University Communications and Marketing
Montana filmmaker to speak at MSUB April 22
April 10, 2015
Contacts:
David Craig, Honors Program, 657-2908
University Relations & Communications, 657-2266
Free and open to the public, the artist talk will be held in the Liberal Arts building, room 148, on Wednesday, April 22, at 6 p.m.
MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — Award-winning Montana filmmaker Vera Brunner-Sung will discuss her first film, “Bella Vista” on April 22, at 6 p.m., in the Library building, room 148. The artist talk is free and open to the public.
Brunner-Sung, also an adjunct faculty member in the Media Arts Department at the University of Montana, whose background is in experimental documentary, describes it as a movie about “place and belonging.”
The film was shot around the Missoula area and Mission Valley and deals with issues such as the World War II internment camp at Fort Missoula and the Salish tribe’s forced movement to the Flathead Reservation from their home in the Bitterroot Valley.
“Bella Vista” premiered in 2013 and later earned the George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 15th San Diego Asian Film Festival. It has also screened at the International Film Fest Rotterdam, a festival held in January that's comparable in size to the more well-known Cannes.
Her work has been presented at numerous festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including the Torino Film Festival, CPH:DOX, San Francisco International Film Festival, Images Festival, and the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival. Her critical writing has appeared in print and online publications Sight & Sound, Moving Image Source, Cinema Scope, Senses of Cinema, and Art Lies.
She comes to Montana from Southern California, where she previously lectured at the University of California, San Diego.