Film about 2017 congressional race premieres Friday in Whitefish

Jan. 11—When local filmmaker Guthrie Quist went through the campaign process with his father in 2017, he basically had a backstage pass to the entire "show."

Similar to a backstage pass at a concert, Guthrie said, there was the good, the bad, the worst and the better of it all.

The special election to fill Montana's only congressional seat became a story picked up by new outlets across the nation. Democrat Rob Quist, a folk musician, lost the race to Republican Greg Gianforte, a wealthy businessman.

The race proved to have a multitude of stories to be told — how a family is affected by a large-scale campaign, what it means as Montana becomes more politically polarized, and the actual race between the two men under a national spotlight.

"For a moment, it was the nexus of the political world," Guthrie said.

Guthrie noticed the dynamics at play, ultimately leading him to produce a movie titled "Bodyslammed: Folk Hero vs Billionaire," a now internationally acclaimed documentary film. The film premieres in Montana and to the public for the first time on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. at the O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish.

The film goes behind the scenes of the election that became necessary after Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke resigned to lead the U.S. Interior Department. It relies on footage by Kier Atherson who worked on Quist's campaign alongside interviews and reactions from major players in the campaign. The documentary addresses the issues of the prolonged, negative national campaigns and the reasons why many qualified candidates choose not to run for office.

Its name stems from an altercation where an audio recording captured Gianforte body slamming a journalist at his campaign headquarters.

The incident sparked discussion nationally about modern politics. To Guthrie, politics happens to feel like a bodyslam to everyone involved as well.

"'Bodyslammed' is almost like a euphemism for the candidate's party, " Guthrie said.

GUTHRIE'S INTEREST in film began as a child, when he would tag along with his mom who worked as a flight attendant on layovers and they would have movie-a-thons. His first job at 14 was at a Kalispell theater, where he swept the floors of showrooms while the credits rolled after the movie ended. In his mind, there was something "meditative" about the credits, to which he hoped his own name would appear one day.

Over two decades later, Guthrie's first documentary film, which he is credited for, has won awards and played in festivals across the world, including at the Mannheim Film Festival in Germany, the Nice International Film Festival in Nice, France, the Mykonos International Film Festival in Greece, the Cannes Cinema Festival, and the Los Angeles Film Awards.

A 2000 graduate of Flathead High School and graduate of Pepperdine UniversityGuthrie majored in communications with a focus in screenwriting.

When Rob Quist came home one day before 2017 and told his family that he was planning on running for Congress, Guthrie became the social media manager. When the campaign grew bigger, Guthrie "basically became [his father's] campaign driver."

"There's such a race in campaigns to follow the narrative, but then the story of what actually happens gets lost," Guthrie said.

First, Guthrie watched the campaign affect his father and family. The election proved to be a testament to an increasingly polarized Montana, to which Guthrie used as inspiration for the film. According to Guthrie, Montana is one of the last best places — it is a source of fascination.

Guthrie hopes to captivate how unique Montana's political landscape is while simultaneously embracing the impacts of that landscape on involved families. Guthrie himself ran for state Senate in 2020 as a Democrat, losing the election to the incumbent Republican Keith Reiger. Guthrie said he's content straying away from the political world for a bit.

He is currently working on a screenplay that is a fantasy, science fiction story based in Montana. He hopes to begin filming sometime this year.

In the meantime, Guthrie is enjoying watching his own children, 4 and 10, develop their own passions for cinema and music. Rob is enjoying being a grandpa and playing the occasional bluegrass tune with his daughter, Halladay.

"This movie is less about politics and more about the family behind the scenes," Guthrie said.

Tickets to the Whitefish showing of the film are available online at Enigmaticfeatures.com and will be available at the door.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or at 758-4459.