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FESTIVAL INFO
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 2006 BIG SKY DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL!
In 2004 we decided to share our passion for documentary film
with
Missoula by hosting the inaugural Big Sky Documentary Film
Festival,
and the community responded. Over the last three years Big
Sky has
grown beyond any of our wildest expectations.
This year we will be screening 96 outstanding documentary
films from 28
countries. Including 14 World Premiers, 10 North American
and United States Premiers, 39 Northwest Premiers and 19 Montana
Premiers.
This year we received over 800 entries from around the world.
With such a wealth of films to choose from, the festival will
once again run an entire week at the historic Wilma Theatre
downtown Missoula. Filmmakers from around the world will be
in attendance to address the audiences after their films screen,
providing a tremendous opportunity for our community to interact
with these extraordinary artists.
We are thrilled to bring the theatrical experience of artistic,
entertaining and compelling non-fiction films to Missoula
for all to enjoy and discuss. Viewers have the opportunity
to experience human stories that otherwise would never be
shown in this area. These films allow us to connect with,
and better understand one another, the world, and ultimately
ourselves.
We invite you to join us in watching some incredible films
and
celebrating the art of nonfiction film.
Enjoy the show!
Festival Staff
Damon
Ristau, Festival Director
Doug Hawes-Davis, Programming Director
Valerie Krex, Volunteer Coordinator
Gita Saedi, Programming Associate
Dru Carr, Programming Associate
ABOUT
US
BSDFF launched its inaugural season
in the fall of 2003, when founder Doug Hawes-Davis put out
a call for entries on the Internet. He recognized the international
resurgence of documentary film and the shortage of venues
for the public to have access to these films. In order to
demonstrate this art form and give voice to the powerful ideas
that come forth in documentary, he wanted to bring the films
to Missoula, Montana. With the help of a handful of friends,
he programmed 75 films to screen over the course of a week
in a local theater and the BSDFF was born.
The six-day event was a sensation at the modest Roxy Theater.
Classics screened back to back with contemporary films. As
the buzz spread through town, lines of people stood outside
in the cold, waiting to enter the theater, then packed the
house and sold out shows. With the public and filmmakers already
inquiring about next year, the message was clear: the festival
naturally fit this community and should become an annual arts
and cultural event.
This year, our efforts were met enthusiastically with over
100 community volunteers and a handful of core staff, each
bringing their individual continued research in the genre
of documentary film to compliment retrospective development,
general programming and educational efforts.
Doug
Hawes-Davis
Programming Director |
Doug Hawes-Davis, co-founder of High Plains Films with
Drury Gunn Carr, has produced and distributed his own
non-fiction films for more than a decade. He earned his
Masters of Science in Environmental Studies from the University
of Montana in 1992 and his BA in Political Science from
DePauw University in 1989. Winner of a 2001 Montana Arts
Council Individual Artist Fellowship, Hawes-Davis has
directed, produced, and edited more than a dozen films,
including four features, since 1992. His documentaries,
which have been screened around the world and won more
than 30 awards, are intended to increase viewers' understanding
of the relationship between human society and the natural
world. He is a faculty affiliate with the University of
Montana Environmental Studies Graduate Program and manages
a joint documentary fellowship with the program for one
aspiring filmmaker per year. Hawes-Davis founded the Big
Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2003. |
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Damon
Ristau
Festival Director |
After receiving a BA in Environmental Studies from the
University of Montana in 2003, Ristau coordinated the
inaugural Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Recently
he co-founded Walkabout Workshop, a film and video production
company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his brother,
Eric. They specialize in producing short documentaries
and outreach films for nonprofit organizations. Walkabout
Workshop was recently honored with four awards by the
Utah Film Commission for the creation of two campaigns
promoting Utah during the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
His current feature-length work-in-progress examines
the ancient practice of shamanism infused into modern
day corporate culture as a means for rebalancing, and
creating a more sustainable approach to business. Ristau
is dedicated to the continual development of BSDFF and
the creation of space to help Missoula grow into a premier
international venue for documentary film.
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Gita
Saedi
Programming Associate |
Gita Saedi has been producing, directing and editing documentary
films and videos for over 15 years. She was the Series
Producer for the award-winning PBS national series The
New Americans - a 3-part, 7 hour series following five
immigrant families journey to and first years in the U.S.
She’s also recently field and line produced other
projects on race and culture – Journey Towards Peace
– on a peace mission consisting of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, John Hope Franklin and teenagers from three continents;
and Reel Paradise - chronicling the life of an American
family running the world’s most remote movie theater
in Fiji. Saedi’s also served on producing teams
for Channel 4 - UK, CBS and PBS in the U.S. and RTE in
Ireland; and works on a variety of non-broadcast videos
for universities, community groups and labor unions as
both producer and editor. She currently lives in Montana
with her husband and son where she is producing a multi-part
series on 20th Century Montana History for the state and
pursuing new projects. |
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Dru
Carr
Programming
Associate |
Dru Carr, co-founder of High Plains Films, has
been directing, producing, shooting and editing
documentaries for nearly 15 years. As a board
member of the Big Sky Film Institute, he has been
involved in the planning and development of the
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival from the very
beginning. He was a final judge in the Documentary
Feature Competition for the 2005 festival. His
production credits include Wind River
(2000), American Values, American Wildneress
(2005), El Caballo (2002), The Naturalist
(2001), and Killing Coyote (2000). Carr's
most recent feature doc, Libby, Montana
(2004), co-directed with BSDFF programmer, Doug
Hawes-Davis, has been screened around the world
and received universal acclaim from critics. IFP
Programmer, Milton Tabbot, had this to say about
the film, "Eschewing rhetoric, hysteria,
or commentary, the filmmakers employ a form of
direct cinema that in its restraint and layering
of details has a cumulative power." |
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