Livingston stands in for Great Falls in new movie

PARK CITY, Utah – Two Montana movies beat the very long odds to make the Sundance Film Festival list.

"Wildlife" is set in Great Falls in the 1960s but was filmed in Livingston and Enid, Okla. (Apparently Great Falls in the winter is not an ideal filming location.) The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Richard Ford.

It's the directorial debut for Paul Dano and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould and Bill Camp.

"In Richard’s book, I saw myself and many others. I have always wanted to make films — and have always known I would make films about family," Dano told the Guardian.

The drama is a family crisis. Narrator Joe Brinson, 16, watches his parents' marriage unravel after a move to Montana.

Read more: ‘Shot in Montana’: Big Sky Cinema is scope of new book

In Livingston, local car clubs came out in force for the film with vintage automobiles. The movie saw the construction of a fire camp down the valley.

"Dark Money," a film exploring Montana’s modern and historic battles against anonymous corporate campaign contributions, also will debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling was struck down as unconstitutional, a federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from making expenditures in connection with federal elections, Montana’s top court ruled that the state could still limit corporate contributions and cited the state’s early history of election buying — arguments the U.S. Supreme Court rejected.

The filmmakers’ summary of the "Dark Money": “A century ago corrupt money scarred Montana’s democracy and landscape, but Montanans voted to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, after the Citizens United ruling, dark money floods elections nationwide, but Montanans are standing up to stop history from repeating itself in a struggle that has the potential to change the way elections happen nationwide.”

Read more: Dark money ban becomes law

Choteau rancher in Sundance Festival film

Kimberly Reed of Helena is the director/producer. The film will be screened in Park City and Salt Lake City on Jan. 22-27.

Among those interviewed for the documentary is former Tribune Capital Bureau chief John S. Adams of the Montana Free Press.

Information about how to screen "Dark Money" can be found at: darkmoneyfilm.com.

This year's film festival had 13,468 entries, with only 110 films selected — and two of those are from Montana, the state's Department of Commerce touted.

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