October PBS release of FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON

Story of the American Bison Set for World Premiere

Missoula-based filmmakers ready to screen major documentary about humans' complicated relationship to buffalo.

By Jule Banville, 9-02-10

"Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison," a documentary by Missoula-based High Plains Films and co-produced with Independent Television Service and Montana PBS, will premier at the Kansas International Film Festival next month. Showings will be scheduled in the West and it will eventually air on local PBS stations.

The film's a major undertaking. It tells the epic story of human relations with the largest land mammal on the continent: its dominance, its loss and the subsequent quest to protect those that remain.

It recounts the near-destruction of the species in the late 19th century--from an estimated 30 million bison to a mere 23 individuals by 1885. It graphically exposes the annual slaughter of bison outside of Yellowstone National Park, where the largest genetically-pure herd remains in semi-captivity. Finally, the film explores the vision--and monumental obstacles--to restore bison to immense tracts of the Great Plains. This involves a dramatic transformation of how we understand the Great Plains, from a utilitarian world view to a fully-functional ecosystem that combines a lost culture with modern ecological science and contemporary economies, and includes the full range of original species that have been largely vanquished from the region. 

The film portrays the bison as icon: of a former time and inextricably linked to the Plains Indians to, perhaps, the path to the future of conservation.

The world premiere in Kansas is Oct. 2. The filmmakers include Doug Hawes-Davis, who started the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula.

Here's the trailer: