Part III - MWLFF – a wildlife film festival hosted by the Greater Bonney Lake Historical Society is coming soon!

Last week I made the statement that MWLFF is not a film festival in the true sense of the word. A typical film festival may bring in film makers from around the world, who are new to the film industry, mostly independent film makers that may not have any big studio support. It gives these new film makers an opportunity to show their work to an audience and at the same time be judged. From the judging comes best picture awards in a multitude of different categories. Some festivals are judged by professionals in the industry, but most of the judging committees are made up of average people who just love motion pictures. If the films are judged to be good, film distributors purchase the rights to distribute the film and a "Star" is born. Film festivals are also big business for a community; the Cannes festival in France and Sundance in the US are the two most famous, but there are many others. Seattle's film festival just completed its 37th year. As far as we know the festival here in Bonney Lake will be one of the few that focuses on wildlife films.

As stated in an earlier blog, this year the Greater Bonney Lake Historical Society (GBLHS) wishes to recognize and celebrate the historical life works of two very unique people that lived in Bonney Lake for the last 30 years of their lives, Alfred and Elma Milotte. They were pioneers in wild life cinema photography. With the showing of the three films (Seal Island, Beaver Valley and Bear Country), there will also be artifacts from the Milotte collection that was donated to GBLHS earlier this year and has not yet been seen in public. 

What made Alfred and Elma Milotte special was they really loved their wildlife subjects. Walt Disney was intrigued by the Milotte's photography of wild animals, and he hired them to film in the wilds of Alaska. It marked the beginning of his True Life Adventure series, eventually earning six Academy Awards for the Disney Studios.

Future blogs will talk more about the life and times of Alfred and Elma Milotte and will also talk about the scholarship fund they established.

The Milotte Wildlife Film Festival will be held on Saturday, October 20th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Bonney Lake Justice Center, 9002 Main Street. For more information on the film festival please check out our website at www.mwlff.org. For more information on GBLHS, check us out on facebook (we hope to have our website up and operational soon).