Polson film festival grows dramatically in second year

After a successful first outing, the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest is about to launch its second event in a big way.

The FLIC film festival, Jan. 24-26 in Polson, is showing 79 films, ranging from documentaries to animated features to three-minute shorts from 16 countries. Last year the festival offered 27 films, so it’s grown tremendously in both scope and prestige in just one year.

“We actually made money,” one of the festival co-chairs, Daniel Smith, said of the inaugural festival. “It’s tough to do on your first round. We were really happy about that.

“As more and more people find out, the excitement grows, not only here but across the country and the world.”

The festival features a number of special events. On Friday night, Brooke Pepion Swaney, a Polson filmmaker, will be presenting her 16-minute film, “OK Breathe Auralee,” which was screened at the Sundance and Melbourne International film festivals in 2012. “OK Breathe” is Swaney’s New York University thesis film. While an undergraduate at Stanford University, Swaney researched portrayals of American Indians in the media. 

Jeff Chiba Stearns, an Emmy-nominated and Webby-award-winning animator and documentary filmmaker, curated the animated film portion of the program, to be shown Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. This is Stearns’ second year at FLIC. After graduating from the Emily Carr University with a degree in film animation, Stearns founded an animation studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2001. From animated viral video ads and broadcast commercials for companies like Sharpie, 3M, Generali and Post-it Note, Stearns’ work has shown around the world, screened in hundreds of international film festivals and garnered 33 awards. He will also conduct an animation workshop following the showing of the animated films.

Another special event features Alberta Iron Cloud Miller and James Miller, who worked on “Dakota 38,” a documentary scheduled to screen at 8 p.m., Saturday. “Dakota 38” documents the execution of 38 Dakota Warriors, noted as the largest mass public execution ever held in the United States. A question-and-answer session and a wine and cheese reception follows the screening.

Alberta Iron Cloud Miller is an Oglala Lakota tribal member with Crow ancestry who lives in Knife Chief Community in Porcupine, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She has lived the majority of her life on the reservation and has dedicated her knowledge, education and skills to improving life for the coming generations.  James Miller is involved in the Dakota Wokiksuye Memorial Ride for the 38 Dakota who were hung in a mass public execution in Mankato, Minnesota on Dec. 26, 1862.  

For those who want to stay up late, a film crew of nine from Utah will be on hand to present the Italian-American produced film “Hercules Recycled 2.0” on Saturday at 11 p.m. 

“What’s great about a festival is that people will have the opportunity to see short films they would never see at a regular theater,” Smith said.

The festival was hatched through the Greater Polson Community Foundation during its search for an activity that would promote Polson as a year-round place to visit rather than just a summer destination. The films are being screened at the Showboat Cinemas and will be shown on two screens of 144-seat capacity each. 

A few of the events sold out last year, so organizers are planning ahead for the possibility of more successful screenings and urging people to buy tickets online to reserve seats.

“This year will be more telling if we have several sellouts,” co-chair Frank Tyro, who is the general manager of the KSKC public television station and the media department at Salish Kootenai College, said.

Tyro said the publicity reach is more extensive this year after FLIC received a state tourism office grant to help publicize the festival outside a 100-mile radius, with advertisements running in newspapers in Lethbridge, Alberta, Great Falls, Helena and Sandpoint, Idaho. 

While there are other film festivals in Montana, Tyro said the organizers didn’t want to compete with the niche events, but make the Polson festival all-encompassing and draw from the broad pool of available films.

“Our feeling is that with the mix we have a big benefit,” he said. “If it’s all documentary or all animation, you turn away a certain segment. By allowing flexibility, that makes for a great festival.”

Profits from the festival will go to Dollars for Scholars, a Polson-area organization that distributes scholarship money that will most likely be targeted to students studying in the field of media arts.