The 21st annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival returns February 16-25, 2024 in Missoula, Montana featuring over 150 nonfiction films, and a virtual program streaming online February 19-29.
The official selections in the 21st year lineup include 49 features and 73 short documentary films including 40 World Premieres, 7 North American Premieres and 7 U.S. Premieres. The Big Sky program reflects a strong diversity of storytelling from across the globe, exploring true stories of resistance art, peculiar and majestic wildlife, Indigenous wisdom, social (in)justice, hopeful youth, and what it means to live in the turbulent realities of 21st century life.
“Overall, our 2024 line-up is striking in the depth of original and creative storytelling from independent filmmakers whose subjects range from deeply personal and intimate unearthing of family history to those tackling challenging global issues, as well as investigations of microscopic organisms and as yet to be discovered universes,” says 2024 Guest Director of Programming Joanne Feinberg. “By providing a venue for artists to share their visionary stories, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival supports courageous and creative filmmakers to continue making their critically vital and inspirational work, and encourages audiences to seek it out.”
The festival will present a very special retrospective of films by director Jeanie Finlay, at last returning to Big Sky which was the first festival to show her work, premiering Teenland at Big Sky 2008. A recipient of the Chicken & Egg award, Jeanie has an honorary Doctorate from Nottingham Trent University and has been honored by Criterion and MOMI retrospectives and many awards for her films, including Emmy and BIFA and Grierson nominations. The retrospective program includes 12 films from Jeanie’s repertoire, including her newest film, the critically acclaimed audience favorite Your Fat Friend.
In addition to open call selections, the program includes a specially curated program on Civics, Freedom, and Democracy: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union. A collection of historical and contemporary documentary films that provide critical perspective and remind us of the power of civic engagement, putting people over politics and celebrating the humanity in democracy. The lineup also includes short films made by youth filmmakers in Big Sky Film Institute’s education programs, a special strand on The Mighty Buffalo, finalists in the AudPop Indigenous Filmmaker Challenge, and students in the Montana State University MFA in Science & Natural History Filmmaking.
“Our Executive Director, Rachel Gregg, has likened the buffalo––a keystone species that helps create a healthy and balanced habit for a wide variety animals and plants––to documentary films and filmmakers in the storytelling ecosystem, as they too have an essential role in creating healthy discourse and an exchange of ideas so essential to a functioning, thriving society,” says Feinberg. “It’s a lovely coincidence that many of our films in the line-up this year have buffalo as their focus. It’s also why our Senior Programmer, Doug Hawes-Davis, created the Civics, Freedom and Democracy strand, films that we hope will create a vibrant and vital conversation about issues central to the democratic process.”
The Big Sky DocShop – a five-day filmmaker’s forum that includes workshops, panels, and professional development sessions, culminating with the highly entertaining Big Sky Pitch for works-in-progress, takes place during the heart of the festival February 19-23. This year the conference theme is Influence and Resistance, celebrating, reckoning with and challenging the seminal forces of documentary film. Sessions include a master class with retrospective artist Jeanie Finlay and panels with representatives from Active Voice Lab, the Documentary Producers Alliance, the UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic, ITVS, Participant Media, POV, and the Archival Producer’s Alliance.
The Big Sky Pitch welcomes eight filmmaking teams to present in-progress documentary features to a panel of funders and commissioning editors, including representatives from ABC News Studios, Catapult Film Fund, ITVS, Participant Media, and POV. Big Sky will also welcome six Indigenous filmmakers as fellows in the 4th World Media Lab experience.
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2024 Official Selections
399: Queen of the Tetons
Elizabeth Leiter
90 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
4DWN
Danny Schmidt
18 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Above and Below the Ground
Emily Hong
86 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Admissions Granted
Miao Wang, Hao Wu
90 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
After Landing
Beibei Liu, Mayara Teixeira
36 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
!AITSA
Dane Dodds
89 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
American Grail: A Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Andy Sarjahani
16 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Anagama
Guillermo Asensio
61 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Ancestral Threads
Sean Stiller
12 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
…And The Pursuit of Happiness
Louis Malle
80 minutes | 1986
Anxious in Beirut
Zakaria Jaber
93 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Balloon Boy
Brian Gersten, Arlin Golden
17 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Behind the Mask
Håvard Bustnes
31 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Bicycle Island (A donde nos lleva)
Mitra Ghaffari
23 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Boca Chica
Samuel Díaz Fernández, Ái Vuong
14 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
A Body Called Life
Spencer MacDonald
15 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
The Body Politic
Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough
92 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald, Daniel Glick
85 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Bubjan
Nicholas Mihm
28 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
A Buffalo Story
Colin Ruggiero
124 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Bye Bye Tiberias
Lina Soualem
82 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Called to the Mountains
Josh Goleman, Robert H. Dyar Jr.
53 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Confessions of a Good Samaritan
Penny Lane
103 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Cristo Negro
Brendan Mills, Paul Stavropoulos
18 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Dark Money
Kimberly Reed
86 minutes | 2018
Dear Kin: Neech Yanagut Yéil
Alex Anoruk Sallee
3 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Demon Mineral
Hadley Austin
88 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Denial
Paul Moakley, Daniel Lombroso
23 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Eat Flowers
River Finlay
15 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Elladj
Mike Schwartz
6 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
The Elwell Ferry
Dave Monahan
15 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Eternal Father
Ömer Sami
30 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
Existimos en la Memoria (We Exist in Memory)
Darian Woehr
13 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Final Vows
Victoria Westover
84 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Finding the Money
Maren Poitras
95 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
The Fisherman and the Banker
Sheena Sumaria
85 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Fishtail: The Last Best Place
Zoe Heafner
10 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Flowing Air
Seth Dahl
40 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
For This and Future Generations
Gus Chambers
57 minutes | 2002
Forbidden Pond
Eric Jenkins-Sahlin
13 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Fratelli Carbonai
Felix Bazalgette, Joshua Hughes
17 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Frontier Town
Tom Tennant, Theo Tennant
30 minutes | 2024 | North American Premiere
Game of Thrones: The Last Watch
Jeanie Finlay
110 minutes | 2019 | Retrospective
A Golden Life
Boubacar Sangare
85 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Good Relatives
Kyle Bell
Goodbye, Morganza
Devon Blackwell
15 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Goth Cruise
Jeanie Finlay
75 minutes | 2009 | Retrospective
Grasshopper Republic
Daniel McCabe
94 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
The Great Hip Hop Hoax
Jeanie Finlay
88 minutes | 2013 | Retrospective
Greener Pastures
Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian
83 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
The Haenyeo of Jeju Island
Vern Moen
11 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Happy Campers
Amy Nicholson
78 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Headshot
Dominic Yarabe
8 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Height of the Kite
Mehraneh Salimian, Amin Pakparvar
27 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
The Herricanes
Olivia Kuan
87 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Hindsight
Max Rykov
18 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Hold the Line
Daniel Lombroso
18 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Home is a Hotel
Kevin Duncan Wong, Kar Yin Tham, Todd Sills
95 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Horns and Halos
Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley
80 minutes | 2002
An Hour from the Middle of Nowhere
Ole Elfenkaemper, Kathrin Seward
83 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
I Am Ready, Warden
Smriti Mundhra
37 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
I Am the Immaculate Conception
Frank Eli Martin
18 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
I’m Just Here for the Riot
Asia Youngman, Kathleen Jayme
77 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Incident
Bill Morrison
30 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Indietracks
Jeanie Finlay
26 minutes | 2016 | Retrospective
Iniskim-Return of the Buffalo
Leanne Allison, Pete Balkwill
39 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
James Florio at Tippet Rise
Jeffrey Peixoto
17 minutes | 2023 | World Premiere
Knit’s Island
Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h
95 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Kowloon!
Mona Xia, Erin Ramirez
16 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Little Boy Loon
Kevin Bay, Julia Thompson
10 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Love Takes
Jeanie Finlay
10 minutes | 2002 | Retrospective
Magnificent Beings
Rob Tiffin
8 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Mediha
Hasan Oswald
90 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ (Meet Me at the Creek)
Loren Waters
10 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
MIRASOL, Looking at the Sun
Ben Knight
37 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Montana Indigenous Voting Rights
Ivan MacDonald
16 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
More than Brothers
Andrea von Siebenthal
23 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Mrs. Iran’s Husband
Marjan Khosravi
27 minutes | 2024 | United States Premiere
My Queerceañera
Marcos Nieves
17 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
New Old Love
Lindsay Coe
12 minutes | 2024
Nkashi: Race for the Okavango
Sarah Joseph
71 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Nottingham Lace
Jeanie Finlay
25 minutes | 2010 | Retrospective
Now I Am Old and Do Not Need the Moon
Dasha Bough
12 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
On the Way Home
Giorgi Kvelidze
62 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
One For All
Michael CB Stevens, Spencer Miller
19 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
One with the Whale
Peter Chelkowski, Jim Wickens
83 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
Jeanie Finlay
86 minutes | 2015 | Retrospective
Otters of Yellowstone
Joshua Bruni
6 minutes | 2024
Our Grandmother The Inlet
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Kayah George
9 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Over the Wall
Krystal Tingle
18 minutes | 2024 | North American Premiere
Panto!
Jeanie Finlay
71 minutes | 2014 | Retrospective
Patria y Vida: The Power of Music
Beatriz Luengo
86 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Patrol
Camilo de Castro, Brad Allgood
83 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Photophobia
Pavol Pekarčík, Ivan Ostrochovský
71 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Piñatas of Earthly Delights
Tom Maroney
13 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Please Ask for It
Allison Waid, Stephen Sutton
20 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Porcelain War
Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
90 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Postcards From the Verge
Natalia Koniarz
39 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Q
Jude Chehab
93 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Queendom
Agniia Galdanova
98 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Racing the Dream
Jacqueline Ratliff
15 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Reem Al Shammary – The Bedouin Boxeur
Mattia Ramberti
15 minutes | 2024 | International Premiere
Scenes from Salé
Imrane Rahani
14 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth
Jeanie Finlay
89 minutes | 2019 | Retrospective
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
Kimberly Reed
13 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Seeds of Change
Maximilian Armstrong
27 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Semi-Aquatic
Leif Everson
6 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Si Pudiera Quedarme (If I Could Stay)
Florencia Krochik, Theo Rigby
75 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Singing Back the Buffalo
Tasha Hubbard
99 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
G. Anthony Svatek
11 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Someone Lives Here
Zack Russell
75 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Sound It Out
Jeanie Finlay
75 minutes | 2011 | Retrospective
The Sound of the Wind
Maria Pankova
17 minutes | 2024 | North American Premiere
Spot Fire
Lewis Bennett
33 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
State Legislature
Frederick Wiseman
217 minutes | 2007
Story & Pictures By
Joanna Rudnick
86 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Strong Grandma
Cecilia Brown, Winslow Crane-Murdoch
15 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Suborbital Triptych
Jared Jakins, J. Christian Jensen
14 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
A Symphony of Tiny Lights
Dominic Gill, Nadia Gill
31 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Teenland
Jeanie Finlay
60 minutes | 2007 | Retrospective
Terra Draconis
Braeden Meyer
22 minutes | 2023 | World Premiere
The Test
Claudia Myers, Laura Waters Hinson
16 minutes | 2023 | Montana Premiere
This World is Not My Own
Petter Ringbom, Marquise Stillwell
97 minutes | 2023 | Montana Premiere
Three Promises
Yousef Srouji
61 minutes | 2023 | Montana Premiere
Through the Storm
Charles Frank, Fritz Bitsoie
23 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Tilted Arc
Baxter Stein
14 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Tiny
Ritchie Hemphill, Ryan Haché
17 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
To Be Invisible
Myah Overstreet
21 minutes | 2023 | Northwest Premiere
Tomorrow’s Town Today
Halley Linscheid
23 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Troll Storm
Eunice Lau
83 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
unseen
Set Hernandez
88 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Until He’s Back
Jacqueline Baylon
39 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Voice of the Hi-Line
Doug Hawes-Davis
14 minutes | 2016
Welcome Space Brothers
Jodi Wille
94 minutes | 2023 | Montana Premiere
What the Hands Do
Bing Liu
36 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Wild Hogs and Saffron
Andy Sarjahani
19 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
(Wild)life
Andrew Motte
5 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Winding Path
Alexandra Lazarowich, Ross Kauffman
10 minutes | 2024 | Northwest Premiere
Wise River, MT
Elijah Guess
10 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
Without Arrows
Jonathan Olshefski, Elizabeth Day
95 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
The Wonder and the Worry
David Baker
98 minutes | 2024 | World Premiere
You Can’t Shrink Love
Veena Rao
6 minutes | 2024 | Montana Premiere
Your Fat Friend
Jeanie Finlay
96 minutes | 2023 | Retrospective