How The Film Was Made

In 2021, Brad Anderson, Executive Director of Salina Arts and Humanities, approached FILI Creative about creating a documentary style video to celebrate the Smoky Hill River Festival’s fiftieth anniversary in 2026.

Between 2021 and 2026, the project grew from a video to a feature-length documentary.

During the first few years of filming at the Festival, the FILI team focused on the tangible building blocks of the Festival: the food, the art, the kid’s activities, the music. They documented all the visual elements of the Festival, but the project lacked a comprehensive vision.

In search of a narrative thread, the FILI team started to explore the inner workings of the River Festival. FILI followed several members of the River Festival staff with cameras and mics, gaining a better understanding of all the moving pieces that combine to form the Festival.

By 2023, FILI started to ask questions about the Festival’s deeper why. Why does the Festival feel so different and so special? Why are so many people deeply committed to it? Why does it matter to Salina and even the world beyond?

Interviews with Brad, and Salina community members who love the Festival, helped to reveal the Festival’s heart.

In the end, the key to creating 4 Days in June was combining the what and the how of the River Festival to create a foundation for the deeper why.