SWEETGRASS

A film by Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
2009, 101 minutes
No. 272
Documentary


SWEETGRASS
$375.00
Description
Lawrence Allestad and family were among the last of the traditional sheepherders of the American West. Under a public grazing permit that had been handed down in his Norwegian-American family for generations, Allestad was the final rancher to drive his herds into Montana's rugged Absaroka-Beartooth range north of Yellowstone to fatten on sweet summer grass. The family members and their hired hands conducted the drives much as their pioneer forebears had -- on horseback, with dogs for herding and guarding, and armed with rifles to frighten away bears and wolves. Over the years, better gear -- walkie-talkies, four-wheelers and cell phones -- took some of the edges off a hard life, but still the work remained exhausting and dangerous for both men and animals.

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

New 2K Restoration!

Festivals
Official Selection, New York Film Festival
Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival

Reviews
"A one-of-a -kind experience. At once epic-scale and earthbound " - Ronnie Scheib, Variety

"Monumental ... An anthropological work of art."Robert Koehler, Cinema Scope

"Awe-inspiring ... Hilariously weird." - Jim Hoberman, Village Voice