Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

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

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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.