Copyright - Maney Telefim Co. - 2011. All rights reserved.

The film is an historically accurate account of the events in Butte’s rich history that shaped the communities unique traditions and character. Butte has always been a mining town; it is also a community made up of immigrants from 39 different countries whose ethnic diversities merged in the crucible of underground hard rock mining, fostering a culture of working together, of protecting one another, of finding common ground, of emerging from downtimes not embittered but emboldened, and facing down adversity, if not to thrive, then to persevere. That is what makes Butte unique and that is what this film is about.

The filmmakers, Dick Maney and B.J. McKenzie, began working on what they then called “The Butte Film” in 2000. Over the next 10 years, their work was interrupted to make some 36 other, shorter and unrelated films. Despite the starts and stops, “The Butte Film” continued to evolve over time and the filmmakers never lost sight of their ultimate goal: to bring their vision of Butte to the screen.

“Butte: the Original” became a personal look at the city’s rich history and its people. The 84-minute film focuses on the archival and oral history of Butte, complete with vintage mining photographs, present day recollections of retired miners, and never-before-seen footage of Butte. All of the scenes were photographed and filmed in Butte, and much of it, such as the scenes of Columbia Gardens and the building of Our Lady of the Rockies, is the original cinematography of the filmmakers. By the way, all of the film crew and all of the “cast of characters” depicted in the film have lived and worked in Butte.

The Atlantic Richfield Company, which has been involved for more than 25 years in the clean up of mine wastes and former mining sites in the Butte area, sponsored the film and presented it as a tribute and a thank you to the community. “Butte: the Original” premiered at the Mother Lode Theater in Butte in 2010. It has since been shown in Missoula, Anaconda, Dillon, Livingston, and Bozeman and was recently selected for screening at the Montana Cine International Film Festival in Missoula.