STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
It had the makings of a red-carpet gala during slack season in Sun Valley.
Luminaries with the Sun Valley Film Festival and The Community Library posed for pictures outside the Sun Valley Opera House. Sun Valley employees poured free wine from two bars set outside, passing out additional glasses of wine to those lining up outside.
And moviegoers helped themselves to Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and buttered popcorn, courtesy of library and film festival patrons Kathy and Wally Limburg, as they prepared to settle in for a free three-hour showing of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The Sun Valley Film Festival arranged the free screening as part of its new mission to showcase at least one film a month leading up to its annual four-day festival Feb. 28-March 2. Recently it has started partnering with nonprofits in the valley—this time, The Community Library.
Free tickets for the event were spoken for in 24 hours. But there were enough no shows that all those hoping to get seats were able to do so.
The film starring Leonard DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone is based on the true story about a series of murders perpetuated on Oklahoma’s Osage Nation by greedy white men trying to claim the Osage oil fortune for themselves. Adapted from David Grann’s book, Its name comes from the annual “flower moon,” in which a sea of wildflowers appears in the fields, similar to that of the camas blooms near Fairfield.
The story left some in the audience weeping as they learned of the previously little told story of the way white America treated its indigenous peoples.
Both Film Festival Director Candice Pate and The Community Library director Jenny Emery Davidson emphasized the power of film to tell stories.
“As a result of seeing this film, you may be prompted to learn more about the Osage Nation. So, pop on over to the library,” Davidson told the crowd. “We also have a range of exhibits about the Shoshone-Bannock who inhabited this part of the world for thousands of years in our new Wood River Museum.”
Kathy Limburg, who has served on the board of The Community Library, said she and her husband hosted the concessions at the showing in honor of the opening of The Community Library’s Wood River Museum of History and Culture.
“I’m just a big fan,” she said.
The Sun Valley Film Festival is working with The Community Library to set up a residency for its High Scribe winner, Pate said. The two organizations also plan to host some workshops in January.
The Sun Valley Film Festival’s next monthly screening will be “Food and Country,” food writer Ruth Reichl’s documentary about innovators trying to rescue independent farmers, ranchers and chefs who hve been hobbled by America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs.
The film, which will show at 5:30 p.m. at The Argyros in Ketchum, will have Sage School as its partner given the school’s tradition of including food production studies in its curriculum. For tickets go to https://sunvalleyfilmfestival.org/monthly-movies/.