Record Attendance at Big Sky Film Festival, Missoula Comedian Makes it Big

The eleventh annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is in full swing in Missoula. Festival director Nick Davis says his crew waded through over 1,000 film submissions before picking the final set.

"This year, over a span of nine days, we are screening upwards of 140 documentary films," Davis said. "These are feature films, shorts and mini-docs, which means that these films can run anywhere from one to two minutes in length to over an hour and a half."

There are many different moods and subjects on screen, but Davis says the focus of this year’s festival is humor.

"To augment that humor theme, we're bringing in the comedian Tig Notaro, who is, kind of a nationally ascendent performer," Davis said. "We're paring her with Chris Fairbanks who's actually a Missoula native and a UM grad."

Missoula native Chris Fairbanks has been a bit of an ascending star himself. Two weeks ago, he scored an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show.

(Video accompanying post courtesy of The Montana Experience: Stories from Big Sky Country via YouTube)