Film Comment Live: Collective Protagonists

This free Talk will take place on Saturday, October 5 at 7:00pm in the EBM Amphitheater.

Narrative accounts of movements, whether in literature or cinema, often fetishize the myth of the charismatic hero who single-handedly drives change. In fact, the true protagonists of history are almost always collectives: groups of people who come together to achieve great things. Two films in this year’s NYFF lineup grapple beautifully with the challenge of narrating stories of movements without giving in to the allure of the heroic individual protagonist. Rob Nilsson and John Hanson’s Revivals selection Northern Lights (1978) stages the founding of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, formed in the mid-1910s by Dakotan farmers, in the backdrop of a love story, using a dramatized approach to explore the tensions between personal desires and collective commitments. Made more than four decades later, Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s documentary Union (2024), screening in Spotlight, takes on another chapter in the history of the American labor struggle: the 2020 unionization drive of the Amazon plant in Staten Island, and the challenges of an autonomous movement that requires leadership but is rooted in democracy.

Moderated by Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, this panel will bring together Nilsson, Hanson, Story, and Maing for a discussion on the practical, formal, and political considerations of making films about peoples’ power.

Free tickets for NYFF62 Talks will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning one hour prior to each event at the corresponding box office. Tickets are limited to one per person, subject to availability. For those unable to attend, video from these events will be available online on Film at Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel at a later date.