Sweetgrass (film)
| Sweetgrass | |
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| File:SweetgrassPoster.jpg
Official poster
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| Directed by | Lucien Castaing-Taylor |
| Produced by | Ilisa Barbash |
| Cinematography | Lucien Castaing- Taylor |
| Distributed by | Cinema Guild |
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Release dates
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Running time
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101 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Sweetgrass is a 2009 documentary film that follows modern-day shepherds as they lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. It was directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, a Harvard anthropologist, and produced by his wife Ilisa Barbash. The title derives from Sweet Grass County, one of several in which the film was shot. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Production and premiere
Recording first began in the spring of 2001, when Barbash and Castaing-Taylor first heard of a family of Norwegian‐American sheepherders in Montana. These herders were among the last to trail their band of sheep long distances through Montana's mountains.[1] After 8 years of filming and development, it premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. Since then it has regularly screened worldwide and distributed theatrically by Cinema Guild. In the United States, it premiered at the New York Film Festival, and in Montana at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, where it received the Big Sky Artistic Excellence Award.
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes gave 97% and certified "Fresh". Film critics have generally praised the film as "an anthropological work of art,"[2] focusing on its aesthetic minimalism, such as a lack of music and narration.[3] The film is a New York Times Critic's Pick, a Washington Post Critic's Pick,[4] and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as "the first essential movie" of 2010.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Recordist’s Statement | Sweetgrass
- ↑ Robert Koehler. Agrarian Utopias/Dystopias: The New Nonfiction. Accessed June 18, 2010
- ↑ Anthony Lane, The Current Cinema, “Hard Days and Nights,” The New Yorker, January 11, 2010, p. 82
- ↑ Michael O'Sullivan. Stunning look at graze anatomy. Washington Post, May 21, 2010.
- ↑ Manohla Dargis. "Montana Cowboys Lead, Coax and Cajole Their Charges Amid a Chorus of Bleats". 1/6/2010.
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 2009 films
- English-language films
- Articles using small message boxes
- American films
- American documentary films
- Anthropology documentary films
- 2000s documentary films
- 2000s in Montana
- Agriculture in Montana
- Films set in Montana
- Films about sheep
- Documentary films about agriculture in the United States
- Non-narrative films
