My Page: Tad Sooter
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Panelists: Marketing Should Follow FilmmakingFilmmakers should focus on subject, balance and originality and worry about marketing and audience after the filming is done.
That was the consensus among the five directors in a panel discussion of Social Issue Documentaries in an Entertainment Driven Market Sunday at the Big Sky Documentary film festival. Marketing representatives in the discussion were tentative to agree.
"Are you pitching your film idea or are you making the film that you want to make?" said Brian Liu, director of "Disarm", a film about landmines. "We didn’t really think about audience, we just made the film."
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New West Pick | Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
‘Clearcut:’ A Portrait of a Changing Western Community
To the old-time Philomath residents, the high school was in a dire downward spiral and allegations of hidden political agendas and calls for the superintendent’s resignation were flying from all corners of the once-peaceful Oregon town. In fact, things had gotten so bad that the school was being described as “politically correct."
“How did Hitler take over Germany? They changed the way the kids think, one generation and it’s over," is disgruntled Philomath resident Steve Lowther’s analogy for the liberal changes at Philomath High School leading up to 2003. Philomath High is the focal point of “Clearcut," a film by Philomath grad Peter Richardson set to play at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, February 20. In a narrow sense the film is about the value struggles of a changing school, but in a broader, and more meaningful way, it’s about the differences that divide communities and countries.
Editor's Note: Clearcut is one of the New West picks from the program of the upcoming Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
Click here for the trailer. Click here to hear Tad's interview with filmmaker Peter Richardson.
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New West Pick | Big Sky Doc Film Festival
“Pushing Up Daisies” Showcases Depth of Fest’s Short Film Program
Ronald Jones became a funeral director for the money, glamour and respect. He has found all three in his St. Louis suburb. Peter Burla is just trying to scratch out a living in rural Michigan, selling coffins to the elderly and waiting for people to die.
The short film “Pushing Up Daisies,� playing in the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (screening 3:30 p.m., Feb. 15), examines the mysterious world of funerals by comparing these two men and their starkly different lifestyles.
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Coal-Bed Battles
It’s Been a Busy Week for the Methane Water DiscussionThough a decision by the Montana Board of Environmental Review is still well over a month away, a debate flared up this week over a petition suggesting tight regulations on coal-based methane wastewater.
The petition, submitted by the Northern Plains Resource Council, along with a coalition of Montana ranchers and landowner groups, is aimed at requiring wastewater created in the methane extraction process to be re-injected into the coal beds, or at least be treated to remove salts and other contaminants. The proposed rule changes have incited heated response from Montana and Wyoming politicians alike.
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Growth Indicators
Overflowing Missoula Police Department Hoping for New Building
The Missoula police department has kept up with Missoula’s rapid growth so far. The problem is, the building and parking lots have not.
“We have officers crammed three, four, five to an office,� Missoula police chief Rusty Wickman said. “The police academy is being shared by other parts of city government offices ... we have confidential records with no room to store them.�
The department has been trying to match the 3 percent growth rate they consider average for the city, but with no more room for parking or office spaces they have been cramming more and more officers and cruisers into the same old building downtown.
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