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Missoula Features
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From Squalor to Hauler
From Trailer to Trails, New Life for Rescued Huskies
OLNEY – Jeff Ulsamer knelt next to Sunshine, a beautiful black husky with ice-blue eyes, and massaged her ears while reassuring the terrified animal. Attached to a dog sled for only her third time, Sunshine was the lone dog in a yard of more than 100 other canines that was silent.
Ulsamer rescued Sunshine and two other huskies from the Flathead County Animal Shelter only days before. He thought they could have a better life at his Olney home and business, Dog Sled Adventures, than they did in the shelter.
“They do okay with the other dogs; the people are what they have problems with,” Ulsamer said. “It’s going to take that dog a while to come out of her shell, if she ever does.”
Sen. Barack Obama chose to celebrate the Fourth of July in Butte with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha. The Obama family attended the Independence Day Parade and hosted a "family picnic" at Montana Tech where Obama gave a brief speech, cooked hamburgers and chatted casually to fans. Photos by Alexia Beckerling
Awards Announced at Film Fest
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Honors ‘Class C,’ Four Other FilmsThe 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival awards honored five outstanding films from the festival, including one hometown (or homestate) winner in Class C -- the very well done film about small-town girls basketball in Montana by Justin Lubke and Shasta Grenier.
The winners will screen back-to-back at the Wilma Theatre Wednesday, Feb. 20 starting at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are $7.00 at the door and if it was anything like last year, you'd better get there early for tickets at the door.
Now, without further ado, the winners:
Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat
“Class C:” Basketball, Identity and Loss in Rural Montana
On Saturday night the film “Class C” premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The movie details the lives of a handful of Class C women basketball players in Montana, and as they play each other and make their way to the state championships we learn that basketball is more than a sport for them. It is not just a part of their identity; it is a part of their town’s identity. When they travel to games their hometowns shut down and folks follow the girls across the state to watch them play. At late night parties, they discuss strategy and tournaments won in the past.
But the film is most striking for what it reveals about the loss of small towns and an agricultural way of life in Montana. There is a common sadness among these young women as they talk about their small hometowns. They are not melancholy that they are 255 miles from the nearest mall, but that towns across the Highline and in eastern Montana are shrinking in population and dying.
big sky documentary film festival
Panel Discusses the Business of Documentary Filmmaking
Today’s documentary filmmakers are heading into uncharted territory and faced with trying to make a living as the landscape of the industry continues to change, according to a panel of filmmakers.
Monday afternoon, the Crystal Theatre featured “The Business of Documentary,” a panel of four filmmakers moderated by Danielle DiGiacomo as part of the annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. David Fassio, Mike Steinberg, Simon Kilmurry and Gita Saedi discussed the new features of filmmaking that continue to emerge and the old ones that endure.
big sky documentary film festival
An Ecuadorian Village Stands Strong in “When Clouds Clear”
“First of all, we are not just a few foreigners. Second, we are not guerrilla fighters; we are not terrorists. We are farmers doing our duties as well as demanding our rights be respected.”
These words, uttered by man and backed by many supporters, illustrate how a small group of people can resist a corporate influence that proves detrimental to their environment and way of life.
In When Clouds Clear, showing Monday at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, the isolated people of the small Ecuadorian village of Junin must fight for their land when a foreign mining company looks to move in and displace them.
