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Mike Smith: Well, among other things, it's go time for the Montana Film Festival! And on The Trail 103.3, KDTR FM Florence, Missoula, Mike Emmons. Hello!
Mike Emmons: Hey, how's it going?
Mike Smith: Good. How are you?
Mike Emmons: Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me.
Mike Smith: You feel like you've got all the energy necessary to dive into this week.
Mike Emmons: I bet I'd better!
Mike Smith: And having some of our coffee.
Mike Emmons: That's right.
Mike Smith: And making the media rounds. Nice to have you at The Trail today. This is about the time we like to focus on cool things, important things happening in and around our area.
I was at the Roxy Theater over the weekend, and I saw the trailer for the Montana Film Festival. Really cool stuff!
Mike Emmons: Yes, that is by my old friend Russ Curry. He's our trailer editor and does many of our trailers. I think this is his fourth or fifth one.
Mike Smith: Yeah, it's fantastic. It was one of those things where I was like, "Whoa!" I'm a guy who's edited plenty of audio over the years, but just to put that together and have it pull you right in is impressive.
Mike Emmons: It's a huge undertaking every year. Russ makes a point, I think, to include every film we can.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: We have 39 films this year, so you're seeing a really wide swath of the lineup in that trailer. The music is from a short film we have from India called Guitar Hero.
Mike Smith: Cool.
Mike Emmons: And those filmmakers are coming. I think one of them is coming from Mumbai to the festival, so I think they'll be very surprised and delighted when they see that.
Mike Smith: From Mumbai to Missoula!
Mike Emmons: Yes.
Mike Smith: And back. Cool. Well, that's cool. You can actually check out the teaser without going to the Roxy Theater, although you should go to the Roxy. It's at MontanaFilmFestival.org.
Where does it all start? You and everybody involved in the organization share a love of film, and you and I have talked about this before. What was your earliest memory of thinking, "Oh, this is cool. I want to be involved in this"?
Mike Emmons: Gosh, I mean, I grew up in Missoula, and it was probably going to the Wilma and the Crystal Theater.
Mike Smith: Oh, I remember the Crystal!
Mike Emmons: Right! But, yeah, my parents weren't big film people, necessarily, but there was just sort of more of a reason to go to things. There was less to do in Missoula in the '80s and '90s.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: They would take me to stuff that maybe I wasn't fully ready for.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: But that really made an impression on me. There's a film by Bruce Beresford called Black Robe. I remember seeing it, I think, in the basement of the Wilma. I was probably maybe 10 years old.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: And that movie just rewired my brain. Later, in college, I got much more into film as something I wanted to do with my life.
Mike Smith: In this town, it can come to you. I grew up in Bozeman, and they had a film festival down there during my childhood. My parents were similar. They weren't cinephiles, but they went to the various happenings.
Mike Emmons: Yeah.
Mike Smith: I think that's where it kind of comes to us.
Mike Emmons: Which is why you did!
Mike Smith: My wife is much more knowledgeable about film than I am. But I think I eventually learned more than your average person out there in the world, just because of the Roxy Theater and the various film festivals, especially the Montana Film Festival.
Mike Emmons: That's what we strive to do. That means so much to hear that. Thank you so much.
Mike Smith: And it just kind of rounds out an average guy like myself.
Mike Emmons: Yeah.
Mike Smith: So that's perfect. There are some cool events in and around the festival that we can talk about, but let's dive right into the meat of it. What are some of the films you'd like to discuss this morning?
Mike Emmons: Well, I definitely want to discuss our opening-night films because they're both fantastic, and they're both playing again on Sunday, so you can see both.
First, there's a 35-millimeter projection of the 50th-anniversary screening of The Missouri Breaks. The movie was shot here in the state and stars Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando. It's sort of a neo-Western, directed by Arthur Penn and written by Thomas McGuane, who's still based out here.
Mike Smith: Still here, yeah.
Mike Emmons: Still in Montana. It's just a beautiful movie. I watched the first reel of the print, and it looks amazing. It's such a weird and fun Western, so unlike anything else. I really, really urge people to check that out.
Mike Smith: It's going to have that cool, quirky Montana vibe that Thomas McGuane brings to it.
Mike Emmons: Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Smith: You mentioned a 35-millimeter print. What does that do that digital doesn't?
Mike Emmons: It makes the viewing experience more interesting because anything could happen. It becomes more of a high-wire act. Things can go wrong, and you know there's someone attentive to what's happening. You're in the hands of someone. They didn't just push a button and walk away.
The projectionist becomes part of the experience. And I think it just looks much better. The darks are darker, and you get that sense of the edit. More often than not, the edit was made for 35-millimeter projection, so it fits a little better.
You feel the celluloid, that rhythm of the celluloid. I really feel like it pulls you in.
Mike Smith: Yeah, I agree.
Mike Emmons: I'm there.
Mike Smith: It becomes a more collective, immediate, and immersive experience, I feel.
Mike Emmons: Exactly.
Mike Smith: Okay, so The Missouri Breaks.
Mike Emmons: Yes. And then we're off and running! Another film we have those nights, Thursday night and then again Sunday afternoon, is In Memoriam. It's a new film by Robert Schwartzman, who directed The Fundamentals of Caring. He also was the executive producer of Worldwide Pants, the company that made Late Night with David Letterman for decades.
Mike Smith: And he's a humor guy.
Mike Emmons: Yes, exactly. This is a dark comedy starring Marc Maron.
Mike Smith: I love Marc Maron!
Mike Emmons: He's been through a lot.
Mike Smith: He would be a really interesting and tiring person to be around.
Mike Emmons: Maybe on a regular basis, but I'm fascinated by what he has to say.
Mike Smith: Yeah, he's got some real depth to him.
Mike Emmons: This is a perfect role for him because it's a comedy, but it's very much tinged with darkness and grief. In one of the first scenes of the film, he's diagnosed with terminal cancer.
His quest over the course of the film is to get into the In Memoriam montage at the Oscars. Even though he's become a television actor, he's no longer a film actor.
Mike Smith: Right, right.
Mike Emmons: He's running up against that bias, and along the way, he explores his life and the choices he's made in both his personal life and his career.
The supporting cast is fantastic, including Lily Gladstone.
Mike Smith: Boom!
Mike Emmons: Yeah. Lily Gladstone plays an end-of-life therapist who counsels him. But there's also Sharon Stone, Judy Greer, Michael Biehn, and Talia Ryder. It's a fantastic supporting cast.
I haven't seen a lot of Marc Maron's acting work. I was a fan of his podcast, but I hadn't seen many of his performances.
Mike Smith: WTF, the podcast!
Mike Emmons: Yeah. He's a remarkably phenomenal actor, and this is an amazing showcase of his body of work.
Mike Smith: Cool. So that's what's on. What else?
Mike Emmons: We have six other features, and well over 30 shorts. There are 33 shorts across five blocks.
Mike Smith: And those will be blocks?
Mike Emmons: Yes. We like to set our blocks around themes. One has a theme of desperation that carries through the block. Another is reserved for darker, more surrealist storytelling.
We also have two blocks that are entirely Montana-made. One is all Westerns, some of which are much more unconventional than others. There's a Western called The Blistering Blundering West that's sort of a Buster Keaton pastiche. It's very, very well done.
We also have a block of films made right here in Missoula: three extraordinary films, all fun and bizarre and wonderful. Those are Egg, Dead Air, and Ghost Fish, all of which were made right here in Missoula.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: They have this energy that I don't think many other communities have. There's a shaggy, scrappy energy to those films. We're calling that block "Micro-Budget Missoula" because these films were made more out of a sense of community and partnership than a huge budget.
I'm over the moon about that block. I really urge people to check those out.
Mike Smith: I'm still in disbelief about the talent, the level of talent that we have here.
Mike Emmons: It's absolutely extraordinary. I think it's a secret that America is slowly waking up to.
Mike Smith: Oh, slowly!
Mike Emmons: It might not be that slowly, but, yeah, you're absolutely right.
Mike Smith: The Montana Film Festival is showcasing those films and more. I'm speaking with Mike Emmons, the artistic director of the Montana Film Festival.
Folks can go to every screening, or they can just pick a few. Maybe you're interested in one or two things.
Mike Emmons: We've designed the festival so that any random person could go to every feature, at least. We really hope people will make it their weekend.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: And take it from me: you don't need a lot of film knowledge to enjoy the festival.
Mike Smith: Not at all. Dive right in.
Mike Emmons: Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Smith: Go see some cool and interesting things.
Mike Emmons: You can't go wrong. We've had films that have gone on to be nominated for and win Academy Awards, and we have films that maybe the Montana Film Festival is your only chance to see.
That's kind of our approach: programming what we love and what we think our audience will love.
Mike Smith: I think this also applies to the Roxy Theater itself, which is home to the Montana Film Festival. It's just better to see movies and films with other people.
Mike Emmons: Absolutely.
Mike Smith: On that screen, with the new sound system—
Mike Emmons: Yeah, the new sound and the new screen. It's just been remarkable.
Mike Smith: What a blessing. That has been so remarkable. I was just remembering how comfortable I am in the theater seats.
Mike Emmons: In the theater! We strived for that at the Roxy.
Mike Smith: Which wasn't necessarily the case in the beginning. There were seats, and there was some wine, but these seats are comfy!
Hey, the opening-night party is coming up on Thursday.
Mike Emmons: Yes.
Mike Smith: You can kick off the 12th annual Montana Film Festival with a gathering in the Roxy's Rock City Lounge. Love that lounge!
Mike Emmons: Thank you.
Mike Smith: It's perfect for this. You're right there. The party will end, and the movies will begin.
Then, of course, we also have our Hip Strip Soirée on Saturday night.
Mike Emmons: This year, it overlaps with the last screening a little bit. So there's an initial rush, and then there's another big rush when people get out of that final screening.
It's at a new venue this year: the Missoula Handicraft and Arts Center, what used to be Le Petit, which can still be a public space.
Mike Smith: Yeah, that's cool.
Mike Emmons: Often, things make their way to Flippers afterward.
Mike Smith: The unofficial after-party!
Mike Emmons: The unofficial after-party.
Mike Smith: Cool. MontanaFilmFestival.org. Let's get some parting thoughts together, Mike Emmons.
Mike Emmons: I would really urge people to check out the entire lineup. I only mentioned the opening-night films, but there are so many others worth seeing.
There's a film I think is one of the very best films of the year called The Chronovisor. It's made by two fellas, Jack Allen and Kevin Walker, who go by Cosmic Salon.
It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's like an Indiana Jones story, but if you never left his office.
Mike Smith: (Laughs.)
Mike Emmons: That sounds a little insane, but it's like an intellectual action movie. It's about an academic who starts tracking down this fabled device, which is based on a real myth. The device, the Chronovisor, supposedly allows you to see the past.
Mike Smith: Right.
Mike Emmons: It's sort of one of those more obscure conspiracy theories.
Mike Smith: No way! I saw the trailer for this one, and it has a vibe that really pulls you in.
Mike Emmons: Yeah. We showed five minutes of it to some folks, and they were just like, "Okay, sign me up!"
Mike Smith: It's got more of that place—
Mike Emmons: It's a thriller, like a thriller noir.
Mike Smith: And it's going to be out there!
Mike Emmons: Yeah, just an extraordinary film.
If you saw Camp at the Queer West Film Festival, one of the filmmakers from that film is joining us with another film, Drinking and Driving. It's a superb film about being sort of aimless in your 20s, in this case in Missoula.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: I related immensely to this movie, and I think a lot of Missoulians will as well.
Baby Love is another terrific movie, set and shot around Anaconda, about a female MMA fighter. We'll have two chances to see it, and the filmmaking crew will be around for the second screening, so don't miss that.
Mike Smith: Oh, nice!
Mike Emmons: Yeah. I just urge people, first of all, to get a pass because I believe that after six screenings, it pays for itself. If you're committed to making it your weekend, that's the way to go.
And introduce yourself to all the visiting filmmakers. We'll have well over 20 visiting filmmakers.
Mike Smith: Yeah.
Mike Emmons: I like the idea that you have these seasoned filmmakers alongside, as you said, the scrappy upstarts and everything in between.
Mike Smith: Yeah, and we love those pairings.
Mike Emmons: We love how many shorts blocks feature first-time filmmakers. We have a filmmaker visiting who's still in high school and just made this amazing animated film called The Executioner. I couldn't believe it when I found out he's still in high school.
Mike Smith: Youngest filmmaker we've ever had!
Mike Emmons: And being able to introduce him to Robert Schwartzman and Jerry Rafter is going to be so exciting.
Mike Smith: Oh, fun!
MontanaFilmFestival.org for more. It gets underway on Thursday.
Mike Emmons: Over 20 seconds!
Mike Smith: All right. Have a great week.
Mike Emmons: Thank you so much, Mike.
Mike Smith: Thank you so much, Mike. We'll look forward to seeing you at the Montana Film Festival.
Mike Emmons: All right.
Mike Smith: Have a great day. You are indeed tuned into The Trail 103.3.