STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
“Hard Twist” Through the lens of Barbara Van Cleve” will offer a delightful tribute to the famous western photographer and the land in which she lived on Wednesday.
Sun Valley Museum of Art and Merlin’s Magic Lantern are screening the film, at 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 3. Tickets are $10 for SVMoA members and $12 for nonmembers, available at https://merlinsmagiclantern.com/homepage/
“Hard Twist” premiered at the in Sun Valley at the Sun Valley Film Festival in December 2025. Directed by Cynthia Matty-Huber, it was produced by Sun Valley filmmaker Felicitas Funke.
Funke and Matty-Huber will discuss the film following the screening.
Van Cleve was among those who took to the stage following the SVFF screening, endearing herself to the sell-out crowd with her larger-than-life personality.
A fifth-generation Montanan, she grew up on the Lazy K Bar Ranch dude ranch in the Crazy Mountain area. The film uses archival footage to show viewers the West through Van Cleve’s eyes. It pans across her sweeping landscape photos augmented by her engaging photos of cowboys at work, roping and branding.
“It’s something seeing my life again. And it’s something to see the ranch,” Van Cleve told the audience following the screening. “I really admired these people from New England—New Hampshire in particular. They were tough, great campers. They were great campers. Didn’t need heated padded sleeping bags.”
In the film Van Cleve recounts how her family’s relationship to the land helped shape the artist she became. She also discussed Montana’s changing landscape and culture.
Sadly, that changing landscape includes a wildfire that swept through the ranch. The fire was caused by an errant spark from someone cutting firewood with a chain saw.
“It’s terrible. awful to lose something like that. But that’s life up and down,” Van Cleve said.
In a very hard twist for someone who made a living as a photographer, Van Cleve has been losing her eyesight.
But she had good news for the audience as she told how she was getting treatment that could bring it back to normal.
“I can’t wait!”