One In Five Hundred
Documentary film project by Hugo Sindelar, Assistant Professor, School of Film & Photography
One In Five Hundred is a community-driven environmental documentary chronicling the devastating floods that affected Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding gateway communities in June of 2022. The flooding was a 1-in-500-year event, however, shifts in climate across the West are making events like this more common. Precipitation is falling as rain instead of snow, making rain-on-snow events, which often cause flooding, much more likely to occur. The film will delve deeper into how these changing weather and climactic patterns led to the flood event, how it affected both Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding gateway communities, and what can be done to both rebuild and help them adapt so that future flooding events are not as catastrophic. After completion of the film, screenings of the film will be held in affected communities, and it will be submitted to regionally significant film festivals and environmentally focused national festivals. MontanaPBS is also interested in broadcasting the film in Montana, and it will also be pitched to other local, regional, and national public television stations.