Montana film dives deep into plane's amazing 'community' restoration

MISSOULA, Mont. — It takes an epic movie to archer the epic communicative of a assemblage coming unneurotic to rise an iconic craft backmost into Montana skies. And this weekend, you'll person a accidental to spot the "Miss Montana" documentary's premiere successful Missoula.

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"Return to the Big Skies: Miss Montana to Normandy" is not lone the communicative of the plane's resurrection but a model into the pioneering satellite of Bob Johnson and Montana's upland flying.

"We were truly blessed to find photographs from section collectors that assistance america archer that story," explains filmmaker Eric Ristau. "The authorities photograph archives and the things we were capable to propulsion unneurotic connected this airplane are beauteous remarkable. People volition beryllium funny to spot things going back, you know, many, galore decades."

"We're shooting the movie successful a precise precocious prime nowadays, and truthful to effort to equilibrium that was a small spot tricky, but a batch of the aged photographs were incredibly precocious quality."

The movie hits each the humanities precocious points, from the calamity astatine Mann Gulch to the fatal clang that astir destroyed the level and the neglect of years.

Volunteers archer the communicative of what the level was doing those years distant from Montana.

"They flew babe chicks from the southbound wide up to British Columbia," section historiographer Stan Cohn says successful the film.

"Chickens and car parts and successful and retired of Mexico and who knows what other we don't cognize astir was flown successful this airplane," adds unpaid Perry Francis successful 1 of the film's galore interviews.

Ristau says among the footage, an important quality clip from the KPAX archives.

"KPAX plays a relation successful this successful this movie due to the fact that Ian Marquand went connected the formation to spell and bring Miss Montana backmost to Montana 20-years agone this coming October."

"On Monday successful West Memphis, Arkansas, Missoula's Museum of Mountain Flying took possession of the astir celebrated C47 craft ever to alert the Montana skies," Marquand reported.

"That was amazing, and I was ace impressed with however galore radical they interviewed," says Bryan Douglass of Miss Montana to Normandy and Beyond. "Volunteers and everybody you tin ideate who's had thing to bash with this airplane. You'd beryllium amazed with however galore radical amusement up connected this one."

And the effort to find parts, marque plans, and bring successful the "Rosies," the galore women and girls that pitched in.

"From things similar scraping this gunk retired of the belly with spatulas to folks that were licensed craft and powerplant mechanics, who could, by the FAA rules, really enactment connected this airplane. Work connected engines. Work connected controls," Ristau recalls.

And the last-minute dash to departure.

"It was down to the wire, and you could spot the unit building. You could spot the timepiece moving down, but astatine the aforesaid time, everybody inactive had a grin connected their face. Everybody continued to enactment truly hard."

I was 1 of 3 cameras connected the runway for the archetypal takeoff that Sunday day successful May, and I asked Ristau if helium was arsenic tense arsenic I was to "get the shot."

"It was a small spot tense thinking, you know, we get 1 changeable astatine filming this and truly capturing this for history. So a small spot of stress, arsenic agelong arsenic it's successful focus, I deliberation that you cognize that was our goal. Just to marque definite we caught it connected film."

Douglass says it's a movie that's not conscionable astir a plane, but people.

"You ticker this film, it makes you arrogant to beryllium Missoulian and arrogant to beryllium a Montanan, and it's amazing. The assemblage effort that it portrays and the past of the airplane, it tells, it's conscionable masterfully done."

The Missoula premiere of the "Miss Montana" movie volition beryllium this Saturday, Sept. 18, astatine Big Sky Brewing successful Missoula. All proceeds volition assistance proceed the plane's ongoing ngo of history, education, and honor. And the radical hopes to put for aboriginal showings astir the state.

For much details and tickets inactive available, spell to the Miss Montana Movie website.

Dennis Bragg astatine KPAX archetypal reported this story.