Montana skateboarding on the big screen at Big Sky Doc Film Fest
Cory Walsh
Over the past two decades, skateparks have cropped up across the map of the Treasure State, not only in cities like Missoula but small towns and communities with less than a few thousand people.
Some projects in the past year have helped explain the movement, how it developed over time and what they mean to young people. Last fall, a new photo-heavy book, “Grit to Grind,” was published by two Missoula residents, Chris Bacon and Andy Kemmis.
At this year’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, two new movies zero in on young people in rural areas and Indian reservations to show firsthand how skating can offer a creative and physical outlet.
Danilo dos Reis’ “Montana Grind” features interviews with locals in St. Ignatius and Browning, sometimes separated by about a decade of time. He also speaks with community members and parents, as well as Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, who’s poured his personal and financial resources into the parks.
The short film “Paving the Way,” by director Keelan Williams, is more tightly focused and impressionistic, centering on the Flathead Indian Reservation and the connection between the sport and creativity.
Danilo dos Reis’ film takes a birds-eye view, sometimes literally with drones, as it moves to far corners of Big Sky Country as parks are opened on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations.
Ament, who grew up on Hi-Line, speaks from experience about the need for outlets for young people, often seen behind the wheel on a Montana highway in the film. His nonprofit, Montana Pool Service (MPS), has helped build world-class skateparks with an emphasis on small towns.
“I understand the loneliness … that can happen in an isolated area when you don’t have facilities or you don’t have energy centers where you can go, sort of, work through that stuff,” he said.
He’s not the only one in the movie saying that. Dos Reis’ greatest material comes in the form of interviews with skaters, sometimes separated by a decade. In one segment, they might be wiry kids trying to pull off tricks. By the end, they’ve become parents and talk about the way the sport helped them negotiate difficulties in their youth, such as substance abuse and thoughts of suicide.
Jay Bitsui, who grew up in Browning and is now sponsored by MPS, describes what a necessary outlet it was for him, then and now.
“It gave me a purpose to live, honestly, so I had to pick up a board and just take the slams from the skatepark and that’s the best pain you can ever feel,” he said, adding, “I get hurt as just part of getting better and getting new tricks.”
The opening of the Thunder Park in Browning in 2015 was crucial to him, and many others, as seen in footage from the celebration.
Context on the people’s history in the area is relayed by Tyson Running Wolf, the state House representative for Browning, and historian Dan Flores, a retired University of Montana professor and author of “Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America.”
Flores describes how the discovery of gold in the state in the 1860s led to a mining rush and “an outright rush to push people out to the margins of the state.”
Running Wolf discusses how the park is a way for young people to build leadership skills and reintegrate their culture after so much was taken from them without compensation, including Glacier National Park.
The film tries to pull off a unique combination, balancing footage of skating and vignettes of community while also covering the backstory. They dive into how the grass-roots effort to build Missoula’s Mobash Skatepark created a model for others, which requires fundraising and buy-in from communities that often included folks suspicious of the sport because of its outsider image.
For instance, they interview Kristie Nerby, a St. Ignatius resident who was inspired to create a skatepark after a string of tragic, alcohol-related deaths of young people in Ronan. The park was a way to rally the community together and provide activities for kids in an area with a high percentage of poverty.
“If you have kids that aren’t into traditional sports, then they sometimes have a hard time finding their place,” she said.
Similar sentiments are heard from community members in Stevensville and Livingston, who say the parks provide a positive place for kids. Legends such as Lance Mountain and Tom "Wally" Inouye weigh in, too.
At the end, Dos Reis circles back to the Indigenous skaters including one who’s seen taking his toddler around on a board.
Ament wrote the music, which includes atmospheric acoustic songs and a punk rock title track that sounds like his band P.E.S.T. After the credits roll, there’s a mini-doc of sorts on the Big Sandy Pig Roast, which has grown to include a mix of locals and legends, skating and playing music.