The Living Fire – presented by The Bozeman Doc Series

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The Bozeman Doc Series continues Thursday, Jan. 7, at the Emerson Center with the Montana premiere of the award-winning documentary, The Living Fire, and a preview of the highly anticipated documentary Rewind to Fast-Forward by Bozeman filmmaker Sasha Neulinger.

Set in the breathtaking Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, The Living Fire is a captivating story of three generations of shepherds as they struggle to maintain their traditional life despite the changing world around them.

Ten-year-old Ivanko loves his time in the mountains and tending to the sheep, but his future is unclear as fewer and fewer men in his hometown take up the work their families have done for generations. His father, Vasyl, maintains the traditions even as he realizes the only life he has ever known is changing dramatically. And 82-year-old Ivan, a life-long shepherd, recently widowed, reflects with deep gratitude on the life he loved and the animals and land that provided for him.

The film chronicles life in their small mountain town and the shepherds’ four-month summer journey into the highlands to pasture their flock. Stunning cinematography, a rich mix of sound and music, and charming, unique characters have made the film a gem of the 2015 festival circuit. The Living Fire world premiered at the prestigious Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, where it was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Best International Feature Documentary.

Indiewire calls the film “an extraordinary tour-de-force of cinematography and sound design [whose premiere] marks the arrival of a major new talent in nonfiction cinema.”

The Living Fire will be preceded by a preview of the upcoming documentary Rewind to Fast-Forward, and an appearance by the film’s director, Sasha Neulinger. The film is a deeply personal autobiographical documentary telling Sasha’s story as a survivor of multigenerational child sexual abuse. Sasha is a Montana State University graduate and Bozeman resident who, through his personal story, hopes to lead a more open conversation about the importance of an uninterrupted healing process for child victims and to help reduce the numbers of children who are abused. The film is currently in the editing process with a completion date of November 2016. The project has already generated significant buzz: Sasha’s story has been shared in the Huffington Post and on Upworthy , and his team ran one of the most successful campaigns in Kickstarter history. An incredible story, filmed by an Emmy Award-winning crew, and with the support of an Academy Award-winning post-production team, the film is primed to make a real impact.

The Bozeman Doc Series will continue with one screening every other Thursday through April. 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.