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High Plains Films
P.O. Box 8796
Missoula MT 59807

Fellowship Spotlight
State of the Arts, Jan./Feb., 2002

Doug Hawes-Davis took a trial-and-error approach to filmmaking. "If you were to sit through all 11 films I've directed, in chronological order, you'd see that." he says. "It actually would have been easier to go to film school." However, there are no film schools in Missoula, and the Missouri transplant has no desire to live elsewhere. "I've never been to a place I'd rather live than here," he says. "It was an easy decision to stick around."

Hawes-Davis arrived in Missoula 11 years ago to pursue a masters degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana. He helped shoot a short documentary related to the topic of his graduate thesis, and then began to edit a Missoula Community Access Television (MCAT). He was hooked on the process, but it wasn't until three or four films later that he finally "accepted the fact that I am a filmmaker. I had never considered that it would be a career."

He and partner Dru Carr established the non-profit High Plains Films in 1992, and have since produced 14 films that focus on the interplay between human society and the natural world. Several of the productions have reaped national recognition, including awards from the Big Muddy Film Festival, International Wildlife Film Festival, Berkeley Film Festival and Northwest Film Festival.

The films, which are typically released through non-theatrical distributors, find their way into the collections of museums, libraries and educational institutions. Three will be shown on Montana Public Television (with Wind River airing on Dec. 27); and most have been broadcast on Free Speech TV, a satellite station with six million subscribers.

Hawes-Davis approaches filmmaking with a simple objective, "The idea is to pare down the material until the material stands completely on its own without the producer having to interject his personal viewpoint." "The goal," he adds, "is to immerse the audience in the subject and make ourselves as absent from the finished product as possible." To learn how to craft good films, Hawes-Davis studies the work of other filmmakers. "We've immersed ourselves in alot of obscure stuff to figure out how to shoot and edit," he says. He particularly admires the work of documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris, whose credits include The Thin Blue Line and Gates of Heaven.

Documentaries are rarely treated as art - that's one reason Hawes-Davis is so appreciative of the fellowship award. "I was astonished and honored to receive that award," he says. "It motivates me to try to achieve a higher level of artistry in my films." Hawes-Davis shoots primarily digital video and super 8 film, and two adages guide his work: "The more you shoot, the more truthful you can be." And, "any documentary is only as good as the subject matter."

Generally, he estimates that any given project will take at least 500 hours, however, the time frame can vary dramatically. Killing Coyote, an 83 minute film about the clash between the old West and new West, was completed in five months. But a new 33-minute film, The Naturalist, was produced over a period of four years and involved several visits to Arkansas where the subject, Kent Bonar, resides. The Naturalist is currently his favorite project. To try to impart The Naturalist's work and philosophy, Hawes-Davis "took a lot of risks with the film, artistically." And with months elapsing between shoots, " we were able to think about it and realize things we could do to improve it. It's good to have time to let the material evolve." A bonus, he says, is that the film has attracted attention to Bonar's work. "I like that, where the character in the film gets some kind of benefit. It's not that common."

Currently, Hawes-Davis is wrapping up production on This Is Nowhere, a film that was shot almost entirely in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Missoula. He interviewed RV owners who travel from city to city throughout the United States, living in their motor homes and staying in the spacious, well-lit parking lots of stores like Wal-Mart. "It's about why this phenomenon occurs and it's about the homogenization of landscape and culture." Like his other films, Hawes-Davis hopes his new endeavor will "inspire, educate and increase understanding." He also hopes it embodies his own artistic sensibility, his emphasis on the "raw material." "I like to see things that are truthful," he says, "I don't want to hear the producer's story. I want to hear the real story."