Film fans gather for 2022 FLIC festival
The 2022 Flathead Lake International Cinemafest (FLIC) returns for its 10th anniversary this weekend, Jan. 28-30, at the Showboat Stadium 6 in Polson. The event includes 41 films, with full-length features, shorts, animation, student films and documentaries from 18 countries.
An informal kickoff reception from 4 to 5:45 p.m. Friday at the Cove Deli and Pizza offers an opportunity for movie lovers to mingle with filmmakers. Many filmmakers and actors will be on hand for Q&A sessions after their films show and throughout the weekend. A second informal gathering for FLIC filmmakers and attendees is set for 4:40 p.m. Saturday at Blodgett Creamery Coffee Saloon.
Several local and Montana short films will be featured. Polson Middle Schoolers investigate the lore behind the Flathead Lake Monster from various cultural perspectives in “Finding Yawu’nik’.” “Mission Mountain” follows a first-generation rancher learning the business. A 94-year-old Glacier Park ranger reflects on the loss of glaciers in “Your Friend Ranger Doug.” “Winter 1941” uses silent film to tell the story of a young couple in Kalispell when World War II broke out. And the Crow Nation studies the waters of the Little Bighorn River in “Living Water.”
The festival offers choices on two screens throughout the weekend. Two great features are offered Friday night. “Open Field” is a high action documentary about women in the NFL. And in “Landlocked,” a man reunites with estranged transgender parent as they as they journey to scatter his late mother’s ashes.
“This is a very poignant, powerful story, about dealing with change in people’s lives, and how love ultimately prevails,” FLIC producer David King said. Evocative of compassion and understanding.”
Another feature-length film, “Ranch Water,” (Sat. 2:45 p.m.) provides some “very powerful performances,” said King, as sisters and friends reunite before the family ranch is sold.
Compelling, eclectic stories abound throughout the weekend, from “Finding Courage,” a feature-length documentary of a former journalist for the Chinese Communist Party as she struggles to adapt to life in America and heal family wounds from a tragic past, to the short film “Feeling Through,” the story of a chance meeting between a teen and a man who is deaf and blind, to “Orbital Christmas,” in which a resident of a city on the Moon stows away on the Space Station.
“We have a very strong slate of films this year,” King said. “It’s great to see people coming back out to see movies.
Special events include a kids’ show, “Clifford the Big Red Dog” (9:30 a.m. Saturday), including a free breakfast provided by the Rotary Club. The classic blockbuster “Jurassic Park” screens at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by a discussion with the film’s producer, Gerald Molen, a local resident.
Stand-up comedians Brian Kiley and Adam Yenser present a live show, “Comedians in Chairs Eating Popcorn,” at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The FLIC 2022 weekend draws to a festive close with an awards show and dessert reception, free to the public, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the theater.
Visit flicpolson.com for a full schedule and ticket information. If you can’t decide which of two overlapping films to take in, encore showings of most films will play in the theater throughout the following week.
