Wild & Scenic Film Festival coming to Havre Wednesday

For one day, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival screens in Havre’s Cottonwood Cinema 4 Wednesday, giving locals a chance to view 13 independent short films that focus on environmental concerns.

Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument have partnered with the California-based South Yuba River Citizens League, the watershed group that started the festival, to bring the global film festival to Havre.

“Films featured at ‘Wild & Scenic’ give people a sense of place,” the tour’s Associate Director Amelia Workman says in a press release. “In today’s busy world, it is easy to disconnect from our role in the global ecosystem. When we realize that the change we need in this world begins with us, we start making a difference.”

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a collection of films taken from the more than 150 screened at the annual festival held the third week of January in Nevada City, California, now in its 15th year.

Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument Executive Director Tim Dwyer said the decision to come to Havre was his.

“As a Friends group, we wanted to bring something to Havre and be able to give back to the community,” he said. “Havre is one of our gateway communities, and we wanted to find a way to engage our organization with the community.”

Missoula, Great Falls and Lewistown are other spots the tour stops at, Dwyer said.

Of the 13 features, “The High Divide” was filmed in Montana. Film Director Eric Bendick said the movie was filmed in Madison, Centennial and Big Hole valleys.

A blurb for the movie says, “They say The High Divide is the place where the world is cut in two. Then again, it may be where everything comes together. This place was once called ‘the big empty.’ But it’s bursting at the seams — with deep forests, streams brimming with trout, meadows flush with grizzlies and wildflowers, and peaks so wild and vast they stretch all the way to the horizon. It’s also full of people. People who love the land. Cowboys who love salmon. Range riders who shepherd cattle and carnivores. Woodcutters who fight for forests. Generation after generation stewarding land and water. These are the lost voices of the American West. A new film celebrates the confluence of a wild place and its visionary people.”

The movie trailer can be viewed at https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/film/the-high-divide-2/.

Viewing starts at 6:30 p.m. The other 12 films are “Defined by the Line,” “The Wild President,” “Elk River,” “One Woman Roadblock,” “Pale Blue Dot,” “Co2ld Water,” “Think Like a Scientist: Boundaries,” “A Walk in the Park,” “One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts,” “Denali,” “Yellowstone’s Northern Range” and “Forget Shorter Showers.”

Tickets can be prepurchased at the Cottonwood Cinema 4 box office, 328 Second St., 265-5467. The box office is open 3:30 to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 12:30 to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. Tickets can also be prepurchased at the Friends of the Missouri Breaks office, 324 Fuller Ave., Suite C-4, Helena, MT, or by calling 406-502-1334.