The Whole Shootin’ Match / Northern Lights

Part of the series American Neorealism, Part One: 1948–1984

Texas independent film legend Eagle Pennell made his feature debut on a shoestring budget with this homespun ode to American dreamers and the small town blues. Longtime friends Frank (Sonny Carl Davis) and Lloyd (Lou Perrymen) try their luck at get-rich-quick schemes while negotiating the daily indignities of being seen by everyone else—including, occasionally, Lloyd’s long-suffering wife–as the local losers. Pennel found the poetry in their plight and helped launch the Austin film scene in the process. (1978, dir. Eagle Pennell, DCP, black and white, 109 min.)

Courtesy of Watchmaker Films.

The only period piece in the American Neorealism film series, Northern Lights illuminates the still resonant formative years of The Nonpartisan League, the Socialist-inspired political party founded by immigrant farmers in North Dakota at the turn of the century to fight back against the moneyed interests who controlled their economic destinies. Produced by the radical Bay Area film collective Cine Manifest with a mix of professional and non-professional actors, it was a grassroots effort that won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. (1978, dir. John Hanson, 35mm, black and white, 93 min.)

Print courtesy of Cinema Conservancy.