WESTERN
A film by Bill & Turner Ross
WINS U.S. DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL JURY AWARD
FOR VÉRITÉ FILMMAKING!
Check out the snow-filled award acceptance video here!
ABOUT THE FILM
With a singular cinematic perspective, directors Bill and Turner Ross (TCHOUPITOULAS, 45365) are known for capturing dreamy vérité images to create rich portraits of life in American landscapes. They open their latest tale before the storm hits: the people of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico are joined together to celebrate their harmonious past with a festival that all but throws open the international border. Welcoming the revelers are Chad Foster, the beloved mayor of Eagle Pass, and Martin Wall, a fifth-generation cattleman. As if lifted from a John Ford epic, these characters are all brio and conviction and, at first, unable to see the looming specter of change and its rippling consequences. Soon though, conflict in the form of emerging cartel violence and strident border patrolling will become impossible to ignore. Confronted with inexorable forces of change, these archetypal heroes face the dawn of a new reality. Produced out of New Orleans by the team behind BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, the aptly titled WESTERN is a beautifully observed modern take on a classic cinematic tradition, and a timely examination of life on the American frontier today-all the more potent because it is true.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
New Orleans based Bill & Turner Ross are brothers who work in tandem as documentary filmmakers. Their first feature 45365, won the 2009 SXSW Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature and the 2010 Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award. Other accolades for the film include nominations for editing, cinematography, and debut feature at the Cinema Eye Honors, and selection for broadcast as part of PBS's Independent Lens series. Their second feature, TCHOUPITOULAS, had its world premiere at SXSW in 2012 and premiered internationally at CPH:DOX, where it won Special Mention. The film also won the Emerging Artist award at the HotDocs Festival. Their third documentary, WESTERN, is a glimpse of life in a Texas border town at a time of change, and recently premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition.