Film fest this weekend at Atrium

As spring begins, it is time again for Yellow Bus Creations to roll out with its annual documentary film festival.

The theme of the Sixth Annual Hi-Line Documentary & Independent Film Festival is "Ripples and Riptides: Corporate Decisions in America. " Films will be shown in the Montana Academy of Dance studio on the third floor of the Atrium.

The festival will kick off at 7 p. m. today with a screening of the film "GasLand, " about the implications of recent technological developments in natural gas extraction.

Saturday and Sunday will start with 10 a. m. screenings of "The Corporation, " a 2003 documentary about relationships between society and corporations.

Event organizers believe one of the biggest draws for this year's event will be the screenings of the 30-minute documentary "Visionary Insight, " a behind-the-scenes documentary about the experiences of Native American interns during last summer's filming of the movie "Winter in the Blood" in Havre, Chinook, Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap Indian reservations and across the Hi-Line.

"Visionary Insight" was screened last month in the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, where "Winter in the Blood" writer/director brothers Alex and Andrew Smith also debuted a trailer for their upcoming film.

The documentary shares the stories of Native production staff and actors from across the country, including some from the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap Indian reservations.

It will be shown multiple times on Saturday afternoon.

With the documentary "Lasting 30 minutes, Saturday's afternoon schedule is deliberately flexible so the film may be shown more than once to accommodate high numbers of viewers, " a press release from Yellow Bus Creations said.

Sunday afternoon will showcase the talents of local filmmakers in the annual short film competition, with judges voting on which Hi-Line short film is best.