FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON Now Available for Rent or Sale on Vimeo
March 29, 2017
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/facingthestorm
Comments (0)High Plains Films Short Doc about Wilderness Management and Climate Change
August 6, 2016
High Plains Films produced this short film for the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute about Wilderness management in the face of climate change. Shot in Alaska on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Comments (0)90-SECOND SPOT FOR MONTANA TOURISM DEPARTMENT PRODUCED BY HIGH PLAINS FILMS
October 29, 2014
New 90-second spot for the Montana Department of Tourism and the Montana Film Office produced by High Plains Films. Edited by Dru Carr. Produced by Doug Hawes-Davis. Cinematography by Warren Miller, Damon Ristau, Henry Hawkins, Dru Carr, Max Lowe, and Marshall Granger. Executive Producer - Deny Staggs.
Comments (0)MVD AND HIGH PLAINS FILMS RELEASE 1ST MAX JOHNSTON SOLO RECORD, “DISMANTLING PARADISE”
October 7, 2014
October 7, 2014
MVD AND HIGH PLAINS FILMS RELEASE 1ST MAX JOHNSTON SOLO RECORD, “DISMANTLING PARADISE”
“Dismantling Paradise” is the brilliant first solo effort from singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Max Johnston, former member of Uncle Tupelo, Freakwater, Wilco, and The Gourds. Johnston spent the past two decades backing up some of the finest and most celebrated musicians in the Americana/Alt-Country genre. In his first solo release, he and producer Eric Jarvis employ members of Big Star, The Gourds, and other heavyweights to back him. One of Johnston’s primary songwriting strengths is his ability to weave deeply personal stories into gorgeous and appealing melodies. While “Dismantling Paradise” is technically Max Johnston’s debut record, he draws on decades of experience to deliver something much more reflective, subtle, and beautiful than the norm.
PREVIEW “DISMANTLING PARADISE”
ORDER “DISMANTLING PARADISE” ON AMAZON
“DISMANTLING PARADISE” ON ITUNES
Comments (0)High Plains Creates Promo Videos for Montana-based Start-Up Bison Company
October 23, 2013
MONTANA MAVERICK ORGANICS is a new Montana-based bison company that is in the process of establishing a large sustainable, organic, bison operation where all animals are humanely-treated and harvested in the field. High Plains Films created the first primer videos for the corporation.
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“Missoula Filmmakers Raising Funds for Milltown Dam Documentary”
September 8, 2013
“Missoula Filmmakers Raising Funds for Milltown Dam Documentary”
September 07, 2013
By Rob Chaney
Missoulian
Missoula filmmakers Dru Carr and and Doug Hawes-Davis hope a Kickstarter campaign will ensure their documentary about Milltown Dam’s removal will make a spring 2014 premiere.
TWO RIVERS chronicles the restoration of the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers, the closure of the Stimson Lumber Co. mill in Bonner and other changes that surrounded the dam’s removal in 2008. The duo started gathering footage in 2005, as the decision-making process was getting underway, and filmed through the river’s reopening this summer.
“The removal of the Milltown Dam was an event of national significance,” Carr said in an email. “This film will thoroughly document that process. But this is also a story about a place where two major rivers come together. We who live near it are all connected to that confluence, whether we know it or not.”
The Kickstarter campaign hopes to raise the final production funds necessary to meet the spring 2014 release target.
Hawes-Davis and Carr’s previous film, ALL THE LABOR about the rock group The Gourds, premiered at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. They also won an Emmy for FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON, Hawes-Davis helped found the annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula.
The movie also includes cinematography from Missoula cameraman Kenneth Furrow, music by This is Process of Still Life and other collaborators with High Plains Films.
Comments (0)Rocker Magazine review of ALL THE LABOR
March 27, 2013
http://www.rockerzine.com/index.php/2013/03/sxsw-5-must-see-rock-movies/
Comments (0)ALL THE LABOR to Premiere at SXSW Film Festival in March
February 12, 2013
It’s official - the new High Plains film about The Gourds will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in mid-March! Thanks and congrats to all who supported, worked on, and participated in the documentary. Hope to see a bunch of you in Austin in March.
Comments (0)“Missoula filmmakers’ bison documentary wins regional Emmyâ€
July 6, 2012
“Missoula filmmakers’ bison documentary wins regional Emmy”
By JOANNA WILSON for the Missoulian
The Emmy Award-winning film FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON is meant to be provocative.
“The driving thesis of the film: Why is it the most iconic of North American animals has no status as true wildlife?” director-producer Doug Hawes-Davis said.
“All other animals you think of—grizzly bears, elk, deer—are managed as wildlife. It’s an important question for society to look at and that’s what we tried to do with the film.”
The 2010 documentary examining the relationship between humans and North American bison was nominated for and received a Northwest Regional Emmy Award in June for the topical documentary category.
“We worked on this film for many years,” Hawes-Davis said. “For me personally, it was one of the more important stories we’ve tried to tell.”
Hawes-Davis and Dru Carr co-founded Missoula based High Plains Films in 1992 to produce movies that look at the interaction between nature and society. In 2005, they founded Big Sky Film Institute as a nonprofit organization that would include High Plains Films as the production side, and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival to promote and celebrate independent nonfiction films.
Hawes-Davis started the bison project in 2001, when he did filming for a television company that agreed to share the footage rights. Because of funding, High Plains did not pursue the idea until they received a phone call in 2005 from a woman who’d seen the film company’s other productions.
“She’d seen our previous work on other wildlife issues,” Hawes-Davis said. “She called us up and said, ‘You need to make a film on the bison.’ “
The woman followed up with a check large enough to start the project.
Later, High Plains partnered with Montana Public Television and the Independent Television Service to complete and broadcast the film, which cost about $200,000 to make.
Carr said the most difficult part of the film was trying to take the entire history of the bison and condense it into 78 minutes.
“It was sort of ambitious in that way,” Carr said. “Trying to tell the breadth of that story in a short amount of time—there’s so much we had to necessarily leave out.”
The wide view made the film unique, Carr said.
“To me, it’s the first film that has addressed the story of the bison in a broad way,” Carr said. “I think it’s the fact that it really describes the big picture of bison in North America from their evolutionary standpoint to where we are today.”
***
In 2011, Independent Lens, a film series on PBS, announced that “Facing the Storm” was in the season lineup.
Hawes-Davis said the enthusiastic reception of the film and the Emmy Award felt good after the work that went into it.
“When you finish something, you personally feel good about it, but it’s a lot better when other people feel good about it,” Hawes-Davis said. “It’s good to see the film works—that it connects with an audience.”
Hawes-Davis said he’s not sure if the award will change the company in any way.
“We’re always developing new ideas, making work we feel good about,” Hawes-Davis said. “I feel really fortunate to be able to do this work for so long and making enough to survive.”
Carr said High Plains will continue to tell stories about the American landscape and people.
“I don’t know if I could say I think we will become a big film company,” Carr said. “I do think we’ll continue to make meaningful films, and ones we can be proud of.”
The collaboration High Plains brought into the “Facing the Storm” project improved the result, Carr said.
“We reached out and included other people in this project,” Carr said. “We do want to continue collaborating with other people.”
As for the film, Hawes-Davis said he hopes it will start people thinking through the complicated issues bison present.
“We don’t grant (bison) the ability to be wild in the same way we do with every other wild animal,” Hawes-Davis said. “I’d like for people to gain a better understanding of what our relationship to this animal has been, not ‘this should be our next path.’ I’d like for people to ponder these questions.”
Joanna Wilson is a journalism student at the University of Idaho and a Missoulian intern. She can be reached at (406) 523-5251 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments (0)MontanaPBS Broadcast Dates - FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON
April 28, 2012
Wednesday, May 2 — 6:00am
11.4 - Montana PBS World (Missoula)
Wednesday, May 2 — 6:00am
16.4 - Montana PBS World (Billings)
Wednesday, May 2 — 6:00am
21.4 - Montana PBS World (Great Falls)
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11.4 - Montana PBS World (Missoula)
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16.4 - Montana PBS World (Billings)
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21.4 - Montana PBS World (Great Falls)
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11.4 - Montana PBS World (Missoula)
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16.4 - Montana PBS World (Billings)
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21.4 - Montana PBS World (Great Falls)
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11.4 - Montana PBS World (Missoula)
Wednesday, May 2 — 10:00pm
16.4 - Montana PBS World (Billings)
Wednesday, May 2 — 10:00pm
21.4 - Montana PBS World (Great Falls)
Thursday, May 3 — 7:00pm
9.1 - Montana PBS HD (Bozeman-Butte)
Thursday, May 3 — 7:00pm
11.1 - Montana PBS HD (Missoula)
Thursday, May 3 — 7:00pm
16.1 - Montana PBS HD (Billings)
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21.1 - Montana PBS HD (Great Falls)
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11.4 - Montana PBS World (Missoula)
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16.4 - Montana PBS World (Billings)
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21.4 - Montana PBS World (Great Falls)
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9.1 - Montana PBS HD (Bozeman-Butte)
Sunday, May 6 — 9:30pm
11.1 - Montana PBS HD (Missoula)
Sunday, May 6 — 9:30pm
16.1 - Montana PBS HD (Billings)
Sunday, May 6 — 9:30pm
21.1 - Montana PBS HD (Great Falls)
Monday, May 7 — 4:00am
9.1 - Montana PBS HD (Bozeman-Butte)
Monday, May 7 — 4:00am
11.1 - Montana PBS HD (Missoula)
Monday, May 7 — 4:00am
16.1 - Montana PBS HD (Billings)
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21.1 - Montana PBS HD (Great Falls)
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