I just love it when seemingly disparate threads come together in cool ways. Way back when, an intriguing person added me as a friend on Facebook. He appeared to be part of the small but awesome Missouri posse, so I accepted, unsure of how our paths would cross. Lo and behold, Mike Steinberg is taking over the helm of the the Big Sky Doc Fest in Missoula. From the press release:

Steinberg brings over a dozen years experience as a filmmaker, instructor, and programmer. He will continue to direct and program the Webster Film Series, the alternative film venue in St Louis he has directed for the last five years. He will also develop several collaborations with the University, including a Big Sky mentor/fellowship program in conjunction with Webster’s Documentary Production Certificate Program.

Congrats to Big Sky for finding such a good match, and I’m crossing my fingers I can get out to the fest next time around! And not incidentally, Big Sky’s founder, the very tall and wonderful Doug Hawes-Davies has a new film coming out, Brave New West, which profiles “the life and times of independent publisher, Jim Stiles, who has single-handedly produced the Canyon Country Zephyr since 1989.” You can catch the film at Moutainfilm in Telluride, or if you are in St. Louis, at the Webster Film Series! Best of luck Montana friends!

Big Sky kicks off today and runs to Feb 21. I’m a big Montana fan and am really wishing I could be there! The line-up has a lot of festival favorites from the past year with a few newer titles.

Check out the program - Features, Shorts and Big Sky competitions, in addition to Minidocs (shorts), Asia and Special Presentations. Filmmaker Les Blank, a veteran doc maker and lon-time self-distributor is pictured right from the 2006 fest - this year he is showing his newest work, The Tea Film.

Also more than worth noting, Documentary Insider Sarah Jo Marks is on the jury, as is Sky Sitney, director of programming at Silverdocs, Phoebe Brush from Full Frame and the awesome Steve James, among several others. The jury line-up is here.

I met festival founder Doug Hawes-Davis at the IFP Market where he brought a new film he’s working on with partner Dru Carr - together, they are the awesome High Plains Films. Keep an eye out for Brave New West coming soon.