John Hanson
Directing
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1942 and raised in McClusky, North Dakota, Hanson graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, received his B.A. from Carleton College, and did postgraduate studies in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He began his career in film, going on to direct the motion pictures Northern Lights, Wildrose, and Shimmer, and numerous film, video and television documentaries. His films have been shown at film festivals around the world, including Venice, Berlin, London, Toronto, New York, Chicago, Sundance and Cannes, where Northern Lights won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival for Best First Feature of 1979. In addition to many other film awards, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from Carleton College and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Northland College. He is past chair and current board member of the Wisconsin Humanities Council. He was a founding member of Cine Manifest, a seminal independent film collective in San Francisco and the Independent Feature Project. He lives in Bayfield, Wisconsin.
Known For
The solo actor in Shimmer tells the story by becoming each character in turn. The play takes place in 1956, in a harsh Midwestern juvenile detention center, where two boys befriend each other.
Shimmer
June Lorich works at the Mesabi Mine on Minnesota's iron range. After an emotionally and physically abusive marriage, June is determined to make it on her own. But the worsening steel industry forces major cutbacks and June is bumped down to an all-male pit. She becomes the brunt of the other workers' hostilities and is forced to fight against them -- and the man she loves -- to save her job.
Wildrose
When a young boy nurses an injured hawk back to health, he gains newfound courage and confidence on his own.
Baker's Hawk
A woman's unfulfilling marriage leads her into a passionate affair with a wealthy extramarital lover.
Secrets
The bittersweet story of young lovers caught up in a political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, the banks, and the railroads. Set in 1915–16 North Dakota, a largely forgotten era of American history.
Northern Lights
A mob boss' plan to rub out his competition runs into trouble when his boat is attacked by a group of gay rights activists whose leader believes he is the legendary Captain Bligh .
Mafia on the Bounty
The first segment of what would eventually be the Prairie Trilogy, about veteran North Dakota poet and socialist organizer Henry Martinson, who fought against economic exploitation. Martinson recounts the 1916 birth of the Socialist Nonpartisan League, his narrative accompanied by images shot by Nilsson’s own grandfather, Frithjof Holmboe.
Prairie Fire
The final segment of the Prairie Trilogy, about a veteran North Dakota poet and socialist organizer, who fought against economic exploitation. Finished the year before Martinson’s death, it focuses on the biography of its subject, here found in a funny and expansive mood.
Survivor
With David Schickele's dreamy, retro soundscape, CINE MANIFEST captures a resilient group of artists reminiscing about a time when people weren't afraid to fight for their ideals, while also creating a stirring tribute to American independent filmmaking.
Cine Manifest
A independent film directed by John Hanson.
Traveling Light
Henry Martinson accompanies a young North Dakota farmer searching for the sites of his past. The second part of John Hanson and Rob Nilsson's Prairie Trilogy.
Rebel Earth
In this thrilling, unique, and sometimes hilarious UFO documentary, tantalising discoveries emerge while delving into Britain’s own Roswell—the 1980 Rendlesham UFO incident where a mysterious craft was reportedly seen landing near a U.S. airbase. As the investigation revisits the original event, the film also chronicles the strange encounters reported in Rendlesham Forest ever since; weird UFO sightings, floating orbs of light, and encounters with terrifying cryptid creatures.