A Quiet Place to Make Noise
8 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Brian Ziffer Northwest Premiere Big Sky Award Category

A Quiet Place to Make Noise is an abstract audio-visual exploration into the emotional depths of loss in nature. Utilizing time-lapse video, spoken words by Buddhist Philosopher, Alan Watts, and music by Japanese composer Joji Hirota, video artist Brian Ziffer intrigues us with the visual beauty of nature and allows us to meditate on our role and relationship to the surrounding natural world.

www.naoism.com

70 minutes, 2007 miniDV, Mexico/USA By Robert Kelly Northwest Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Along the 2,000 mile border separating the United States and Mexico sit the small desert communities of Columbus, New Mexico and Palomas, Mexico. Over the last decade these otherwise sleepy towns have become a hub for illegal immigration and drug trafficking. As the U.S. Congress considers border security and immigration reform, these towns are quickly becoming ground zero for a national debate. Profiling various agencies and residents on both sides of the border, Borderlands seeks to explore the unique relationship between these towns and the people that pass through them.  

Robert Kelly
www.borderlandsfilm.com

Fast Talkers
19 minutes, 2006 DVCAM, USA by Ariana Reguzzoni Northwest Regional Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Farm auctioneers sell off the last pieces of old farms with a rolling, hypnotic cadence. Their melody is replacing the sounds of tractors and cows in the American west, but it's also paving the way for a new generation of farmers. Meet one family in Idaho and the auctioneers who help them close a door on their past and move into the future.

arianareg@gmail.com

The Forest For the Trees
57 minutes, 2005 miniDV, USA by Bernadine Mellis Northwest Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

On May 29th, 1990, Earth First! organizer Judi Bari's car was bombed in Oakland, California. Within hours of the bombing, Bari was accused of transporting the explosives that had nearly killed her. She was then arrested and labeled a terrorist in the national media. The charges were later dropped. For the next 12 years, Bari and civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham would pursue a federal civil rights suit against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department. The Forest For The Trees is an intimate look at Bari and the legal battle that few believed she could win.

www.bullfrogfilms.com

Gates of the Arctic
57 minutes, 2007 HDCAM, USA By Rory Banyard Edited by Greg Snider Northwest Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Gates of the Arctic explores one of the wildest places in North America. Filmed in High Definition in Gates of the Arctic National Park and surrounding areas of Alaska, the film intertwines stories from Nunamiut Eskimo culture with those of Bob Marshall and Mardy Murie, passionate conservationists who were inspired by these stunning landscapes to start a national wilderness protection movement.

www.northshorepro.com

60 minutes, 2007 DVCAM, USA By Eames Yates World Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Montana Meth explores the physical and psychological damage caused by this particularly vicious drug, whose effects range from brain damage and tooth decay to skin lesions and death. It also shows law enforcement and the justice system’s efforts to grapple with the magnitude of the problem. Montana Meth paints a broad, harrowing picture of the meth problem in Montana, which ranks second in the nation for teenage and adult abuse of the drug. Produced by HBO in collaboration with the Montana Meth Project. This screening is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

www.hbo.com

Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown
63 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By David L. Brown Northwest Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown is an hour-long documentary on 95-year-old Woody Brown, a legend in the worlds of surfing, sailing and soaring. Brown has not only lived an extraordinary life of adventure that includes inventing the modern catamaran, setting world gliding records, and surfing Hawai'i's 25-foot surf in the early 1940s but also he has also done so with a kind of inspirational selflessness and generosity that have made him a role model for generations of Hawaiian surfers and sailors.

www.ofwindandwaves.com

Our Land, Our Life
75 minutes, 2007 miniDV, USA By Beth Gage and Geoge Gage World Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Carrie and Mary Dann are Native American Western Shoshone sisters fighting the United States Government for their land rights and human rights. In 1974 the U.S. sued the Danns for trespass. This dispute raged to the United States Supreme Court and eventually to the United Nations. Contrasting the Danns’ personal lives with their political actions, Our Land, Our Life examines why the United States would spend millions of dollars to prosecute and persecute two elderly women grazing their livestock in a desolate desert.

bggage@rmi.net

18 minutes, 2007 DVCAM, USA By Rod Bradley World Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Since childhood, artist Jacqueline Rieder Hud has viewed animals as kindred creatures who teach us about ourselves and our surrounding world. Painting the Wild not only portrays the artist as she grapples with painting the wild spirits of the horse and the wolf but also reveals her creative methods of spiritual healing and self-understanding.

www.boydogmovie.com

15 minutes, 2007 16mm, USA By Travis Peterson 2007 Big Sky Award World Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

In 1984 Leonard Knight stopped off at the side of the road in Slab City, California. Twenty five years later, he has built a mountain to God in the middle of the desert on land owned by no one. "I'm touchy about not mouthing off too much about God's love and all that, but I want the mountain to prove that I love him." People now come from all over to see the mountain, bringing paint and donations. At 74, Leonard lives on the mountain without running water or electricity. He works everyday.

travisjpeterson@gmail.com