Selected screenings of Milltown, Montana at international festivals:
November 2009 - Blicke Filmfestival - Blicke Filmpreis: 1500 euro (Bochum, Germany)
February 2010 - Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, USA)
April 2010 - Visions du réel (Nyon, Switzerland)
April 2010 - Crossing Europe (Linz, Austria)
MILLTOWN, MONTANA
Germany 2009, 34 min
Director: Rainer Komers
Script: Rainer Komers
Producer: Stefan Kloos
Co-producer: Samo Darian
Production company: Kloos & Co. Medien GmbH
Director of photography: Rainer Komers
Editor: Bert Schmidt
Sound: Michel Klöfkorn
Time inscribes itself into Rainer Komers' meticulously composed images and impressive sound collages of Milltown, Montana. Each picture tells a story of a place that once belonged to the largest mining area in the United States that was contaminated by toxic substances and heavy metals. But the film does not only show the devastated landscape. Without dialogue, it sensitively portraits the people living and working there: cowboys branding their calves, Blackfeet Indians laying down the foundation stone for a new educational center, trappers and golfers, workers in a silicium plant, old miners, and young scholars competing in a mining contest. Milltown, Montana is visibly scarred by man and trapped in a postindustrial phase of standstill. By alluding to its former wealth but showing the area's actual lack of prospects, the film dramatically undermines the image of the American Dream.
About Breathless
Breathless was created in 2008 by the cultural foundation Zipp - German-Czech Cultural Projects together with the Prague-based Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) and the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film - DOK Leipzig. Out of more than 130 submissions from both countries, five films were selected for production. The films were made with the help of TV broadcasters and regional funding from Germany and the Czech Republic. The Breathless films were made over a period of eighteen months, including two development workshops.
Please visit www.breathless-films.com to read more about the films and filmmakers involved in the Breathless project.