She spent two years following sage grouse through the Idaho desert. New documentary shows why it matters
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MENAN – Kris Millgate has been telling stories about Idaho wildlife for two decades, and her latest project is a documentary film about sage grouse.
“Sage Wisdom West” will premiere at the Colonial Theater in downtown Idaho Falls on April 2. Teton Toyota and Raymond James are the film’s sponsors.
Amid the sagebrush on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management trailhead near the Menan Buttes, Millgate tells EastIdahoNews.com the film focuses on the largest grouse in North America and their ecosystem throughout the American West.
“If you look back about a century ago, the whole idea was to rip out as much sagebrush as you can (for homesteading),” Millgate says. “Now, we’re trying to keep as much sagebrush as we can because we realize this ecosystem keeps the West intact and the wildlife that live in the West.”
Millgate spent thousands of hours getting up close and personal with the sage grouse to shoot this documentary. It started in January 2024 in temperatures of -12.
While trying to deal with snot freezing in her nose, Millgate was learning how these birds move in their natural habitat.
Although she’s covered sage grouse and the high desert extensively as a journalist, she says their movement within their own habitat is an element that often gets skipped over, and that was her motivation with this project.
“In order to follow them with a camera, you have to learn their behavior, so that’s what I was doing,” Millgate says.
From outdoor journalist to ‘Sage Wisdom West’
Millgate has been interested in sage grouse for many years. She says one thing she likes about them is that they’re fun to watch. Every spring, the birds do a little dance. They puff out their chest and feathers to attract a mate.
Millgate says there’s a sequence in the film where a pronghorn antelope photobombs the sage grouse dance. The accidental shot has become one of her favorite moments.
Millgate says her interest in journalism and storytelling has been inside her since she was young. She worked for local TV stations and grew up hiking with her dad, which instilled a love of wildlife.
“I started picking up outdoor stories because I knew everybody else didn’t want to get muddy,” she says. “I didn’t mind getting muddy, and I always had hiking boots in my car. Even before there was an outdoor beat, I wanted those stories to matter and be the top of the newscast.”
After working as a journalist for about a decade, she launched Tight Line Media, the company through which she makes her films. She initially worked on film projects for clients but has since produced several feature-length documentaries, which are shown to audiences throughout the Intermountain West.
In 2021, she released “Ocean to Idaho,” an Emmy-nominated film following the disappearing Salmon migration from the ocean to Idaho. Her second film, the Emmy-winning “On Grizzly Ground,” was released in 2023. It follows grizzly bears through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
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‘I’m on the right track’
About a year into shooting “Sage Wisdom West,” Millgate says there was a major shift in the story she set out to tell. In 2025, Millgate discovered that North Dakota, one of 11 states that host sage grouse, had lost its most iconic native species. During its annual population count, biologists discovered all the males were gone, making breeding impossible.
Although the national sage grouse population has decreased by 80% since 1965, Millgate says they’ve never been listed as endangered. The discovery of their disappearance in North Dakota increases the urgency, she says, and makes her film project more timely.
“It means I’m on the right track. This is the time to show you sage grouse and sagebrush and why it matters in the American West,” Millgate explains.
Over the years, Millgate says fans have enjoyed behind-the-scenes stories just as much as her films. Millgate released a supplemental book, “My Place Among Birds,” sharing everything that happened behind the camera.
While she hopes people walk away from the film learning something about sage grouse, she says the desert is an equally important part of the story.
“There’s a lot going on out here that we’re all missing. The major thing that I see that we can change is how we treat the desert. It’s used as a dumping ground,” she says. “Clean up after yourself. There is value in this landscape, and it is what sustains the West.”
Millgate is hosting a VIP Party before the premiere. It starts at 5:30 p.m. The doors open to the general public at 6:30, and the film starts at 7 p.m. To buy tickets or learn more, click here.
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH MILLGATE IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.