A new feature film hits close to home.

In Wired; The DeKalb Documentary, a Feyt Productions film directed by Shela Lahey, the city of DeKalb is described though its history, its entertainment and the community of people who live there.

One of the topics the film discusses is NIU.

“People pay attention to DeKalb because of NIU,” Lahey said. “It plays such an important part in DeKalb’s history.”

The film, which is about one hour long, contains a 20 minute segment dedicated entirely to NIU. It begins with the history of the university.

“Many people whose families still live here today originally came to DeKalb because of NIU,” Lahey said.

The film also includes NIU sports, student activities and classes and even positively touches on the events of February 14, 2008.

“We didn’t originally want to mention it, because we wanted it to be a positive film,” Lahey said. “But [NIU President John Peters] wanted us to incorporate it, because it is an important part of NIU’s history.”

The segment on the disaster tells the silver lining of the story. It illustrates the idea that the shootings brought the community together.

“People found out and said, ‘Those are our kids… How dare someone do that to our kids and to our community?’” Lahey said.

Lahey said she interviewed 57 people for the film and enjoyed interviewing NIU students.

“There are a lot of NIU students in the film,” she said. “I think this is something all NIU students should see.”

The film premieres 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St. The film will also be shown September 14 to 16 at the Sycamore Film Festival. Tickets for the premiere can be purchased at the Egyptian Theatre Box Office by phone at 815-758-1225 or online at www.egyptiantheatre.org.