BSDFF Education Outreach

We believe documentaries are so awesome that we bring directors of our films right to the kids. We show the flick then do a discussion after, presenting students with topics and ideas they may not have been exposed to otherwise. Here's a list of the films and their directors that are being featured at schools around the area. Nice work to our Education Director, Nicole Payton, and thanks to the directors for taking time to chat with young Missoulians.

Andrew Wainrib of Cohen on the Bridge at Hellgate HS

Jan Shelby, Stewart Copeland and Mike Workman at Big Sky HS

Briar March of There Once Was an Island at Big Sky HS

Chico Colvard of Family Affair to UM *

Briar March of There Once Was an Island at Sentinel HS

Tracy Rector of Unreserved at BSHS

Tracy Rector of Unreserved at Willard HS

Andrew James of Cleanflix at Big Sky

Tracy Rector of Unreserved at Arlee HS & MS

Richard Boehm of Sold American at UM

Steward Copeland of Let Your Feet Do the Talkin' at Sentinel HS

Patrick Norman of Pinned at Big Sky HS

Tracy Rector of Unreserved at UM

Rainer Komers of Milltown, Montana at Sentinel HS *

Stewart Copeland of Let Your Feet Do the Talkin' and Maria Foritz Morse at Hellgate HS

Talal Jabari of Full Signal at Big Sky HS *

Patrick Norman of Pinned at Sentinel

*Still tentative

Uke-can Do It!

We interview Tony Coleman, co-director of Mighty Uke, playing opening night (Friday the 12th) at the fest.

BS: What made you interested in making this film? Do you have a musical background? Did you simply find it an engaging story you wanted to tell?

TC: I was a professional musician in my salad days, but got in film-making so I wouldn't starve. My big sister was a nursery school teacher and played ukulele for her kids. She passed away about a decade ago and I inherited her ukulele. The music coming out the darn thing was so joyful, I couldn't put it down. When I started searching the net for more info about it, I discovered this secret world of players and fans that just kept growing and growing. My partner Marg and I had been looking for a project to work on together and voila, MIGHTY UKE presented itself to us.

BS: Any interesting tidbits about the film?

TC: We originally intended to make a short film about the revival of the instrument. Then one day we were in a coffee shop in our hometown Toronto having our morning espresso when documentarian Ron Mann walks in. Jacked up on caffeine I shamelessly introduced myself and started blabbing on about this uke film we were making. Ron was intrigued and asked us to send him what we had. He liked it and suggested that he could get some broadcasters interested. Not long after, we had two broadcast deals and real money to make the first definitive doc about the ukulele.

When we started this film a couple of years ago, one of the first things we did was set up a google news alert for the word "ukulele". At first, we would get one or two notices a week, telling us that the word had appeared in a newspaper or magazine. Today we get between 10 and twenty a day.

Marg and I shot, recorded, edited, animated, and produced the film in our living room in HD and surround sound. I still marvel that this is all possible with a Mac and a couple of very affordable HD cameras.

BS: Where else is the film showing this year?

TC: Toronto, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York, Melbourne Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and many more.

BS: Do you, in fact, play the uke?

TC: I do play and have had the opportunity to lift the tricks of some of the greats of the instrument in our film. I would edit with the uke within arms reach. Marg had no musical background but started playing because of the film. Now she is a wonderful player with her own rhythm and style.

BS: Why documentary?

TC: I have edited feature films, tv shows, music video and documentaries for the CBC in Canada. I find docs to be the most creative and interesting of all of these types of media. The magic happens in the edit suite to a much greater degree.

Mighty Uke, a film about the resurgence of ukulele playing, will screen this Friday at 10pm.

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Robert Drew added to Big Sky line up

This just in...

Documentary legend Robert Drew will present a special screening of THE SUN SHIP GAME at the 2010 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Drew, the founder and creator of the modern documentary movement - Cinema Verite, as it became known - began his career in the early 1960s when he formed Drew Associates, and hired freelance cameramen and filmmakers, some of whom, such as D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles, went on to define the form. For over 50 years, Drew has produced and directed films including seminal work such as PRIMARY (1960) CRISIS (1963) and ON THE ROAD WITH DUKE ELLINGTON (1974).

Unavailable in any form until now, Drew's 1969 film THE SUN SHIP GAME about George Moffat and Gleb Derujinsky, master glider pilots in competition for the 1969 U.S. National Soaring Championship in Marfa, Texas, will screen at BSDFF on Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 at 5:45 PM. The film features breathtaking photography and uncommon intimacy, voyaging with both pilots into the sky at a regional contest in Vermont and into wild weather with eighty three other competitors in Marfa, Texas. Through eight days of hard flying in skies alternately filled with brilliant beauty and black violence, their two approaches arrive at a dramatic conclusion and one of them is named the U.S. Champion. Suppressed for over 40 years due to copyright issues, the presentation of THE SUN SHIP GAME, marks the World Premier public screenings of a lost masterpiece. Robert Drew will be on hand for Q&A following the screening.

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