Arts, Film & Events
Interesting Happening
Ferencz’ ‘Seven Buildings’ Exhibit Documents Missoula’s Historic Ghost Signs
The faded logos and signs that scroll across old Missoula buildings -- the ones hidden in alleys and side streets -- have stories to tell.
Artist Ben Ferencz, with historian Allan Mathews, is helping to tell those stories.
"Seven Buildings," at the Gallery Saintonge in April, studies Missoula's so-called ghost signs through seven black and white photographs accompanied by typeset print.
According to the gallery, "Ghost signs, a dying art form - due in large to the proliferation of computer technology - are visual clues to the historic use of the buildings and the products sold therein."
"Seven Buildings" opens at the Gallery Saintonge on Higgins Ave. Friday, April 4. Click here for more information from the gallery.
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the new west gallery
First Friday at NewWest.Net: Jacob Cowgill’s ‘Prairie Stories’
NewWest.Net is proud to host Jacob Cowgill and his "Prairie Stories" sculpture exhibit in April.
We hope you can join us for an opening reception First Friday, April 4, from 5-9 p.m. at the NewWest.Net office at 415 N. Higgins Ave. in the alley behind the Old Post.
"Prairie Stories" is a collection of found-art sculptures that are part natural history exhibit and part interactive artist books -- sculptures that give an intimate window into the interconnectedness of land, creature and human.
The metal and wood pieces tweak the eye to showcase the intricate remnants of the creatures that call the prairie home. The result is storytelling of the natural world Cowgill encountered while working the fields of an experimental dry-land vegetable farm near Big Sandy, Montana.
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Hip Strip Eatery Closes
515 Restaurant, We Hardly Knew Ye
The Hip Strip just got a little less Hip.
The 515 Restaurant announced Wednesday night that it was unexpectedly serving its last supper -- pork belly, cassoulet, trout, dumpling, rib eye, traditional crème brulee, fine wine -- and then closing its kitchen for good.
A paper sign hung on the door Thursday morning, saying “Closed. Thank you. I love you guys!”
The inside of the old Crystal Theatre was dark with tables and chairs aligned as if customers might be welcomed in any time. But then chef and co-owner Paul Myers slowly opened the door.
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Tickets to Adams Center Show Go on Sale March 18
Wilco to Play Missoula May 5
Wilco, the band Rolling Stone once referred to as "one of America's most consistently interesting bands," will be playing in Missoula this spring, UM Productions has announced.
The Chicago-based band will play at the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus on May 5. It will be Wilco's third appearance in the Garden City.
Tickets for students and faculty of the University go on sale Tuesday, March 18 at 10 a.m. in the Adams Center and at The Source. Tickets will cost $24 plus fees with a valid Griz Card. Tickets will available to the general public beginning Friday, March 21 at 8:30 a.m. and will be sold at all GrizTix locations.
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Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat
Reel to Real: A Food Film Festival Comes to Missoula
This weekend, the first annual "Reel to Real Food Film Festival" will take place at the Roxy and Crystal theaters in Missoula as a way for interested eaters to, “Feast Your Eyes, Feed Your Mind, and Nourish Your Soul.”
Organized in part by the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition, the festival will include a showing of “Eat at Bill’s,” a documentary about the Monterey Farmers' Market and "Two Angry Moms," which links the health of our children to school food. On Sunday, the event will culminate with the acclaimed film, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.”
In this personal reflection on the agro-food system, Farmer John begins by asking, “What do you do when nothing is left?” In response, he takes a bite out of his soil.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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slideshow: filmmakers' party
Hobnobbing at the Big Sky Film Fest
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.
