Bozeman Magazine

On Sunday, October 23rd, The Bozeman Doc Series presents a special event co-hosted by the Montana Wilderness Association. The evening begins at 6pm with a reception in the Emerson lobby featuring food and drink from the Emerson Grill, followed by a screening of the short documentary Our Last Refuge, and the Montana premiere of the Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning documentary, When Two Worlds Collide. In this tense and immersive tour de force, When Two Worlds Collide brings audiences directly into the line of fire between two powerful, opposing Peruvian factions who will stop at nothing to keep their respective goals intact. On the one side is President Alan Garcia and the Peruvian government who, eager to enter the world stage, begins aggressively extracting oil, minerals, and gas from untouched indigenous Amazonian land. He is quickly met with fierce opposition from the indigenous people living in the Amazon jungle, led by Alberto Pizango, whose impassioned speeches against Garcia’s destructive actions become a rallying cry. When President Garcia continues to ignore their pleas, a tense war of words erupts into deadly violence. First­time feature documentary filmmakers Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel capture all angles of this volatile political and environmental crisis with breathtaking access and bold, unflinching camera work. From the raucous halls of justice to deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle, When Two Worlds Collide exposes a titanic clash between a government hungry for economic legitimacy and a people, led by an outspoken environmentalist, desperate to protect an ancient land from ruin. "Compelling…rich and rewarding. A story that’s told with the page-turning velocity of an airport paperback. What starts as a nuanced portrait of a local crisis unfolds into an environmental warning with worldwide implications..." Indiewire Our Last Refuge tells the story of the Badger-Two Medicine, the sacred homeland of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, and the decades-long struggle to protect it from oil and gas exploration. The film features voices from all sides of the struggle – Blackfeet elders, local conservationists, and even the law firm pushing for oil exploration. All together, they chronicle the epic saga of this unique landscape, stretching back millennia, and the current legal challenge, the outcome of which could determine the fate of sensitive and sacred lands nationwide. One of the highest profile conservation struggles in recent history, Our Last Refuge is the first in-depth telling of this critical story at a moment in time when the stakes are at their highest. Bozeman-based director Daniel Glick (A Place to Stand) will be in attendance and will introduce the film. Tickets are available at the door or before the show at Cactus Records and Movie Lovers. Tickets are also available online at www.bozemandocseries.org.