PUBLIC LANDS -- The generation that helped pass the Wilderness Act 50 years ago got together with the generation that will be the steward of these prized wild lands and made a movie in Montana.

"Untrammeled" will premier on Tuesday, April 8, in Missoula followed by a panel discussion with the participants and Blackfeet singer Jack Gladstone at the University of Montana/UC Theater, 7:10 p.m.– 8:30 p.m. Info: (406)329-3187

“Untrammeled” follows three groups of students — two groups of Montana high school students and one group of University of Montana students — as they take trips into the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas.

“We’re getting old, and when we get old, we’ve got to pass the baton on to somebody else that’s going to carry on with wilderness,” wilderness outfitter Smoke Elser says in the movie.

“The film is about youth in wilderness, and youth speaking to youth about wilderness,” said Joni Packard, regional volunteer, youth and service program coordinator for the Forest Service in Missoula.

The two high school groups travel in the Scapegoat Wilderness on stock-supported trips. The UM students were participants in UM’s Wilderness and Civilization Program and spent 12 days in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

“It’s totally unscripted,” Packard said of the film. “It’s all their experiences.”

Many of the high school students had never been in wilderness areas before.

“I literally had no idea this existed,” one student says during the movie.

This is worth checking out. I'll keep any eye out for options to see it in Spokane.