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“Touch of Evil,” Orson Welles’ classic 1958 film starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Welles himself, screens for this month’s edition of Movie Night at the Museum at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 25.

Former museum executive director Gil Jordan steps in to host movie night in Jacob Thomas’s absence this month. Jordan founded the Movie Night at the Museum series years ago.

Other than that, it’s Movie Night as usual! Free admission and popcorn, fun people, drinks for purchase, and a classic movie — all a great reason to get out of the house and get into the museum.

That’s the gist of environmental philosopher Christopher Preston’s new book, which takes a look at resurgent wildlife populations and their effect on humans and our thinking.

Learn more at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, when Preston visits from Missoula, where he teaches at the University of Montana, for a free talk about his book and answers to questions such as “What is environmental philosophy anyway?”

See you here.

Until now, that is.

Mark T. Johnson, a University of Notre Dame professor who lives in Helena, started delving into the stories of some of the Chinese who made the leap to the West when he came across untranslated archives of material at the Montana Historical Society dating from the 1880s to the 1950s.

At the time, Johnson was teaching at a school in Shanghai and had connections to many eager language learners and bilingual readers. Assembling a transnational, multigenerational team, Johnson undertook the supervision of deciphering hundreds of mostly primary documents—typically letters—for English-language audiences.

His book, The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky: A History of the Chinese Experience in Montana (University of Nebraska Press), details the difficult and sometimes rewarding life of one of our state’s largest classes of immigrants. At one point, Chinese residents accounted for more than a tenth of the state’s population.

Many Montanans know that Chinese labor was instrumental in laying tracks for the railroads on which much of frontier life depended, as well as laundries, restaurants, and other essential services.

On Monday, April 10, Johnson visits the Northwest Montana History Museum to detail his findings and process. He will illuminate the pressures Chinese Montanans felt in their new digs and from their families back home.

Navigating government bureaucracy, frequent racism, and an ever-changing political landscape, Chinese Montanans often advocated for themselves and contributed more than just labor to their communities.

Mark your calendars for a rare glimpse into the lives of many who arrived early in Montana and aided our region’s development.

We have four wintry Sundays of fun on tap, through Feb. 26.

Amy Grisak (second from right) works in words, radio, and her backyard “farm” in Great Falls. She launches the series Jan. 15 with a talk on historic fire lookouts of Northwest Montana, one of which—Hornet Lookout, 45 miles north of Columbia Falls—just marked a century.

On Jan. 29 Jim and Randy Mohn (second from left) present a program you won’t find anywhere else: a review of Kalispell’s historic theater scene.

After decades as a wildlife biologist, John Fraley (right) turned to writing books. At first he focused on historical figures of Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Now he’s turned his keen eye on himself. His fifth book, My Wilderness Life, is just that: a reflection on a life spent nagivating and making sense of the natural world. Hear how his story made it to the page, and about the people and sights that inspired him along the way on Feb. 5.

Maritime archaeology photographer Kyren Zimmerman (left) goes deep to find his subjects, which lurk under the surface of Flathead Lake and other waters. He talks Feb. 26 on what lies beneath. From sunken boats to train cars, he takes his passion for noninvasive marine photography to a technical level. He converts image files into 3D renderings and uses an ROV (remote-operated vehicle) to document and photograph his finds. Zimmerman has traveled as far as Fiji and the Channel Islands and all over Montana to work and hone his skills, always innovating.

Visit nwmthistory.org/programs/john-white-speaker-series/ for tickets and info. All talks start at 2 p.m. and are followed by a Q&A and a half-hour casual social time.

A note about tickets: You can order the series online or individual tickets through the link above, or you can call Terri or Margaret (406-756-8381 option 5 or 6, respectively) or come by the museum 10 to 5 Monday through Friday.