Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour comes to Whitefish March 21 with the screening of “Not Yet Begun to Fight.”

Retired Marine Col. Eric Hastings remembers flight missions in Vietnam. From the cockpit, he traced meandering ribbons cut through the jungle. He recognized the shapes of trout streams of

home.When he returned home to Montana in 1969, to a nation decades away from diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder, he went to the water. He tied a fly onto a line and cast. The river, he says, healed him. 

“Not Yet Begun to Fight” unfolds in the space between war and a new battle. The Colonel reaches out to five men, a new generation returning from combat. He brings them to the river. He puts a fly rod into their hand, teaches them to cast and shares his secret: There are places where you can still be consumed by a simple act, find joy in a fight and be redeemed as you gently release another creature, unharmed, into quiet waters. 

Other films included in Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour are dedicated to educating, inspiring and motivating audiences about issues that matter, cultures worth exploring, environments worth preserving, adventures worth pursuing and conversations worth sustaining

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, a Flathead Valley-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wilderness stewardship opportunities in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, is bringing the film tour to three Montana cities for the sixth consecutive year.  All proceeds from the screenings go toward keeping trails open in the Bob, engaging youth in life-changing backcountry experiences and projects that preserve the heart of wilderness. 

The tour starts in Great Falls March 19, travels to Helena March 20 and ends in Whitefish on March 21. The Whitefish screening will take place at the O’Shaughnessy Center.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with drinks, food and raffle tickets. Films start at 7 p.m. 

Tickets go on sale beginning Friday, March 1, and are available online at www.bmwf.org. All shows are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. 

Raffle prizes each night include guided pack trips in the Bob with WTR Outfitters, pack-supported hiking trips with Dropstone Outfitters, flights into Schafer Meadows with Red Eagle Aviation, multi-day fly fishing packages with Spotted Bear Ranch, Lupine Yurt from YurtSki, Winter Ecology Workshop from Northwest Connections, weekend passes to see Merle Haggard at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival and a five-day pack trip in the Bob from Swan Mountain Outfitters.

For more information, visit the Bob Marshal Wilderness Foundation website at www.bmwf.org or contact Keagan Zoellner at trails@bmwf.org or 387-3822.