Monday, January 5, 2009

BIG SKY DOCS 

2009 OFFICIAL FESTIVAL SELECTIONS


January 5, 2009

Missoula, Montana – The 2009 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 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 bigskyfilmfest.org/ tickets.html.

A full schedule of events will be published later this week.


For more information, visit bigskyfilmfest.org

Or sign up for RSS feed at the Big Sky Blog bigskydocff.blogspot.com


2009 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Official Selections:


Documentary Feature Competition


At The Edge Of The World

Director: Dan Stone


Automorphosis

Director: Harrod Blank


The Beetle

Director: Yishai Orian


Boy Interrupted

Director: Dana Perry


Crude

Director: Joe Berlinger


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


Crude Independence

Director: Noah Hutton


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: Travis Rummel & 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


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


Jetty

Director: 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


Western Brothers Adventure Story

Matt Xauthopolos




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


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.