FILMING A TRIO OF COWBOYS as they traveled the exciting, high stakes rodeo circuit took documentarian H. D. Motyl and his crew through six western states, shooting steadily from the end of June up through the 4th of July when the circuit ended.
“There are almost 30 rodeos throughout the Western states where professional rodeo cowboys can win big purses in a short time,” says Motyl. “They call this period ‘Cowboy Christmas,’” which serves as the title of his feature-length doc.
At the end of the rodeo season in October, the top 15 rodeo winners will compete in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) — the annual climax to the scores of competitions the PRCA sponsors.
Motyl is an SIU assistant professor of media production and writing in the Dept. of Radio-Television, who’s been writing and producing major, award-winning television documentaries for more than 20 years.
Last summer he went to Cody, Wyoming, the site of one of the big Cowboy Christmas rodeos, to find a cowboy who’d allow a camera crew to follow him around with a camera for three weeks during the rodeo circuit.
“I’d decided I’d concentrate on high-risk steer wrestling, also called bulldogging –- where the cowboy jumps from his horse onto a steer and wrestles it to the ground,” Motyl explains.
The producer-director fortuitously found not only one, but three Texas cowboys who travel the lucrative June circuit together. “Finding these three was godsend. Each of the guys has a unique story.”
For two months last winter, Motyl and crew traveled throughout Texas interviewing the bulldoggers. Matt Reeves, 30, is a diabetic with a master’s degree and rodeo competitor for the past five years. Darrell Petrie, 39, one of a few black cowboys in the PRCA, has steer wrestled professional for 13 years. (“The investor of steer wrestler was a black cowboy, so Darrell is a great tie-in with our story,” Motyl notes.) Rancher Sam Koening, 50, is a 25-year rodeo veteran.
“I was fascinated by the idea of these men putting everything in their lives aside for three weeks and hitting the road to rodeo,” Motyl says.
He is also intrigued by how this sport, begun in the 18th century when Spanish cattlemen ruled the West and influenced the American cowboy, still thrives as popular competitions in the 21st century.
Seeking $5,000 from IndieGoGo for completion funding
When Motyl started shooting two years ago, he had an estimated budget of $45,000. He says he’s invested $10-$12,000 in the project thus far, and a recent SIU $25,000 Faculty Seed Grant has brought Cowboy Christmas to the post stage.
But a just-ended IndieGoGo campaign was disappointing by falling short of its stated goal of $10,000 in the first round of funding. Undeterred, Motyl is relaunching IndieGoGo with a more modest goal of $5,000 to wrap post by late fall.
Motyl also wrote the doc; Alicia Healy was the primary DP and two other shooters who are Motyl’s former students shot with Sony Z7U HD cameras. Libi Hake is editing and Downstate musician Alex Kirt composed the score.
Bulldogger Reeves thinks Cowboy Christmas will be good for the sport of rodeo, bringing it to a wider audience. “It’s a great American tradition,” Petrie adds. “It’s still a big deal in the West and Southwest and more people should know about us.”
Motyl was a freelance documentary producer of some 25 important documentaries for Towers Productions, Scott Craig Productions and the Waleed brothers’ MPI Media Group that aired on A&E, National Geographic, History and Travel Channels.
“I’d always wanted to teach, so when the market dried up for freelancers, I taught for a year at Columbia College and then moved to Carbondale to teach at SIU. I want to produce narrative films and teaching affords me more time to do that,” Motyl says.
Motyl’s Email: hdmotyl@siu.edu; phone, 773/383-5080.
