Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Announces 2009 Official Selections

The 2009 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org has
announced the Official Selections for the annual 10-day event,
February 13-22. Now in its sixth year, the 2009 installment includes
143 extraordinary films from more than 30 countries, a selection
chosen from nearly 1000 submissions. The 2009 program is truly
distinguished, offering the most diverse exhibition of work to ever
screen under the Big Sky.

This year’s films cover the gamut of possibilities within the
non-fiction form, with topics ranging from the ivory-billed
woodpecker to art cars; from rock docs to opera; from Antarctica to
Swaziland! Special presentations include retrospectives of filmmakers
Ron Mann & Joe Berlinger (both in attendance) and a live musical
accompaniment to silent film by the world renowned Alloy Orchestra.

Now expanded to 10 days, downtown Missoula’s historic Wilma Theatre,
the 1100-seat venue that houses Montana’s largest screen, once again
hosts the visual immersion into a world where reality plays itself.
With packed audiences of avid moviegoers, most films are accompanied
by a Q&A with their respective filmmakers.

Screening passes are now available for purchase at
<http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org/ tickets.html> A full schedule of
events will be published later this week. For more information visit
<http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org> or sign up for RSS feed at the Big
Sky Blog <http://bigskydocff.blogspot.com/>

2009 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Official Selections

Documentary Feature Competition

Automorphosis
Director: Harrod Blank

The Beetle
Director: Yishai Orian

Boy Interrupted
Director: Dana Perry

Crude
Director: Joe Berlinger

Edge Of The World
Director: Dan Stone

Flicker
Director: Nik Sheehan

Prodigal Sons
Director: Kimberley Reed

Rock-A-Fire Explosion
Director: Brett Whitcomb

Rough Aunties
Director: Kim Longinotto

Documentary Short Competition

Bronx Princess
Director: Yoni Brook & Musa Syeed

A Day Late in Oakland
Director: Zachary Stauffer

The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico
Director: Peter Jordan

Intifada NYC
Director: David Teague

Living Lightly
Director: Robin Burke

Pickin’ & Trimmin’
Director: Matt Morris

Big Sky Award Competition

Carts of Darkness
Director: Murray Siple

Ghost Mountain Experiment
Director: John McDonald

I Love Alaska
Directors: Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug

In Place Out of Time
Director: Erin Hudson

March Point
Directors: Tracy Rector, Annie Silverstein, Nick Clark, Cody Cayou,
Travis Tom

Red Gold
Directors: Emily Long & Ben Knight

Summer Sun Winter Moon
Director: Hugo Perez

Upstream Battle
Director: Ben Kempas

MiniDoc Competition

Arts Magna
Director: Sean Roach

Before the Sea
Director: Charlene Music

Beholder
Director: Eric Metzgar

Bloodsucker
Director: Meghan O’Hara

The Champ
Director: Peter Jordan

Click Whoosh
Director: Reid Kuennen

Coober: A Desert Speedway Story
Directors: Caro Macdonald & Tanya Curnow

I Can See Everything
Directors: Kristine Samuelson & John Haptas

Jennifer
Director: Stewart Copeland

Reverse Graffiti Project
Director: Doug Pray

Roz & Joshua
Director: Charlene Music

The Secret Life of Beards
Director: Melanie Levy

Special Presentations

Opening Night Film

Thriller in Manila
Director: John Dower

Free Screening Sponsored by HBO

Ron Mann Retrospective – Filmmaker In Attendance!

Comic Book Confidential
Grass
Imagine the Sound
Poetry in Motion
Tales of the Rat Fink
Twist

Joe Berlinger Retrospective – Filmmaker In Attendance!

Brother’s Keeper
Gray Matter
Iconoclasts: Sean Penn & Jon Krakauer
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Woods
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Live Musical Accompaniment to the Classic Silent Film

South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919)
Director : Frank Hurley
Performed by the World Renowned
Alloy Orchestra

Music Docs with Brendan Canty & Christoph Green – Filmmakers In Attendance!

Bob Mould: Circle of Friends
Burn to Shine: Seattle
Instrument
Ashes of American Flags (Wilco Tour Film)

Preview Screenings

Rocaterrania
Director: Brett Ingram

The Way We Get By
Director: Aron Gaudet

Whatever it Takes
Director: Christopher Wong

OUT OF AFRICA SIDEBAR

Africa11
Director: Stefan Lukacs

Milking the Rhino
Director: David E. Simpson

The Choir
Director: Michael Davie

Today the Hawk Takes One Chick
Director: Jane Gillooly

Throw Down Your Heart
Director: Sascha Paladino

Tucheze
Directors: Benjamin Kirk Nielsen & Emil M. Morell

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

(Plus three competition films, Bronx Princess and Rough Aunties)

International Documentary Challenge Showcase

Arts Magna
Director: Sean Roach

Before the Sea
Director: Charlene Music

Beholder
Director: Eric Metzgar

Bend & Bow
Director: Maya Mumma

Click Whoosh
Director: Reid Kuennen

Fiercely Independent
Director: Laurie Collins

I=me2
Director: Kevin Thomas

Ice Fishing
Director: Ari Cohen Jetty & Courtney Hermann

Meet the Freegans
Director: Travis Sheilds

Red Light Blues
Director: Erga Netz

Stick & Pound
Director: Tony Nguyen

Official Selections Screening Out Of Competition

Shorts

10 Short Documentaries of My Childhood Home
Director: Dorothea Braemer

111 Degrees Longitude
Directors: Cindy Stillwell & Yuri Makino

Bingo Nation
Director: Stephanie Stender

Bloomfield or A Childhood Memory
Director: Eran Barak

Bob’s Knee
Director: Mike Attie

Body Job
Director: Joanne Nereuberg

The Bush Man
Director: Hanh Nguyen

Coney Island’s for the Birds
Director: Alexis Neophytides

Dead Lonesome
Director: Joe Taylor

Frontier Youth
Director: John Kane

Hair Cowboy
Director: Patrick Robins

Jobsite
Director: John Nizzari

The Last Butcher in Little Italy
Director: Laura Terruso

Lessons in America Episode 17: Montana
Director: Andrew Sobey

Mare Liberum
Director: Dr. Robert Batcelor & Sari Gilbeert

Matchstick Traveller
Director: Mareike Wegener

The Mongolian Marmot
Director: Thomas Winston

Monster Dudes
Director: Lance Bauscher

Mrs. Henderson’s Kids
Director: Veena Rao

Naturally Obsessed
Director: Richard Rifkind & Carole Rifkind

No Strings Attached
Director: Lisa Whitmer

The Oldest Tree
Director: Dale Elrod

Omen
Director: Oksana Sokol

Pigeon Men
Director: Marryanne Christodoulou

Propaganda Repolution
Director: Jeremy Flores

Say Cheese: The Hamburger Harry Story
Director: Erin Szwejkowski

Secret: The Josephine Baker FBI Files
Director: Kathy Corley

Smile Boston Project
Director: David Tames

Water Paper Time
Director: Gretchen Hogue

Features

All of Us
Director: Emily Abt

American Swing
Directors: Mathew Kaufman & Jon Hart

As Slow As Possible
Director: Scott Smith

Ask Not
Director: Johnny Symons

Blast!
Director: Paul Devlin

Bone Crusher
Director: Michael Fountain

Carny
Director: Alison Murray

Chasing Birds
Director: Greg Woodland

Chicago Block
Director: Ingeborg Jansen

Crude Independence
Director: Noah Hutton

Delta Rising
Directors: Michael Afendakis, Laura Bernieri & Matt Goff

The Dhamma Brothers
Directors: Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein & Andrew Kukura

Fire Under the Snow
Director: Makoto Sasa

The Garden
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes
Director: Peter Rosen

Gogol Bordello: Never Stop
Director: Margarita Jimeno

Goth Cruise
Director: Jeanie Finlay

The Greening of Southie
Directors: Ian Cheney & Curtis Ellis

Guest of Cindy Sherman
Directors: Tom Donahue & Paul HO

Hotel Gramercy Park
Director: Douglas Keeve

I Think We’re Alone Now
Director: Sean Donnelly

Immokalee U.S.A.
Director: Georg Koszulinski

In A Dream
Directors: Jeremy Yaches & Jeremiah Zagar

Killer Poet
Director: Susan Gray

Life.Support.Music
Director: Eric Metzgar

The Lord God Bird: The Enduring Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Director: George Butler

Lost in the Fog
Director: John Corey

Mellodrama
Director: Dianna Dilworth

The Money Fix
Director: Alan Rosenblith

A Nashville State of Mind
Directors: John-Martin Vogel & Eric LaRocca Mainade

Number One With a Bullet
Director: Jim Dziura

One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story
Director: Thomas Miller

Out Late
Directors: Jennifer Brooke & Beatrice Alda

Song Sung Blue
Director: Greg Kohs

Summerchild
Director: Iris Olsson

Sync or Swim
Director: Cheryl Furjanic

Tattooed Under Fire
Director: Nancy Schiesari

That’s My Time
Director: Adamm Liley

We Are Wizards
Director: Josh Koury

Who Does She Think She Is?
Director: Pamela T. Boll

Witch Hunt
Directors: Don Hardy & Dana Nachman

2009 Festival Sponsors

Bresnan Communications, HBO Documentary Films, Montana Film Office,
The Washington Foundation, Montana PBS, Montana Public Radio, KGBA,
Rockin’ Rudy’s, Missoula Art Museum, First Security Bank,
NorthWestern Energy, The Independent, Sony, Media 100,
Edgewater/Doubletree, Best Western Grant Creek Inn, Red Lion Inn
Missoula, Campus Inn, Big Sky Brewery, Ten Spoon Winery, Thomas
Kemper Soda, Porta Brace, Docurama, Vann’s Electronics.

Mike Steinberg
Festival Director / Programmer
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
131 South Higgins Avenue, Suite 307
Missoula, Montana 59802
(406) 541-FILM
http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org