Scenic Wonders of America: American West

Inspired by films like Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas and David Byrne's True Stories, photographer Jason Lee set out to document residual American landscapes across Texas in early 2017 with large format color films for his recently released book A PLAIN VIEW. This short documentary follows Jason on the road during a four-day stretch in West Texas.

Did you know that the first cowboys were black? Using magnificent archives and testimonies from historians, Cécile Denjean restores justice to African-Americans in the story of the conquest of the West.

Nice looking Travelogue takes us to the Northeast corner of Wyoming as we visit Yellowstone National Park.

Uncover the rugged history, desert wildlife, and hidden secrets of the California desert. This documentary dives deep into the rich human stories of Joshua Tree National Park, from its ancient Indigenous roots to the wild frontier era. Explore the historic cattle drives and rugged cattlemen who crossed this harsh terrain, alongside legendary stories of Keys Ranch, historic gold mines, the famous pursuit of Willie Boy, and frontier shootouts to see how this stark wilderness shaped American history.

A personal meditation on the landscape of the American West that tracks the ruling conception in nature in the 19th and 20th centuries from the pioneers through the instamatic tourists, at the same time that it obsessively follows the four seasons. The elemental vicissitudes of the weather, the exact moment of the day, the colour of the light and the soil and the trees form an acute visual record of the constantly changing mood of the landscape. The film successfully attempts, with quiet, passionate, almost single-minded firmness, to confront us as nakedly as possible with our cultural inability to see nature whole, without preconceptions.

The evolution of the depiction of the various Native American peoples in cinema, from the silent era to the present day: how their image on the screen has changed the way to understand their history and culture.

Acid rain, economic development, and a century of mining pollute Rocky Mountain waters.

Told in the cinematic tradition of classic westerns, “COWBOYS - A Documentary Portrait” is a feature-length film that gives viewers the opportunity to ride alongside modern working cowboys on some of America's largest and most remote cattle ranches. The movie documents the lives of the men and women working on these "big outfit" ranches - some of which are over one million acres - and still require full crews of horseback mounted workers to tend large herds of cattle. Narrated through first-hand accounts from the cowboys themselves, the story is steeped in authenticity and explores the rewards and hardships of a celebrated but misunderstood way of life, including the challenges that lie ahead for the cowboys critical to providing the world's supply of beef. “COWBOYS” was filmed on eight of the nation’s largest cattle ranches across ten states in the American West.

A man and a woman in a mountaineering tour on the Blackfoot Glacier in the Glacier National Park. They cross the glacier, negotiating big crevasses and progressing by cutting steps using the ice axe. The two finally reach reach the summit of a rocky peak. The film belongs to a series of two films made to promote tourism travel to the Glacier National Park. The couple in the film are Dorothy Pilley, the prominent British mountaineer, and her husband Ivor Armstrong Richards, who traveled to the Glacier National Park in 1926 where they scaled 25 peaks in 19 days, together with Hans Reiss from Norway and Count Rinkie Donnersmark from Germany.

A man and a woman climbing the Grinnell Point in Glacier National Park. They start from the Many Glacier Hotel and progress on an easy terrain first to keep climbing on difficult and vertical rocks later. Finally the summit is reached and a panorama of the Swiftcurrent Lake and the hotel from the top is shown. The film belongs to a series of two films made to promote tourism travel to the Glacier National Park. The couple in the film are Dorothy Pilley, the prominent British mountaineer, and her husband Ivor Armstrong Richards, who traveled to the Glacier National Park in 1926 where they scaled 25 peaks in 19 days, together with Hans Reiss from Norway and Count Rinkie Donnersmark from Germany.

A reflection on anarchism and labor, ANCIENT SUNSHINE marks a path through the struggles of climate activism and coal extractions in the American West.

La grande prairie, le pacte du bison

The drought in the American West is predicted to be the worst in 1,000 years. Join five Academy Award-winning filmmakers as they explore the environmental crisis of our time and how to fix it before it's too late.

Released on the 13th of August, 1917. Produced by Burton Holmes.

Released on the 20th of March, 1916. Produced by Burton Holmes.

Released on the sixth of March, 1916. Produced by Burton Holmes.

Released on the 10th of December, 1917. Produced by Burton Holmes.

In 1964, Les Blank filmed 45 minutes of motorcycles for a documentary film that was never completed. Before his death in 2013, he asked his son Harrod Blank to cut the footage to the music of The 13th Floor Elevators. Edited by Ben Abrams, this film captures the vastness of the American West at a time when the motorcycle was the ultimate in highway adventure.

Travelogue of Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. Sailing distance to Glacier National Park, Montana. Vimy Mountain overlooks National Parks on both sides of the international line. Hikers hiking through the mountains.

Released on December 17th, 1917. Produced by Burton Holmes.