Missoula Children's Theatre Documentary

"Nobody likes me because I smell like feet," young, boisterous actors shout out one after the other. The director then tells them to holler like a scary monster that lives in the closet. So begins the documentary about the Missoula Children's Theatre The Little Red Truck by Missoula filmmakers Pam Voth and Rob Whitehair, set to be released at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

MCT has taken its show on the road for more than 30 years, empowering kids in communities around the world. They pull their red trucks into towns, hold auditions, rehearse tirelessly, and after six days a cast of little actors hits the stage in front of family and friends -- and they're all a little different than they were just six days before. [more]

Documentary Looks at Wolf Reintroduction

No wildlife species is as iconic and controversial as the wolf. Canis Lupus is a symbol of wildness and healthy ecosystems to some, but to others it is a callous killer and an economic threat.

Loathed and loved, the American Gray Wolf has gone through a tumultuous history in the West. They were hunted as vermin to virtual extinction by the early 20th Century, reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, and now are around 1,500-strong across the Northern Rockies. Biologists say wolves are officially recovered in the West and should be removed from the Endangered Species List, but – true to form – disagreements over wolf management between pro-wolf and anti-wolf groups has delisting at a standstill.

In 1999, journalist William Campbell began a documentary film to tell the story of what wolf reintroduction meant for people living in wolf territory. The result, “Wolves in Paradise,” sheds invaluable light on this story, giving a face and a voice to the many people trying to live with this species. [more]

Introducing...

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In the Spring Issue and online here:

• Montana’s Cash Cowboy
• Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out
• Essay: The Family Farm, Version 2.0
• Essay: Tracks Across A Landscape
• Have Your Ranch & Develop It, Too
• Design Showcase: The Big and Little of Western Building
• Stuff It: Can Wolf Hunting Help Conserve the Species?
• Traffic Perplexes New Western Communities
• Boise in Its Own Little Bubble
• Revenge of the Resource Economy
• Spotlight North Idaho: On the Agenda: Youth, Growth & Silver
• Spotlight North Idaho: Players of the Panhandle
• Spotlight North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom

[more]

By Robert Struckman, 2-01-08 | comments (23) | email story | print story

 

February 14-20, 2008

Official selections for the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival are now on-line, here. See complete list after the jump.

From February 14 - 20, 2008, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival celebrates its 5th year by showcasing 98 films from 40 countries. The official selections represent a broad array of filmmaking styles, formats and production dates, from classics to World Premieres. The 2008 films were selected from nearly 1000 submissions from across the globe. [more]

Film Review

They began to arrive in the early 1970s, wide-eyed idealists, via Volkswagon bus or a hitchhiked ride from the East, inspired and angry. The small cult of Ed Abbey followers descended on the American Southwest, most with a worn copy of Desert Solitaire in their backpack, many with dreams of preserving it’s natural beauty via any means, a la The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Jim Stiles was one of them. A native of Kentucky, Stiles came to Utah in 1975 and never looked back. Three decades later, with most of the gray-haired Abbey devotees having long ago dispersed to other locales, Stiles remains, a one-man show of sorts who has devoted his life to carrying on Abbey’s legacy, no matter how many people he pisses of in the process.

His exploits as a publisher and activist are captured in Brave New West, a new documentary from the Missoula-based High Plains Films that will begin screening for the public next month. [more]

New West Book Review

Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West
By Robert T. Self
University Press of Kansas, 208 pages, $29.95

In his new book, Robert T. Self beautifully describes the opening of Altman's famous Western:

"The camera pans slowly across a moody gray landscape of mountain evergreens lit intermittently by the autumn gold and red of changing leaves. A lone rider materializes from this forest under a cold rain…Swathed in a red bearskin coat, the rider slumps in the saddle as his horse and packhorse slowly pick their way along a faint trail against the steady moaning of the wind and the song." [more]

A celebration of creativity

It’s Sweet Pea Festival time again, a gala we look forward to every year.

When you scroll down BozemanEvent.net, it becomes overwhelming how many activities are happening at the 30th annual Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts — more than 45 different theatrical, musical and dance performances are listed over three days.

And this doesn’t include the Tater Pigs and other delectables that we look forward to every year served by local non-profits. And perusing the arts & crafts vendors tucked under the trees of the rolling green Lindley Park.

This truly is a homegrown festival that started in 1978 by a group of dedicated Bozemanites to stage a “celebration of creativity.” Over 20,000 people attend Sweet Pea festival, which is almost half the population of Bozeman alone. It’s an annual pilgrimage for folks returning to Bozeman where they once called home, tourists visiting or an ideal time to invite the parents for a visit.

Here are just a few of the creative highlights of the Sweet Pea weekend: [more]

missoula's marquee

Missoula’s Wilma Theatre is about to get a makeover.

The Wilma is under contract to be purchased by the Rocky Mountain Development Group and revived as a cultural showplace.  The restored theatre will feature regular performances of spoken word, dance and live concerts, while the building’s apartments will be converted to condominiums and sold.

“We’d like to have as diverse an offering as we can,” says Rick Wishcamper, president of the Rocky Mountain Development Group, a local real estate company specializing in acquisition, rehabilitation and management of existing multifamily housing, and soon to be owner of the Wilma Theatre.

After nearly four months of negotiations with the current owner, Tracy Blakeslee, it looks as though the $4.25 million deal will close October 1, Wishcamper said.

missoula children's theatre documentary

Each year the Missoula Children's Theatre with its little red trucks visits more than 1,000 communities in North America and beyond and recruits young students to perform full-scale musicals. Everything needed to put on a performance is packed into the trucks -- scenery, costumes, props, make-up, etc. -- and it's all done in one week. The only thing missing is the cast.

Rob Whitehair and Pam Voth's upcoming documentary film "The Little Red Truck" chronicles MCT's tour over the course of a week as children in six different communities simultaneously prepare for their performances. The week begins with MCT's arrival on Monday and the subsequent casting call that brings in dozens of local kids, six days of intense rehearsals, and finally the performance of the musical on two consecutive evenings.

The film is expected to be completed in September. Click here to watch the trailer. [more]

Even Fox News Praised It

Want to be the first on your block to catch Michael Moore’s new documentary “Sicko"? Show up for the first screening of the film in Idaho next Thursday, June 28 - a day earlier than the nationwide premiere.

[more]