Northern Lights Film Festival to feature George Desort's new Isle Royale wilderness film, more films by independent filmmakers Oct. 25-27 in Rozsa Center

HOUGHTON --In 2011, Chicago filmmaker George Desort spent eighty days and nights on Isle Royale. Traveling alone with his camera equipment and as much food as he could fit into his kayak, Desort explored the rugged terrain of the wilderness Lake Superior island, filming himself each difficult step of the way. Desort's breathtaking footage paired with his personal, unvarnished storytelling result in a new film that will spur viewers to consider the significance of wilderness to our sense of identity and experience of the world. (Inset photo of George Desort © and courtesy George Desort. Reprinted with permission.)

The film, Fifty Lakes One Island, will be featured at the Ninth Annual Northern Lights Film Festival -- to be held  Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 25-27, in the Rozsa Center on the Michigan Tech campus. Admission is free.

Here is a preview of Fifty Lakes One Island:

This trailer for Fifty Lakes One Island © and courtesy George Desort. Reprinted with permission.

George Desort is an independent filmmaker who has done extensive filming on Isle Royale. His work from the island has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Television, Audubon Magazine, Backpacker, as well as on PBS.

During the Northern Lights Film Festival, Fifty Lakes One Island will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26, in the Rozsa Center. A question-answer session with George Desort will follow. Desort is also scheduled for a Discussion and Demo at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, in the Rozsa.

In addition to Desort's film, the festival will offer a weekend of a dozen independent films, including Joshua Oppenheimer's acclaimed documentary, The Act Of Killing, Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, and Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess. On Saturday, two documentaries produced locally will also screen: Suzanne Jurva and Erin Smith's Yoopera!, which tells the story of the Rockland Opera and Mary Wright's Storylines project, and Matt Monte's film, Everything At Once, about artist Greg Green.

Click here for the full Northern Lights Film Festival schedule.

For more information, contact Erin Smith at smitherin@mtu.edu or (906) 487-3263. The Northern Lights Film Festival is sponsored by the Michigan Tech Departments of Humanities and Visual and Performing Arts, the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Cin/Optic Communication and Media Enterprise Team, and the Michigan Tech Film Board. Special thanks to Susanna Brent, Gary Brown and the Rosza staff for their generous support of the festival.