 'A River Runs Through It' stands test of time
Even ten years later, the Oscar-winning film and Montana classic, "A River Runs Through It," still strikes strong cords of memory in the minds of many Montanans. Chief among those is Dennis Aig, a Bozeman-based filmmaker and Media and Theatre Arts associate professor at Montana State University. Aig was the producer and director of "Shadow Casting: The Making of 'A River Runs Through It,'" the Montana PBS documentary that chronicled the production of the film. "No one had any idea of the impact of the movie at the time it was being made," Aig said. "The book was obscure, we thought the title was unwieldy. But during the shoot we knew that we had something special. There was a kind of magic." In honor of the 10th anniversary of the film, Montana PBS will televise a special pledge showing of "A River Runs Through It," Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m. "Shadow Casting" will be shown immediately after. During the airing there will be interviews with Aig, John Bailey of Bailey Fly Shop in Livingston who was the technical advisor on fly fishing for the film, Vann Gravage who played the young Paul and Patrick Markey the co-producer of the film, who produced the film with Robert Redford. "A River Runs Through It" was adapted from Norman Maclean's autobiographical novella. It uses fly fishing as a metaphor for family life, sport, religion and art. Robert Redford directed the feature film, which was shot on location in the Livingston and Bozeman area May through September in 1991. "Shadow Casting" was released in 1993. The documentary was distributed nationally to public television stations and won 14 major awards, including a Gold Hugo from the Chicago Film Festival and a Montana Broadcasters Association Non-commerical Program of the Year Award. "A River Runs Through It" really established Montana in the popular imagination as the promised land," Aig said. "It's a beautiful film, a personal story of family and coming of age. And, of course, it has had a great impact on the sport of fly fishing and Montana." The film won an Oscar in 1992 for cinematography and was nominated for best screenplay, best director, and best picture. Markey is still producing films in Hollywood but he has settled in Livingston and is now also an adjunct assistant professor of Media and Theatre Arts at MSU. "Shadow Casting" was also a tremendous learning experience for many MSU students at the time and especially a trio of MSU film students: Andy Froemke, '91 Film and TV, Robert Wilder, '91 Film and TV and Collin Phillips, '94 Media and Theatre Arts. Froemke was the co-director of the documentary, Wilder was the videographer and Phillips was the assistant editor. Froemke's brother David also helped edit the film. "Being able to work with my brother on a story like this was a unique experience I'll always treasure," Froemke said. "Although the documentary had its share of headaches, I've never enjoyed a collaborative experience more. It wasn't like work at all. The people I met on that project, like Collin Phillips, have become lifelong friends. So, for that, I owe the film a lot." "One interesting side note during the postproduction of the documentary. I received from my mother, her mother's college yearbook. As it turns out, she went to school with Paul MacLean. His signature was scribbled in one of the margins by his picture. Having been born and raised in Florida, to inexplicably come 3,000 miles to go to film school in Montana and then have this film bring my brother and I together professionally, and then unearth this family history, I guess some things really are destiny," Froemke said. Froemke is currently a stay-at-home dad and a freelance writer in Lindstrom, Minn. "I've directed a low budget feature, optioned a few scripts, and just recently became part of a writing team," Froemke said. Aig's work continues to win awards. He went on to produce and/or direct other award-winning documentaries including MontanaPBS's "Sacred Journey of the Nez Perce" and the recently televised public television dramatic program "Guide Season." He also re-teamed with Redford and Markey to produce and direct "Visions of Grace: Robert Redford and 'The Horse Whisperer'" for Lifetime Television, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Montana-based feature that Redford both starred in and directed. Aig's year 2000 work, a semi-documentary, "America's Outdoor Heritage" for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance has won eight awards, including two Telly Awards. Aig is also doing the television and radio ads for the "Most of US" campaign in Montana created by the Montana Social Norms Project housed as MSU. Aig is producing "Reflection in the Lens" the story of documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty (of "Nanook of the North" fame) and David Scheerer, an MSU associate professor of Media and Film Art, is directing. Aig is also currently working with the P.A.S.T. (Partnering Archeology with Science and Technology) Foundation on a series which views history through the remains of shipwrecks. He will go on location this summer to focus on a steamboat that sank in the 1830s in the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. Aig said that Wilder lives in Parker, Colo. where he is going to law school. He also added that Phillips lives in Austin, Texas, and produced the film, "The Hi-Line," which was accepted into the Sundance film Festival several years ago.
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