Synopsis
Braving –40 degree temperatures, Japanese adventures circle the globe to spend just three nights in Canada’s arctic city of Yellowknife. They get off the plane and immediately load into night buses, riding to remote locations in search of their prize: a chance to see the Aurora Borealis – or northern lights. The locals in Yellowknife and the media have a different explanation for the nocturnal attraction. The widespread belief is that Japanese couples are coming to see the Aurora because making love when the lights are out will help them conceive a gifted child. When the Lights Are Out documents the fantastic three-day trip of a group of young Japanese honeymooners in the Canadian North. Our narrator, none other than the Aurora Borealis herself, observes from the heavens as visitors and locals tell their stories below. The longer we spend with the newly married couples, however, the more things don’t seem to add up. They have failed to see the aurora in the first half of their trip yet the appearance of the northern lights seems to have little to do with the success of their honeymoon…Aurora begins an investigation that takes her to California, where the answer lies waiting in the small, weather-beaten shed of a television screenwriter who once wrote an episode of “Northern Exposure” about this very same myth… For the first time we can appreciate the real reason for the couple’s journey to Canada, and share the wonder When the Lights Are Out.


Prizes and Awards
Not specified