By MSU News Service MSU NEWS SERVICE
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated for publication on Feb. 29, 2024.
Montana State University students and alumni screened their films at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula in late February.
Six graduate students in MSU’s Science and Natural History Filmmaking MFA program took part in the festival, which is the largest non-fiction film festival in the American West and runs from Feb. 19-29. The MFA program is housed in the School of Film and Photography within the College of Arts and Architecture.
Leif Everson’s documentary “Semi-Aquatic” was accepted into the festival’s main competition. Everson’s film can be viewed online throughout the festival at https://watch.eventive.org/bsdff24/play/65b0551b29fd0c004018b6f8.
Everson described his film as “an exploration of the interspecies relationship inside a fish hatchery.”
Five other MSU students’ films will be shown were part of a noncompetitive screening.
The directors and their film names and descriptions are listed below:
- Josh Bruni’s “Otters of Yellowstone” shows how river otters thrive during harsh winters in Yellowstone National Park.
- Andrew Motte’s “(Wild)life” illustrates the discordance between wildlife adaptation and human encroachment in the Arizona desert.
- Lindsay Coe’s “New Old Love” is an intimate portrayal of resilience in elderly romance.
- Jacqueline Ratliff’s “Racing the Dream” focuses on Charmayne Morrison and her dogs as they take on the Alaskan Wilderness in The Last Great Race.
- Braeden Meyer’s “Terra Draconis” explores the many opinions and values surrounding the collection of fossils for the sake of posterity or prosperity.
Two MSU alumni also directed films that were shown at the festival. A 2012 graduate, Danny Schmidt, showed the film “4DWN,” which centers around a Dallas skatepark and its role in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Zootown Arts Community Center. “A Buffalo Story,” a documentary examining the reintroduction of buffalo, by Colin Ruggiero, who graduated in 2005, was shown at The Wilma, 131 S. Higgins Ave., at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 18.
MSU professor Cindy Stillwell said the film school has had a long relationship with the documentary festival, which allows students to gain experience and expand their contact list.
“The festival experience allows our students to get a taste of what a film festival is all about,” she said. “They get to mingle with fellow filmmakers from around the world. They are exposed to contemporary filmmaking styles and professional opportunities to learn about the documentary filmmaking world beyond MSU.”
