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Film festival celebrates documentaries, short films

Daily Mining Gazette File One highlight of this year's 41 North Film Festival is the premiere of "Copperdog," a documentary on the Keweenaw Peninsula's annual sled dog race. Pictured here is Bruce Magnusson of Cheboygen, Michigan, finishing the second leg of 2017 race.

The 41 North Film Festival is hosting 19 documentaries as well as several short films this weekend at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on Michigan Technological University’s (MTU) campus. The movies are all brand new and not yet widely available, according to Erin Smith, the festival’s director.

The first film to show is “Science Fair” on Thursday at 7 p.m. The film follows nine high school students from around the world as they compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair. The panel discussion afterward includes locals involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Heather Courtney, the director behind “Where Soldiers Come From,” about five men from Hancock who joined the U.S. National Guard and were sent to Afghanistan, will be showing a new film. Co-directed with Anayansi Prado, “The Unafraid” follows four Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students in Georgia as they fight for a university education. Courtney and one of the students featured in the film will be hosting a question and answer session following the Friday showing.

Director Robert Greene will be screening “Bisbee ’17,” about the Bisbee Deportation. In 1917, in an effort against labor organization, 1,300 migrant mine workers were loaded onto a train and brought to the desert where they were left to die. Greene’s film explores how the current residents of Bisbee, Arizona reckon with their history.

The film also has a local connection. Some of the mine owners were the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company, which cooperated with other mine owners in the deportation.

Greene and local historians will take part in a question and answer session following the Saturday film.

“The Providers” will also show on Saturday. This documentary by directors Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin follows three healthcare providers as they work with poor communities in rural New Mexico.

“It’s a very similar kind of area to ours,” festival director Erin Smith said.

Smith thinks the topic is particularly important to the Copper Country because of the difficulty of retaining healthcare professionals.

Afterward, one of the physicians featured in the film and Ray Sharp, director of community health promotion at the Western U.P. Health Department will respond to questions.

The complete schedule can be found at 41northfilmfest.mtu.edu.

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