The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo

Our latest film was released this month on Nowness – you can see it in full here: https://www.nowness.com/topic/rodeo/rodeo-bill-pickett-invitational

Shot at the iconic Rowell Ranch, a site with a 100-year history as a rodeo ground, the film captures competitors’ experiences of rodeo life, the culture and community that accompany the event, remolding a symbol of white America to reflect the unsung contributions that have shaped it.

“We shot the film over a 2 day period which gave us just enough of a window into the world of rodeo to create a short film.

Our approach is very much lo-fi mainly due to budget constraints but I think it probably adds to the overall look and feel in a positive way.

We interviewed on site in vans and trucks just to minimise the noise factor and shot anything that moved.

We pretty much used all of our b roll clips from both cameras and built a story around the interviews.

In between filming I also managed to shoot some portraits and supporting images from the rodeo event.

We wanted to make a postive film celebrating the Black Western heritage in the USA and hopefully we have done that.”