By Soncirey Mitchell and Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Amateur Hour Racing
Filmmaker Nick Hyphen and Baja Ironman Finisher Kevin Clyde will take the Panida stage on Thursday, March 12, at 7 p.m. for the world premiere of Amateur Hour Racing, a documentary following two local competitors in the biggest race in North America. Tickets are $17.50 online at panida.org or $15 at the door (300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
Hyphen and Clyde filmed their experiences racing on four wheels in the Baja 1000, a dangerous offroad journey covering nearly 1,000 miles of rugged desert terrain in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. After the 45-minute film, the creators will sit for a Q&A with the audience, exploring their motivations and experiences tearing through the sand, dust and mud of that unforgiving wilderness.
A screenshot from Amateur Racing Hour, a locally produced film showing March 12 at the Panida. Courtesy photo
Train Dreams
With the 2026 Oscars set to air Sunday, March 15, now is the perfect time to catch Train Dreams on the big screen before it vies for Academy Awards in the Cinematography, Music (Original Song), Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture categories.
The Panida Theater will screen the film — which is set in the forests surrounding North Idaho and filmed in eastern Washington — on Friday, March 13 with doors at 6 p.m. and the show at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15, available at the door or online, with proceeds benefiting the Panida.
Sponsored by Sandpoint Books and Sandpoint Magazine, the event features a discussion of both the movie and the novella by Denis Johnson on which it was based.
Train Dreams begins at the turn of the 20th century in the Inland Northwest, when railroads and logging dominated, and amid profound changes that affected the lives of the people and landscapes in the region.
Centered on railroad and timber worker Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), whose difficult, dangerous labor and personal heartbreak set him on a lonely course through a shifting world, Train Dreams is a rumination on tragedy, fate and grief.
Published in 2011 and short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize, author Johnson owned a home on the Moyie River, where much of the story takes place.
Spokane-based writer Jack Nisbet, who has authored multiple books on the human and natural history of the region, scouted North Idaho locations with Train Dreams director Clint Bentley and co-producer Greg Kwedar in 2021. He will discuss both the local context of the story and the transition from book to film. Nisbet will be joined on stage by Barb Rawlings, a longtime family friend of Denis and Cindy Johnson. Sandpoint Magazine Publisher Chris Bessler — also an acquaintance of Johnson — will moderate.
Copies of the novella Train Dreams are available at Bonners Books (7195 Main St., in Bonners Ferry) and Sandpoint Books (321 N. Second Ave.).
Far and Away
The Panida will celebrate an early Saint Patrick’s Day on Saturday, March 14, with a showing of the 1992 romance Far and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Tickets for this 7 p.m. show are $9.50 for adults or $6.50 for students and seniors at the door or online. Arrive anytime after 6 p.m. to enjoy Irish tunes with 4 Saxes, a local saxophone quartet.
Set in 1800s Ireland, Boston and Oklahoma, the story follows the triumphs and tragedies of tenant farmer Joseph (Cruise). After the death of his father, Joseph flees to America with his former landlord’s daughter, Shannon (Kidman), in hopes of claiming free property in the Land Rush of 1889.
The two fall in love after landing in Boston, where they find themselves trapped in the city’s seedy underbelly of burlesque and bare-knuckle boxing. Violence and poverty follow them west, where family, jealousy and the perils of Oklahoma’s landscape threaten to tear them apart.
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TIMBER WARS: Six-part series, February-November 2022. GO READ IT»
WHERE ARE THE WORKERS?: Five-part series, September-October 2021. GO READ IT»
THE AMERICAN REDOUBT: Seven-part series, November-December 2017. GO READ IT»
STANDOFF AT RUBY RIDGE: 25 Years Later. Five-part series, August-September 2017. GO READ IT»
Curious about what media the locals use? Check our 2018 Local Media Survey. GO SEE »
Sandpoint in Pictures
Filmmaker Jimmy Matlosz of the Idaho Film Company has made a series of mini documentaries about influential Sandpoint locals, including the late Dann Hall and Erik Daarstad as well as icons Diane Michaels and Dan Shook. He is currently working on a series of interviews connected to the history of the Panida Theater. Jimmy is a 30-year veteran filmmaker who's work can be seen at dpmatlosz.com.
Meet the Reader
Ever wonder who makes the Reader happen? Here's a behind-the-scenes look pieced together by summer 2017 intern McCalee Cain in which Ben, Cameron and Lyndsie explain what exactly about the Reader keeps them coming back to their shabby (but well-loved) office each week.
