Big Sky Film Festival
After the hectic pace and hype of Sundance, it was a treat to go for the first time to the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula. In fact, it was my first time in Montana — and I'll be back. I was a juror in the documentary feature category along with the delightful Skylar Browing (Arts Editor of The Missoula Independent) and Deborah Barkow (filmmaker and editor). The winner of the feature competition was Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father, The Son, The Talent by Jeroen Berkvens — an elegant and richly layered film about a guitarist who should be known better in the U.S. A special jury award for artistic vision was given to When Clouds Clear by Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein (lovely cinematography!). For full festival results, see the festival's website.
The festival's artistic director is Doug Hawes-Davis (Libby Montana, P.O.V. 2007), and in just five years the team there has built Big Sky into a festival with a deservedly good reputation. The home is the wonderful historic Wilma Theatre — a lovely specimen in downtown Missoula with a main house that holds an audience of 1100 and a smaller second theatre for special programming — this year, they'll feature a retrospective of the great work by Hart and Dana Perry.
Read more after the jump....
