Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Voted #1 Radio Station in the Missoula Valley, Trail 1033's Official Podcast makes exclusive on-air interviews, performances, new music and interesting conversations available to you on demand.
Enjoy daily uploads following community interviews on the Morning Trail show with Robert Chase, occasional live performances from both new and landmark bands and artists. Check out the Lunchbox every weekday at Noon, as Mike Smith dishes up a great block of themed music, interviews and more. New music your thing? Every Tuesday 6PM-7PM, enjoy The New Show hosted and produced by Tommy Evans.
Catch so much more interesting and timely conversation and, of course, amazing music from Robert, Mike and Tommy - LIVE- on The Trail 1033FM in Missoula and around the world at trail1033.com every day from 6AM until 9PM.
See what we're up to at trail1033.com or give us a call at 406-721-6800
Mike Smith: 10 o’clock in the morning on Trail 103.3, KDTR FM, Florence, Missoula. I’m Mike Smith, joined in the Trail studio by Julia Sherman. Hi, Julia.
Julia Sherman: Hi! How’s it going?
Mike Smith: Good, thanks. How are you?
Julia Sherman: So good. Happy to be here.
Mike Smith: And Greg, could you help me with your last name?
Greg Ragan: It’s Ragan.
Mike Smith: Greg Ragan, president of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Julia Sherman, the executive director, are back in the Trail studio to talk about some upcoming things, including, but not limited to, the Little Feat documentary.
Where do we start? Do we go all the way back to the early days of Little Feat, or do we just jump in?
Julia Sherman: Oh, yeah. I mean, the documentary tells the whole story, from their very beginnings to now, honestly. It goes all the way through modern times.
Mike Smith: Little Feat, an important band, to be sure. It was really nice to have Bill Payne, a founding member and keyboard player, here at the Trail. Not only because he’s an iconic member of this iconic band, but also because he’s just a great dude.
Julia Sherman: Absolutely.
Mike Smith: And speaking of the dude, Jeff Bridges is the narrator of this film.
Julia Sherman: He narrated the film, yes. He guides us through the whole history.
Mike Smith: Montana’s own. We claim him now.
Julia Sherman: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Nice. Okay, so this film showed at this past spring’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The turnout was good?
Julia Sherman: Yeah. We world-premiered the film. Director Jesse Lauter came with his whole team and Bill Payne for the Q&A.
Mike Smith: Yeah. And now you’re bringing it back for this screening.
Julia Sherman: This screening is part of our Big Sky Doc Film Series, which is a once-a-month collaboration with the Roxy Theater. They’ve been generous enough to give us a little bit of theater space once a month to bring in films that are either cutting-edge or back by popular demand.
We’ve been getting a lot of requests for Little Feat, and we wanted to bring it back to our new, improved sound system at the Roxy Theater.
Mike Smith: Absolutely. The speakers there are great. I saw a movie last week, and it was night and day. The sound is really coming through in there.
Greg, just asking you personally: Are you steeped in cinema, film, and documentary filmmaking?
Greg Ragan: Not so much. I don’t work in this space at all other than with Big Sky, but I’ve been on the Big Sky Film Festival board for five years.
Mike Smith: So you’ve ingested some films?
Greg Ragan: Oh, absolutely. I’ve been involved with the festival for 15 years, and I usually like to joke that I’ve had every volunteer position possible. Then they put me on the board.
The Big Sky Film Festival is my favorite Missoula event in the winter, absolutely. And I’m really excited that we’ve been doing this film series once a month at the Roxy.
Mike Smith: So let that be a lesson to you: If you volunteer too much, you might end up on a board.
Greg Ragan: Yeah.
Mike Smith: Julia Sherman, you’re not a stranger to us by any means, but can we run through your background? You came in years back with student filmmakers, way back when.
Julia Sherman: Yeah. I ran our education programs for about a decade—about eight years—and was pretty steeped in the world of youth education, youth outreach, and hands-on production courses.
Then I’ve been in the executive director role for the last three years or so. So I’m well-versed in all things Big Sky, on top of programming, watching films, and all that fun stuff.
Mike Smith: What’s the best way to get tickets for the Little Feat documentary?
Julia Sherman: You can go to the Roxy’s website. The movie is screening tonight at 7 p.m. It’s one screening only, so I suggest you get on there.
Mike Smith: I mean, this is kind of the perfect time of year. It’s fall. It’s documentary film time. It’s movie time.
I suggest you get your tickets straight away. Maybe get one for yourself and a friend, or you and your partner, so you can head down there. The film sold out at Big Sky Doc Fest.
Julia Sherman: We sold out the Wilma, which is a little bit bigger than the Roxy.
Mike Smith: Just a little bigger.
Julia Sherman: Yeah. There were seats available this time, but I would suggest getting tickets soon.
Mike Smith: Of course, you’ve got that triple-organic popcorn over there.
Julia Sherman: The best!
Mike Smith: The best movie theater concession stand that I’m aware of.
Okay, so Little Feat: The Documentary tonight. You know what to do.
By the way, Ear Candy is sponsoring, and it’s really nice to have an active, cool record store in that neighborhood.
Julia Sherman: Oh, totally. It’s the best record store in the Zootown. I’m very biased. I work there.
Mike Smith: Yes. I’m just kind of a fill-in guy, working on the weekends sometimes, but John is a good friend. Ear Candy has supplied 90% of my record collection.
One thing I love about that experience is that you can go in there and be the most knowledgeable person in the vinyl record store, and you’ll find things you like. Or maybe you just got a turntable and want to go in and check it out. It’s also a great record store for you.
They always ask if you’re looking for something special in particular. You can say, “Hey, I like this band. What else can you recommend?”
Julia Sherman: We really try. We’ve got so much stuff in there. If you want to come in and dig, it’s the store to go to. This is the place to go if you want to dig through the crates.
Mike Smith: What are the hours at Ear Candy? Could people go there before the screening?
Julia Sherman: They’ll be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.
Mike Smith: Perfect. And just so people know, that’s Monday through Friday, or Monday through Sunday?
Julia Sherman: Seven days a week. Monday through Saturday, they’re open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sunday, it’s noon to 5 p.m.
Mike Smith: Noon to 5. Okay, so they’re open seven days a week.
I just want to point out that the turntable you see here is sponsored by Ear Candy. They were kind enough to say, “Hey, if you guys want to play some vinyl records, we’ll sponsor it.”
Have we given enough love to John and everybody over at Ear Candy, including Greg?
Julia Sherman: Oh, yeah.
Mike Smith: Okay. Moving along, Greg Ragan and Julia Sherman with the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. What else is coming up?
Julia Sherman: For our November series, we’re screening the feature-length film Nuisance Bear. I don’t know if folks remember that, a few years back, we screened the short version of this film. They expanded it into a feature-length film.
Mike Smith: Perfect timing. That’s a good chilly-temperature film about the so-called nuisance polar bears around Churchill, Manitoba, in Canada.
Julia Sherman: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I read a great Variety article about it that described it as a David Attenborough film on acid.
Julia Sherman: Yeah.
Mike Smith: It gets you up close and personal with those big, big bears. And I know people around here are familiar with nuisance bears. This is on another level.
Polar bears are bigger beasts.
Julia Sherman: Oh, much bigger beasts.
Mike Smith: This isn’t the black bear up the Rattlesnake digging in your family’s garbage.
Julia Sherman: No. They’re bigger, stronger, and a little scarier.
Mike Smith: And they’re walking the streets downtown.
Julia Sherman: Yeah.
Mike Smith: There’s something about polar bears, too. I need to look this up, but I’ve heard you can’t really tell by their countenance or their face whether they’re going to do something or not, which is different from grizzlies and black bears here.
Julia Sherman: Yeah, a little harder to read, for sure.
Mike Smith: And that screening is Tuesday, November 10th?
Julia Sherman: Yes. These screenings typically happen on Tuesday evenings.
Then in December, we’re doing a Big Sky Doc Fest fan-favorite short-film block on Tuesday, December 8th. We’re bringing back Boys of Summer, Community Theater, and Sally’s Ashes. Co-director Javier Evans is coming for that Q&A.
Mike Smith: Oh, cool. So we’ll have a filmmaker in attendance. Can you remind us what Boys of Summer and those other two films are about?
Julia Sherman: Yeah. They’re kind of about the passage of time and growing older.
Boys of Summer, particularly, is a heartwarming story about boys who go out to summer camp, removed from technology. They’re in a situation where their people skills and community-building skills are developed and guided by camp counselors. It helps them in ways that boys sometimes have a harder time with socially.
They spend a whole summer together, and you see their relationships grow. You see the boys grow in confidence. It’s a really beautiful film.
Mike Smith: It’s so sweet. And it’s that awkward age of 12 to 18.
You’re watching and thinking, “Oh, God, I do not miss being that age,” but it’s also so nostalgic.
Julia Sherman: And Community Theater is set in Scotland. It’s a group of young kids who are reenacting stories from their community, which is super sweet and very heartwarming.
Then Sally’s Ashes follows a group of older women. It was actually our highest-grossing short film at Big Sky this past year. People loved it.
Mike Smith: Nice.
Julia Sherman: A woman gets diagnosed with cancer, and her friends rally behind her. It’s a really sweet story about the importance of community and friendship. It also shows that you’re never too old to pursue your dreams or make a positive change.
It’s a sweet film.
Mike Smith: Greg, this seems to be what documentary filmmaking is all about.
Greg Ragan: Absolutely.
Mike Smith: What’s your favorite thing about this particular style of film?
Greg Ragan: There are just so many stories to be told, and so many different ways to tell them.
My favorite thing—and I learned this through my involvement with the Big Sky Film Festival—is that there are so many ways to tell a story. Documentary filmmaking offers so many ways to explore different parts of a story.
When you get to know the directors and editors of these films, you see how much they cut out. They have all this footage, and they have to figure out where to find the story they want to tell through the editing process.
It’s all real life, reflected through someone’s lens—the storyteller’s lens.
Mike Smith: Julia, we’ve talked about this over the years. Can you encapsulate your favorite thing about documentary filmmaking, or your ideas behind it?
Julia Sherman: Oh, gosh. There’s so much.
I think my favorite aspect of documentary as a form is that, even when it’s a subject matter you think you’re familiar with, some of the best films approach it in a way that makes you care about subjects you had no idea about—or didn’t even know you should care about.
I think documentaries are really additive and generative in nature. A good film makes you feel smarter when you walk out of the theater. The same goes for getting to know the filmmakers.
I wanted to mention one other thing about the film series, too. People are probably reading about mergers and all these bigger streaming platforms. A lot of these films don’t get picked up for distribution after the festival circuit.
Mike Smith: Right.
Julia Sherman: That’s another part of this partnership. We’re trying to make space for films that sometimes don’t go anywhere after their festival run, or where filmmakers have to self-distribute and get creative with distribution because there isn’t as much support for the little guys.
We’re trying to build that into our community programming.
Mike Smith: Definitely.
Julia Sherman: We want to keep those films coming back and keep the conversations going because we’re more than just a 10-day festival. That’s how people know us, of course, but we also have our youth education programs. We’re doing this film series, and we have a whole arm of artist-development programs.
I think it’s all about exposure and bringing more opportunities both to our community and to the filmmakers who want their films to get out there.
Mike Smith: That’s an important part of it, too.
Well, I want to thank you both for coming in. I also want to thank Greg Ragan and Julia Sherman with the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival for keeping us informed—not only through documentary film, but also about everything else you have going on.
I love the fact that you keep us informed. There’s often a discussion about why films, and these particular films, are important. I really appreciate that anytime I get an email from your group.
It’s lovely to know that there’s a group of people in Missoula working on this, and that there’s a whole world of film you’re drawing from. We appreciate the work you do to spread the word.
Julia Sherman: Thank you!
Julia Sherman: I’ll also say that if folks want to get on our newsletter list, that’s a great way to find out what’s screening next month in the film series and when our tickets and passes go on sale.
Our passes will go on sale the week of Thanksgiving, so that’s coming up next month. I think I’m a little early mentioning it, but there’s a pretty hefty discount.
Mike Smith: Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, well, I say we play some Little Feat, just because.
Julia Sherman: That’s a good reason.
Greg Ragan: Absolutely.
Mike Smith: We need an excuse to play this awesome band.
Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Julia. You’re tuned in to Trail 103.3.