Recording first began in the spring of 2001 , when Barbash and Castaing-Taylor first heard of a family of Norwegian‐American sheepherders in Montana . These herders were among the last to trail their band of sheep long distances through Montana 's mountains . After 8 years of filming and development , it premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival . Since then it has regularly screened worldwide and distributed theatrically by Cinema Guild . In the United States , it premiered at the New York Film Festival , and in Montana at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula , where it received the Big Sky Artistic Excellence Award
59th Berlin International Film Festival
59th Berlin International Film Festival
Sweetgrass (film)