41 North Film Festival director Erin Smith, left, speaks after receiving a gift honoring her work over the festival’s 10 years. At right is Allison Neely, the festival’s volunteer coordinator. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — As a New Yorker in the entertainment industry, film director Katie Dellamaggiore is self-effacing as she embraces the label of “a stereotype of this coastal elite lefty.” But, she said she’s been changed as a person by the time she spent in West Virginia and in screening the film in rural communities. 

“I think the only way that we can really get past those silly differences which don’t really matter is if you spend more time sharing stories with people in places that are different than where we live,” she said during a question-and-answer session following a screening of her film “Small Town Universe” at the 41 North Film Festival Friday night. “…I think that not just my film, but all the films in this film festival, are so important to give people a chance to come together as they meet and talk about things they don’t normally talk about.”

The film, which chronicled the workings of the Green Bank Observatory and the community surrounding it in Green Bank, West Virginia, was just one of the glimpses provided into other lives during Michigan Technological University’s three-day film festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

In addition to the screenings, the festival included live musical performances and a stop-motion animation workshop for children led by Ian Raymond. “Small Town Universe” and several other films were also followed by panel discussions that tied it to research or issues going on locally. “Eno,” a film about music producer Brian Eno, used generative software to create an individualized version of the film with its own scenes, order and music each time it’s shown. Director Gary Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes took questions after the first screening, co-sponsored by Tech’s College of Computing and the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems. 

Niigaanii-Animikii Inini Kalvin Hartwig, the Anishinaabe language-culture coordinator for the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and a Michigan Tech alumnus, moderated the discussion for Sunday’s showing of “Bad River.” The film follows the Bad River Band of Wisconsin and its struggle for sovereignty and to protect Lake Superior.  University alumnus, moderated the discussion for Sunday’s showing of “Bad River.” The film follows the Bad River Band of Wisconsin and its struggle for sovereignty and to protect Lake Superior. 

Dellamaggiore is building an impact campaign to take the film outside of film festivals and into communities to help people engage with the issues important to their communities.

For “Small Town Universe,” part of the connection came through the shared bond of advanced scientific research being conducted in the middle of an isolated rural area.

The observatory, which monitors incoming radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial life, is located in a valley between the Allegheny Mountains, which shield the area from radio waves. 

Kathy Halvorsen, associate vice president for research development and professor of natural resource policy at Tech, enjoyed the human stories the film told around science and technology. Tech is about to acquire a designation at the highest level of research intensity of U.S. universities, she said, making it one of the smallest and most rural to do so. Drawing a parallel to Appalachia and the Upper Peninsula, saying they were at times derided as “the country bumpkins of the Upper Midwest.”

“In the middle of this, we have this incredibly vibrant research university, providing not just economic impacts, but also opportunities for people in the region, solving problems alongside organizations,” she said. “And it’s really, just like the observatory, a huge point of pride for people in the region.”

The installation of a scientific facility can come with some ambivalence on the part of the community, said Petra Huentemeyer, professor of physics at Tech and director of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences Institute. She was struck by one resident in the film whose aunt and uncle’s farm had once stood on land taken by the observatory. Unlike the observatory, whose future at the time of the scene had been imperiled by funding cuts, the family would still likely have been there, the resident said. 

At the same time, the resident said, “it had paid our bills” — her late husband had worked there. 

She’s involved with two projects trying to install telescopes at sites in Mexico and Chile. 

Making sure the local community is on board is important, she said. If the site eventually shuts down, she said, there’s an obligation “to leave the site as good, if not better, than it was before.”

The observatory, and Green Bank, are located in the middle of the federal National Radio Quiet Zone, which straddles West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. The strictest controls, near Green Bank, ban sources of electromagnetic interference such as microwave ovens, cell phones, or wireless internet.

That added hurdles to the production. Without cell phones, meetings had to be coordinated well in advance. And it also meant Dellamaggiore and her crew couldn’t rely on some of the normal tools of the trade like wireless monitors.

She’d found Green Bank after feeling she was relying too much on cell phones to stay in touch with friends. A Google search for places without cell phones led her to the site. 

Most of the news stories she’d found revolved around people who had moved to the quiet zone because they feel hypersensitivity to cell phone signals and other electromagnetic sources.

Most of what she’d found had been quick stories, but she wanted to go deeper. She didn’t tackle the scientific validity of the syndrome, but wanted to show their humanity, she said — that “regardless of what somebody’s experiencing, that they deserve to be treated with respect and to be welcomed into a community.”

Over several visits, she met the people who would become the protagonists of the film — a cast that grew to include employees, residents and a then-high school student whose interest in the telescope led her to study at the site and eventually get a degree in astrophysics. 

“It’s one of those things, you just can’t rush it,” Dellamaggiore said, contrasting it with quicker work she’d done for commercial projects. “It takes time, and really putting in the time to really get to know somebody and have a relationship.”