The Montana International Film Festival, or MINT, is returning for five days from September 19th—23rd across five venues in Downtown Billings before heading to the Historic Roman Theater in Red Lodge on the 27th and 28th.
Opening night features a documentary about the Yellowstone River titled “Epic Yellowstone: Down the River Wild” with a Q&A session with director Thomas Winston after the screening which takes place at 6pm on the 19th at the Babcock Theatre. MINT says that this film is “the story of water that gives and takes as it makes a 700 mile journey from the peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains,” and it will give viewers a glimpse into “how Yellowstone’s bison, otters, coyotes, and thrill-seekers adapt to – and thrive in – these wild, untamed waters.”
Saturday the 21st is the big day for other films. Four films are being shown that day at the Art House Cinema, starting at 11am with “Impromptu,” a film directed by Billings’ very own Shane Fairbanks. A movie about Alec O’Brien waking up after a month-long coma unable to remember anything about his life or himself. Through this, he gets a second chance at redemption as he attempts to put together the pieces of his old life while improvising a new one, hopefully leading to a brighter future. After “Impromptu,” Sam Garcia Southern’s film “Inner City Rats” makes its Montana debut, following the story of a group of young misfits, petty thieves, and low level criminals structured as an album with each track weaving together glimpses into the lives of New York City’s “rats”.
The final two films of the day are “Nighthawks” and “Once Upon A River. Nighthawks,” directed by Grant S. Johnson, will premiere at 6:30pm at the Art House and tells the story of a wide-eyed Midwest transplant to New York as his sets off with his roommate to explore the glittering nightlife of New York, whose darkest secrets are held captive by an elite band of millennials known as Nighthawks. Haroula Rose’s film “Once Upon A River” premiere’s at the Stapleton Gallery at 6:30pm. It is based on the best selling novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell about a part-Native teen in 1978 who takes to the Stark River on an odyssey akin to Huck Finn.
The closing night film at 3pm on September 22nd at the Babcock Theatre is the North America Premiere of “Robert the Bruce.” This movie, directed by Richard Gray, tells the story of Robert the Bruce, nobleman-turned-outlaw hero of Scotland who fought for Scottish independence against the English alongside William Wallace, of Braveheart fame, and later took up the mantle of Scotland’s defender himself, earning not only the respect of the Scots but the crown of Scotland itself. Angus Macfadyen reprises his role as Robert the Bruce in this story, picking up twenty years after the film “Braveheart” where he first played the role of the eventual King of Scotland. After the film, there will be a Q&A session with the director and Angus Macfadyen, so make sure to come join most of the cast and crew of the film as they premiere it right here in Billings.
Next weekend, you can make your way to the Roman Theatre in Red Lodge to see Jon Dabach’s film “I’d Like To Be Alone Now. “An ensemble drama taking place in the house of Kyle, a mourning widower and father, after the death of his wife and three children. His entire family comes to help him mourn, but instead they all begin examining their own lives. Desperate for some time to himself, Kyle nails himself into his room and his family is left to tend to him while they try to put the pieces of their own broken lives back together.
