http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C463/L8/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2010 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:30:31 MST Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:30:31 MST http://www.newwest.net/city/article/from_trailer_to_trails_new_life_for_rescued_huskies/C463/L8/ Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:34:40 MST 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." http://www.newwest.net/city/article/obama_in_butte_for_the_4th_of_july/C463/L8/ Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:03:52 MST 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 http://www.newwest.net/city/article/big_sky_documentary_film_festival_honors_class_c_four_other_films/C463/L8/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:54:00 MST The 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: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/class_c_basketball_identity_and_loss_in_rural_montana/C463/L8/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:01:00 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/panel_discusses_the_business_of_documentary_filmmaking/C463/L8/ Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:15:00 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/when_clouds_clear/C463/L8/ Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:21:00 MST "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. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/big_sky_film_fest/C463/L8/ Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:30:00 MST The Fifth Annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival rolled into Missoula on Thursday, February 14 bringing 106 films from more than 40 countries, including the World Premiere of Missoula's very own "The Little Red Truck" about the Missoula Children's Theatre. Filmmakers gathered on Friday night in the Wilma Theatre's Red Light Green Room to kick off the festival, which runs through Wednesday, February 20 with films showing on both the Wilma 1 and Wilma 2 screens. NewWest.Net photographer Emily Haas joined Friday night's festivities at the Filmmakers' Welcome Party. Click here or on the image to view a slideshow of the event. For a detailed schedule of film screenings at this year's festival, visit www.bigskyfilmfest.org. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/elegant_film_recalls_rugged_butte_america/C463/L8/ Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:22:20 MST A few years ago my mother gave me a photograph of my grandfather, taken in about 1953. He is sitting with several fellow miners in the rock-walled tunnel of a copper mine, their black metal lunch boxes at their feet and the ore-cart tracks curving into the darkness beyond. I keep this photograph above my desk to remind myself what hard work is really all about when I'm whining over a deadline or wondering how to cut down a word count, but I never understood what that hard work consisted of until Thursday's screening of Butte, America, the kickoff film of this weekend's fifth annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Producer and director Pam Roberts and associate producer and co-writer Edwin Dobb tell the story of Butte not only with epic historical sweep (as befits a place where mere humans have wrought such immense changes to the surface of the earth) but also at a very personal level, foregrounding and respecting the reminiscences of the men and women who lived through the booms and busts of Montana's legendary mining town. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/crossing_the_borders_of_mexiphobia/C463/L8/ Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:15:00 MST Mexiphobia Screens Sun., Feb. 17, 10 a.m. Director: Nevie Owens "Everything's quiet, no one plays music anymore, there's really nothing to buy and nothing to do," says Danielle Gallo of Boquillas, a small town in Northern Mexico. "Everything has a feeling of destitution and despair, and it's not a happy place anymore. It's depressing." Boquillas and other border towns along the Rio Grande River opposite Big Bend National Park suffocated from their isolation when visitors stopped flowing across the border from the United States: in 2002, three crossings were abruptly closed in the name of Homeland Security. Their struggles are portrayed in the documentary Mexiphobia, showing this weekend at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/big_sky_documentary_film_festival_the_artistry_of_cranes/C463/L8/ Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:03:00 MST City of Cranes Friday, Feb. 15, 4:00 p.m. Director: Eva Weber Producer: Samantha Zarzosa It's films like these -- films that you watch and wonder, hmm, what a great idea -- that really stick in your memory. Films about some mundane thing that people see all the time, but never really stop to think about. City of Cranes is one of those films.