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When the so-called "new" West and the old hold a showdown in a small Oregon timber town, you can bet there are going to be no winners.

In so many ways, "Clearcut" is a dense cluster of all the issues that pit traditional ways of life against the vision of many who yearn for a kinder, more organic vision of the land and its people. That the battle is set in a small school district - everyone claims to be speaking for the well-being of the children - makes this documentary all the more gripping.

"Outsiders" are frowned upon by some locals. Corporations are vilified - "they don't give a damn about communities." Gay issues, secularism, dress codes, American Indian mascots, and most of all, environmentalism ... When a chain saw meets hard wood, there is less friction than the social and political raking in this documentary.

Nearly half a century ago, Oregon timber industrialist Rex Clemens saw the carving on the stump: Logging is in its heyday, but it's likely to fall into decline, leaving the young folks of Philomath, Ore., hurting for their way of life, which always meant a good-paying job.

And so Clemens established the Clemens Foundation, which paid the full college tuition of any student who graduated high school. The foundation was the first of its kind in the nation, and it sent thousands through college.

The overseers of that trust (and relatives of Clemens), sensing the stench of liberalism creeping into their schools via a new principal from Chicago - a man who "doesn't quite talk like we do" - threatened to cut off the money unless the school board dispatched the principal.

But it's more than a perceived anti-logging bias that divides the town. In a sense, it's a broad cultural shift that some of the more conservative townsfolk are loath to accept.

Says Steve Lowther, Clemens' nephew: "Black lips, black clothes, baggy pants, underwear showing, long pink and blue hair, earrings all over the eyebrows. ... That kind of thing does not reflect well with the community."

The emotions are intense, and what emerges is a snapshot of a town deeply divided, the old guard clinging to an ethic and way of life they fear that political correctness is intent on destroying, and a school district introducing the new ways of this new West.

Filled with invective and plenty of grandstanding on both sides, it's a very honest and balanced portrayal of the deep fissures that run throughout the West, and will certainly be of interest to Missoula audiences.

Preview

'CLEARCUT: The Story of Philomath, Oregon"(Big Sky Award winner)

Directed by: Peter Richardson
Showing: Monday, 7:15 p.m.
Running time: 72 min.

Reach Jamie Kelly at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.

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