Two film-making brothers from Arlee have made a documentary on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, covering the early history of Glacier’s indigenous peoples to the clearing and opening of the historic highway today.

Jordan and Logan Lefler starting shooting “Journey to the Sun” in October 2024. They almost canned the project, however, when the Park Service informed them they would get no special access to shoot the plowing of the road outside of scheduled media events, Jordan Lefler said in a recent interview.

But the Park Service gave them plenty of historical and current footage and the U.S. Geological Survey team that monitors avalanche danger did as well. They were also able to get to Logan Pass in wintry conditions during scheduled media tours of the plowing.

Like good documentary  filmmakers, the pair made do on other facets of the story, interviewing former park plow crew members including local historian and former crewman Bill Dakin, Rae Marie Fauley, who grew up at Road camp as a child (her father was on the road crew) and Charles Siderius, who rather famously survived a tumble off the road in a bulldozer near Logan Pass.

“We wanted to help the general public understand what goes into opening the road,” Jordan Lefler said in a recent interview. “It’s not as easy as it looks. People’s lives are at risk every day trying to get the road open.”

Adding the indigenous element to the story was also important, Jordan said. Their grandmother is a tribal member and the west side of Glacier was home to the Kootenai and Pend d’Orielle tribes for 10,000 years or more.

All told, the brothers shot 80 hours of footage and are currently in the process of making the finals edits. They shot it with Sony cameras, a FX6, an A7s III and an A7IV. 

They received both a Big Sky film grant and a Greater Montana Foundation grant, along with support from the Glacier National Park Conservancy and many other organizations.

“It was humbling,” to see support for the project, Jordan said.

The Leflers are no strangers to filmmaking. They have their own production company and make a living exclusively doing films and documentaries, though this is the first they’ve directed and produced.

The film has its public premier at the Wacholz College Center at Flathead Valley Community College June 23 , which has already sold out.

They then take the film on the road through the summer and fall and they’re in talks to have it shown on Montana PBS as well.

The next project?

Jordan said they’re working on turning a video they did on suicide prevention and the Arlee basketball team’s run to a state championship in 2017 into a feature film.

You can learn more about “Journey to the Sun” and purchase tickets for other showings in Montana at journeytothesunfilm.com.