Big Sky Documentary Film Festival: Recent Episodes
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Now in its 19th year, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is the premier venue for non-fiction film in the American West. Every year, the festival brings over a hundred beautifully-crafted, thought-provoking documentary films to Missoula, Montana. This podcast, a collaboration between the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and the Missoula Broadcasting Company, gives you the chance to hear directly from filmmakers, gaining insight into what drew them to their subjects and the behind-the-scenes stories of their films.
The film A Decent Home opened the 2022 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival by going inside mobile home parks, where some of the most affordable housing in the country is increasingly being bought out by the richest of the rich. In this episode of the BSDFF podcast, the Trail's Robert Chase talks with director Sara Terry about A Decent Home being shown on opening night and the main question of the film: Do we want housing in this country to be available to everyone, or simply treated as a commodity to be bought and sold?
While stuck in his apartment during the pandemic, Brian Gersten decided to make a film about one of his family's favorite pastimes - bowling. That film became Memory Lanes. In this episode of the BSDFF podcast, ESPN Missoula's Andrew Houghton sits down with Gersten to talk about the process of making a film completely from archival footage and how he grappled with the dark themes of American history - racism, sexism, violence - that he found intertwined with an innocent, idyllic sport enjoyed by millions across the country.
The closing night film at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is Charm Circle, a deeply personal glimpse into the lives of an eccentric New York family. In this episode of the Big Sky Doc fest podcast, the Trail's Robert Chase talks with director Nira Burstein about her first visit to Missoula and the process of making a film that documents her own family's nuances and identity.
Every winter, a ragtag group of crustpunks, libertarians, snowbirds, and elderly folks become unlikely neighbors during their annual pilgrimage to a temporary longterm camping community in Quartzsite, Arizona. In this episode of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival podcast, Colter Nuanez talks with Ryan Maxey, director of the film One Road to Quartzsite, about seeing his film make its world premiere and how he told the story of the diverse set of characters that converge on Quartzsite to try to escape the constraints of society.
The swamp towns of south Florida, where kids chase rabbits through the muck of cut sugar cane fields, produce NFL talent at a rate that's almost unseen anywhere else in the country. When Ira McKinley returned to his hometown of Pahokee, he knew he wanted to make a film about the resilience and excellence that's persevered on the shores of Lake Okeechobee despite poverty and crushing natural disasters. That film is Outta the Muck, and in this episode of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival podcast, Colter Nuanez talks with McKinley and Bhawin Suchak before its world premeire on Wednesday, February 23.
Deep in the mountains of Montana and Idaho, a diverse group of Southeast Asian refugees, Latino immigrants and rural white Americans search for rare fungi. In this episode of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival podcast, Colter Nuanez talks with Olivier Matthon and Michael Reis of the film Up on the Mountain about the people searching for this wild crop and the issues of access and inequity that threaten to end the harvest -- and take away their livelihoods.
Hockey is religion in northern Minnesota, where ponds freeze over, snow drifts deep and kids strap up skates as soon as they can walk. In this episode of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival podcast, ESPN Missoula's Colter Nuanez is joined by director Tommy Haines, producer Andrew Sherburne and cinematographer Ben Handler of the film Hockeyland, an up-close look at two high school hockey teams chasing a state championship while carrying the pressures of their puck-obsessed towns.
Quinn Brett was a hard-charging, record-setting mountain climber before a fall on Yosemite's famous El Capitan left her nearly dead and without the use of her legs. In the film An Accidental Life, director Henna Taylor intimately portrays Brett's arduous rehab and journey to find meaning in all that's been taken away from her. In this episode of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival podcast, Taylor and ESPN Missoula's Andrew Houghton discuss Brett's story and what drew Taylor to make such an emotional, wrenching film.
Being Michelle tells the incredible story of a deaf autistic woman who spent five years in Florida prisons, trapped in a system unable to accommodate or even recognize her needs. Now free, Michelle and her caretakers struggle to heal her traumas and keep her out of the criminal justice system that's already caused her so much pain. In this podcast, presented by the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and the Missoula Broadcasting Company, Colter Nuanez discusses Being Michelle with the film's director, Atin Mehra, as well as producers Mae Thornton Mehra and Harold Foxx.