MISSOULA - Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns was in Missoula on Thursday night for a debut of his newest documentary, The American Buffalo.
The Wilma hosted a partial premiere of the two-episode documentary, which focuses on the near extinction of the bison and the impacts that had on Montana's tribes.
It also features the people who stepped up to save the bison. The film was shot on location in Montana in 2021 and Burns toured the CSKT Bison Range earlier on Thursday.
Burns has done several documentaries, ranging from the history of country music to baseball to U.S. history. Burns was asked about why he chose this as his latest project.
“We've been thinking about doing a film on the bison for 30 or 40 years because it's so intertwined with the...not only the history of America but the Native Americans who predate us by thousands and thousands of years and the story is once a tragedy but also a parable of de-exitinction,” Burns said.
The full documentary will air on Montana PBS on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17, 2023.
