Filmmaker Interview: Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait

On this special presentation of On Story, we’re taking a closer look at some of the incredible films chosen to screen at the 26th Annual Austin Film Festival and the filmmakers behind these films. We spoke with filmmakers whose work represents some of the most original voices in filmmaking from around the world and the challenges they faced in their creative process as well as the breakthroughs that led them to Austin Film Festival.

On this week’s On Story, co-writers and directors John Langmore and Bud Force discuss their feature documentary Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait. Told in the cinematic tradition of classic westerns, the film gives viewers a first-hand account from modern working cowboys on some of America’s largest and most remote cattle ranches. 

John Langmore is a former working cowboy who spent five years photographing cowboys on twelve of the country’s largest ranches, His recently published book, Open Range: America's Big-Outfit Cowboy, is the result of over six years of work photographing on fourteen of the country's largest ranches, all running full crews of horseback cowboys.
Bud Force is an award-winning director and cinematographer based in Austin, Texas. He has been involved in the agriculture industry most of his life. Bud is a former rodeo cowboy who has spent the past decade producing brand films and documentaries around the world.

I spoke to John Langmore and Bud Force about Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait presented by Hill Country Conservancy ahead of the film’s world premiere at the historical Paramount Theatre on Friday, October 25th.