Follow The North Star

Follow the North Star: Coming to a Prairie Near You this November!

Steve McQueen’s film 12 YEARS A SLAVE tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York, who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Based on early buzz from its Toronto International Film Festival premiere last week, McQueen will likely gobble up a stash of Oscar statues this year. While the country awaits its wide release on October 18, local film-lovers have the unique opportunity to pair this film with an experience that brings part of its story to life. Conner Prairie’s Follow the North Star is a critically acclaimed program that travel writer Eileen Ogintz describes as “one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever encountered at any museum.” It plays out as an intense, 90-minute living drama where guests become actors on an 800-acre stage, running from Indiana slave hunters, known as “wolves,” and working together to navigate the Underground Railroad to freedom. The interpreters in this program excel at their storytelling art while shining an important light on a page of our nation’s history.