The Bozeman Doc Series returns for another season of brilliant, challenging documentaries from around the world. In last year’s inaugural season, the series showcased 14 award-winning films, including 11 Montana premieres, 2 films that would later be nominated for Oscars, and 1 that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. The series presented major festival award-winners from twelve different countries and screened films in ten different languages focused on subjects ranging from the mountain gorillas of the Congo’s Virunga National Park to Edward Snowden’s revelations to the lives of nomadic fishermen of Borneo.

The second season kicks off October 8th, with the Montana premiere of the critically-acclaimed 2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, The Russian Woodpecker.

Young, eccentric Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich was just four years old when the Chernobyl disaster struck, but the event had a profound effect on him. In seeking to learn more about what happened at the nuclear plant, Fedor becomes fascinated with the Duga - a massive, Soviet-constructed radio antenna near the Chernobyl site that remains shrouded in mystery. Fedor discovers the Duga was one of the USSR’s secret Cold War weapons built to penetrate Western communications systems and, possibly, minds. He arrives at a terrifying conclusion that not only explains the radio antenna’s role in the disaster but also lays bare the cruelty inflicted on Ukraine by its Russian neighbors. Fedor must decide if he will protect his family and himself, or tell the world what he believes. In the package of a wildly inventive paranoid thriller, The Russian Woodpecker takes us on a fascinating journey through a labyrinthine conspiracy theory that becomes more shockingly plausible by the moment.

“4 stars…a rollicking ride of masterly narrative construction unlike any other documentary in Sundance.”  Charlie Phillips, The Guardian
 
“A complex documentary about Chernobyl that is surprisingly, richly enjoyable…inventive, even buoyant in its presentation of several issues that could scarcely be more sobering.” Dennis Harvey, Variety

The series will continue with one screening every other Thursday through April. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the films begin at 7:00. 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, where you can also buy Season Passes and 7-film punch cards, learn more about the series, and view trailers for upcoming films.