Wellness Documentaries Headline Second Annual Hi-line Film Festival in Havre

Yellow Bus Creations is hosting the second annual Hi-line Documentary Film Festival February 22-24, 2008 at the Little Theatre at Montana State University Northern in Havre. Documentaries produced by local students and adults, filmmakers from across Montana and the U.S. will be shown, all chosen because they address the festivals focus on holistic, spiritual and mental health. The festival is sponsored by MSU-Northern, Opportunity Link, Montana Actor’s Theater, and the Havre Hill County Library.

2008 events include an amateur film contest and a Student Shorts competition, which will highlight 17 shorts created by students from around the state “It’s an opportunity for high school and college students to express in a public forum their thoughts and opinions about social issues they are most concerned about,” says Kevin Campbell, a member of Yellow Bus Creations. “We are very excited that the festival has grown so much from last year, from two Student Short submissions to seventeen, from a two-day event to three. We envision the festival will continue to expand, possibly lasting a full week.”

The evolution of the Hi-Line viewing and competition originated at a documentary film festival in Missoula in 2006 attended by Campbell and his wife Rita, film coordinator for the 2008 event. When they returned from Missoula, they began having conversations with fellow members of Yellow Bus Creations about developing a similar event in Havre. “Yellow Bus is all about starting dialogue about important social issues, with a particular focus on violence both locally and across the globe, and seeking peaceful solutions,” said Campbell. “We’re focusing on individual and environmental wellness this year, and to exposing viewers to the different types of healing that are working all over the world,” added Rita.

The festival opens with Michael Moore’s “Sicko” at 7:00 p.m. Friday, February 22nd, followed by a moderated discussion by the film coordinators. “Sicko”, a documentary released in 2007, drew international attention because of the films’ exposure of the United States health care system and how it compares to other systems worldwide. Other documentaries including “What the Bleep Do We Know”, “The Whisperer”, “Shortcut to Nirvana”, “Not In Our Town” and “Primary Colors” will be shown between 10:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Saturday, February 23rd. The Student Shorts showing, competition, and award for the best student short will conclude the festival from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 24th.

Yellow Bus Creations is a committed group of artisans and business people helping cultivate a more peaceful world by catalyzing social change through the promotion of creative, innovative expression. With a motto of “Think Global – Act Local”, Yellow Bus Creations is a grass-roots organization seeking to encourage healing across well-established barriers of culture, race, and sexual orientation through art, music and social activism. For more information about the Havre-based not-for-profit, visit http://yellowbuscreations.org or call (406) 262-2365.