroon community.

At 5 p.m. on Thursday, Apr. 3, the festival will be screening 2007 Student Academy Award Winners and, at 7 p.m., The Death of Michael Smith, filmed on location in Detroit by up-and-coming Michigan filmmaker Daniel Casey. Thursday evening’s events will be hosted by the new Enterprise team, Cin/Optic Media, which brings together video production with product development for the consumer video market. The team will make a short presentation about the Enterprise and be on hand to answer questions about its plans and prospects.

Saturday’s events begin at 1:30 p.m. with Geralyn White Dreyfous, who will talk about the business of independent film. There will be more short films at 4 p.m., including If There Were No Lutherans…Would There Still Be Green Jello?

A new film produced by Dreyfous, In a Dream, will be screened at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Northern Lights is proud to be one of the first festivals to screen this film, which was named one of the ten best films at the SXSW film festival this year. It documents the artistic and personal odyssey of Isaiah Zagar, a mosaic artist who has covered over 40,000 square feet of Philadelphia with his art.

At 7 p.m. on Saturday, the festival presents two short documentaries, Ladies of the Land, which looks at the growing number of women organic farmers, and Alces Alces Uncut, by George Desort, who will soon be releasing his film about the 50-year Isle Royale Wolf and Moose Study.

Finally, the festival will wrap up with two award-winning experimental films, Establishing Shots and Foggy Mountains Break Down More than Non-Foggy Mountains.

The McArdle Theatre is located on the second floor of the Walker Arts and Humanities building on the MTU campus, next to the Rozsa Center. The festival is sponsored by MTU's Visiting Women and Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series and by the departments of Humanities, Visual and Performing Arts and Educational Opportunity. For festival details visit the Northern Lights Web site or contact Erin Smith at 487-3263.