Bozeman Magazine

Wednesday, February 19^th MSU's School of Film and Photography and the Bozeman Film Festival are excited to announce a special screening of Mistaken For Strangers at 7:30 pm, also in the Emerson's Crawford Theatre. Filmmaker and MSU School of Film and Photography alumni Tom Berninger will be in attendance. Berninger's film was the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival's opening night selection and has been a critical success on the film festival circuit.

The opportunity to bring Berninger back to Bozeman came when his former professor Cindy Stillwell saw that Mistaken For Strangers might make the short list for the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. "Tom contacted me last year when the big news about Tribeca came in," says Stillwell. "I was so excited for him and thought the Big Sky Doc Film Fest might be interested in his film." They were.

The Big Sky Doc Fest will premiere Berninger's film at the February festival in Missoula, after which he will visit Bozeman for the BFF screening. "We are absolutely thrilled to work with MSU School of Film and Photography and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival to introduce this film to a Bozeman audience and to have Tom here," states Lisa McGrory, Executive Director of the Bozeman Film Festival.

Mistaken For Strangers follows the story of two brothers at very different moments in their lives. Older brother Matt has spent 10 years as a lead singer in a small but respected rock band, The National, and is just now beginning to experience life as a front man on a larger scale with the successful release of a new album, "High Violet."  In his early 30's, younger brother Tom is still living in Cincinnati and working on self-financed "horror/action" shorts. He's not exactly a fan of his brother's music (he prefers heavy metal), but is looking for a change. As The National is about to embark on the biggest tour of its career, Matt invites Tom to be part of the tour crew. Mistaken For Strangers is about family, creative conviction, and growing older.  It is an intimate portrait of the love and frustration brothers feel for each other, even as adults.

Executive produced by two-time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry, Mistaken For Strangers is garnering positive press as it travels the globe with various international film festivals.

"Brilliant... your enjoyment of Mistaken For Strangers will have nothing to do with your knowledge of The National," writes The Huffington Post.

Tickets are $8/General and $7/Student & Senior, available at Cactus Records and in the Emerson's lobby one hour before the film. Not rated, the film runs 75 minutes. There will be an introduction and post-film discussion with director/writer Tom Berninger. For more information visit bozemanfilmfestival.org.