The 41 North Film Festival returns to Michigan Technological University November 5–8 with four days of independent films, conversations and special events. All festival events are free and open to the public. Most screenings take place at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, with two additional films presented by Michigan Tech Student Film Board in Fisher 135.
We are honored to open this year’s festival with a new documentary about Michigan Tech alumnus, benefactor, and tech entrepreneur Kanwal Rekhi. Rekhi—for whom Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Hall is named—has been a tireless supporter of Michigan Tech, developing and funding a number of initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation among Michigan Tech students and alumni. Breaking the Code follows Rekhi’s journey from India to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and on to Silicon Valley. The film will screen Thursday, November 5, at 7:30 p.m. Rekhi will attend the screening, and his son, filmmaker Ben Rekhi, will join him via Zoom for a discussion following the film.
Directed by Ben Rekhi and Swetlana, Breaking the Code traces Rekhi’s rise through an industry that offered few opportunities to Indian immigrants. He became the first Indian to take a venture-backed company public and helped open doors for generations of entrepreneurs. But what began as a biography became a more intimate film about Ben’s parents, their life across cultures, and the sacrifices behind his father’s success. As unexpected events reshape the family’s lives during filming, Ben’s effort to understand his father becomes a search to understand himself.
Fork in the Road, Friday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m., follows farmers working to sustain their land and livelihoods, from a Kentucky family farm to an Indigenous kelp farmer in Alaska and Latina farmers in California. Grounded in the work and ideas of Wendell Berry, the film explores the choices that shape our food systems. Come early for a mini–farmers market in the lobby, featuring local farmers and producers.
Co-director and executive producer Vivian Sorenson, an award-winning filmmaker and television producer whose credits include Chopped, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and La Pitchoune: Cooking in France, will attend the screening and participate in a discussion following the film.
On Saturday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m., Penny Lane’s Wild Inside tells the story of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo captivated New Yorkers. His unexpected life in the city opens questions about freedom, captivity and our relationships with other animals. A panel Q&A follows with David Flaspohler, dean of the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and Michael Paul Nelson, chair of the Department of Humanities and professor of environmental ethics and philosophy.
For lighter fare, The History of Concrete, Friday at 5 p.m., follows filmmaker John Wilson’s wry, wandering investigation of the ubiquitous material and the civilization built with it. Cookie Queens, Saturday at 2 p.m., takes viewers behind Girl Scout cookie season, following four girls and their families as ambition, competition and growing up meet an $800 million business.
Saturday also brings Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff at 4:30 p.m. With access to Sagan’s personal archive, director Nanette Burstein looks beyond the celebrated astronomer and television personality to the relationships, curiosity and questions that shaped his life.
Sunday begins at 12:30 p.m. with Luke Lorentzen’s contemplative Boatbuilders, observing the skilled workers of a Maine boatyard as they construct a wooden sailboat over four seasons. At 2:30 p.m., Runa Simi follows a father and son in Peru working to dub The Lion King into Quechua. A discussion with MTU alum Niigaanii Kalvin Hartwig following the screening will explore Indigenous language preservation and connections with efforts to sustain Anishinaabemowin in our region.
At 5 p.m., Joybubbles introduces Joe Engressia, who discovered as a child that he could manipulate the telephone network by whistling the right frequency. Born blind, he found in the telephone an opening to a wider world and helped launch the “phone phreak” subculture that influenced early hackers. The film will be presented with open audio description and open captions.
The festival closes Sunday at 7 p.m. with Everybody to Kenmure Street, a vivid account of a Glasgow neighborhood coming together to stop the deportation of two residents. Told through multiple perspectives, the film captures the uncertainty, determination and unexpected joy of collective action.
Michigan Tech Film Board will present The Peril at Pincer Point, about a hapless sound recordist whose pursuit of the perfect sounds draws him into a mysterious island’s nautical prophecy, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, a darkly comic story of two conspiracy-obsessed men who abduct a CEO they believe is an alien. Both films screen Friday and Saturday in Fisher 135.
Three shorts programs—Terms and Conditions, The Kids Are Alright and Winter Is Coming—round out the lineup, along with special guests and events and live music in the Rozsa lobby.
For the full schedule, film descriptions and event updates, visit 41northfilmfest.mtu.edu. Contact: Erin Smith at ersmith@mtu.edu