Martinson and a young farmer in “Rebel Earth”
Friday, July 12th, 2019 at 7pm, doors open at 6:30pm.
Please join us at the Sebastopol Grange Hall for a screening of the black and white film series “Prairie Trilogy”, a collection of three short documentaries made between 1977 and 1981, including archival film from the early years.
This dramatic feature by filmmaker and innovator Rob Nilsson tells the stark and powerful story of North Dakota grain farmers in 1915 as they struggle against the banks, railroads and the grain trade. The trilogy starts with “Prairie Fire” as 97-year-old ex-organizer and state poet Henry Martinson recounts the 1916 birth of the Socialist Nonpartisan League. His narrative is accompanied by images shot by Nilsson’s own grandfather, Frithjof Holmboe. The second segment ”Rebel Earth” in the then present-day world of the late 1970s finds Martinson, accompanied by a young farmer, revisiting the scenes of his life, seeking out the spot of his Divide County homestead. The final segment “Survivor”, finished the year before Martinson’s death, reunites him with his contemporaries from the WWI era. The Trilogy remains as a great example of the convergence of film and politics, optimism and the power we have when we come together.
Nilsson, a Cannes award-winning pioneer in digital filmmaking with political and social justice themes, will be on hand for Q&A after the 95 minute screening.
Refreshments available for sale.
Ticket donations at the door: $5 – 20. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVPs to dmjanson@sbcglobal.net appreciated for planning purposes
Rob Nilsson is a filmmaker, poet, and painter. He is also an independent director, based in San Francisco. Nilsson and co-director John Hanson won the Camera d’Or at Cannes for Northern Lights (1978) and Nilsson won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for Heat and Sunlight (1987). He is the first American film director to have won both awards. In 2010, The Anthology Film Archive featured a retrospective of Nilsson’s work with Cine Manifest, a film collective he co-founded in San Francisco during the 1970’s. Works screened included Northern Lights (1978) and Signal 7 (1986).
Review Nilsson’s biography.