I have been involved with Megan and Nahchey Edwards' career since 2002. I consider them friends more than anything else. So, I was completely
excited when I learned about Megan's movie that she starred in, "Tracing Cowboys" to be finally seeing the light of day!!
Megan explained the project as, being about a young woman who is being pursued by her ex-boyfriend through the United States. She headed south into
Mexico, and took up residence at Alfonsinas. From here, the movie takes a more dark turn, but this is the general premise about the movie. Movie Trailer: Tracing Cowboys
I will be emailing Nahchey to ask when the movie will be officially released, if there will be release parties, or anything. How cool!!
From everything I have gathered on the 'web, it looks like the film has made the festival circuit, but is not available on DVD or has been introduced
into the theatres.
By Jason Wulfsohn, director of Tracing Cowboys
(special feature from 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival)
As a graduate film student at USC, I studied with Nina Menkes, an acclaimed filmmaker known for her experimental approach to cinema. She spoke of the
need to view filmmaking as a journey. That if you kept searching for what was true in a story, you would eventually find it, even if it lead you
somewhere you did not realize you were going when you started. In retrospect, this was our experience in making Tracing Cowboys, an independent
feature that I directed and that will receive its world premier at the 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival.
When we began, we did know that the film would be about two peoples' search for their own identity whilst leading lives apart from one another. We
also knew it would be a story about self-deception as well as self-discovery, about honesty but also betrayal of yourself and others. And we knew that
the two principal characters would be Ethan, a young Englishman obsessed with his hero John Wayne and intent on becoming a Country & Western
singer; and his American girlfriend, Debi, a photographer who, toward the start of the film, leaves without explanation, compelling Ethan to travel
down to Mexico during the Day of the Dead festival in search of her. The only map Ethan has to guide him is that contained within photographs Debi has
taken during her journey, a visual trail that eventually points Ethan toward the film's conclusion.
For us as filmmakers, in a way similar to Ethan's own journey, there was much about the film that we did not yet know when we started. We decided, for
example, to use locations just as we found them, and we almost always included in the scene those people whom we found there as well. In this way, the
film became an improvised interaction between professional actors portraying the two leads and a supporting cast that was almost entirely
non-professional - real people playing themselves.
This was especially true for the roles of the husband-and-wife couple who run the remote Mexican hotel to which Debi travels, and to where Ethan
eventually follows her. My partner in the making of the film was Sacha Grunpeter, who plays Ethan and also wrote the screenplay (and with whom I
co-produced the film), and for these two roles he and I had originally cast two prominent L.A.-based Hispanic actors. When we came to shoot,
last-minute scheduling issues prevented both from being able to travel to our very inaccessible location in Baja. Instead, in keeping with our
philosophy, we cast the actual husband-and-wife couple working at the hotel where we were shooting, neither of whom spoke a word of English and
neither of whom had ever been on or near a film set. Despite some initial apprehension, it was apparent, within moments of shooting their first scene,
that the decision was correct. Each brought a truthfulness and depth to their role that I could not have previously hoped for from professionals.
This ongoing process of discovery was also true in the relationship of our film to another film - John Ford's The Searchers, a classic repeatedly
referenced in Tracing Cowboys - and to John Wayne himself.
Many scenes in our own film take place in a small village, informally named Papa Fernandez after a legendary local fisherman. While shooting, Sacha
noticed in one of the homes a faded black-and-white photograph from the 1950s of Papa Fernandez standing alongside none other than John Wayne. Both
are holding a prize-sized marlin, freshly caught in the nearby Sea of Cortez. Local lore has it that John Wayne, after shooting some of his Westerns
in the same area, would occasionally visit to fish with Papa Fernandez. Years later, when Papa Fernandez was struggling to make payments on his small
plot of land, John Wayne's business manager suggested to his client that he buy the land as a base for future fishing expeditions. Firing his business
manager in disgust, John Wayne promptly bought the land himself, giving it entirely to Papa Fernandez.
Papa Fernandez passed away at the age of 102, several years before the making of Tracing Cowboys, but the villagers are his direct descendants and
include many of our "actors," and Veronica, the little girl in the film, is Papa Fernandez's great-granddaughter. Those of us who made Tracing Cowboys
like to think that the story of this land, owned at one time by John Wayne, represents a profound and even mysterious affirmation of our belief in the
relationship between the imagined life of a film and the real lives that we passed through in its making.
wasn't this the one that was filmed at Alfi's and or BOLA a few years ago during or close to the SCORE race? there were blurbs about a film being made
in baja and it was Alfi's i think - i read it here or on baja.net
sure would like to see it. they were in baja about a month i think.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
Ken - she is a knock out for sure.
when you talk to them ask if they will release it on Blu-ray disc too when they do the DVD.
since they shot in HD cam it needs to be seen in the full 1080i clarity.
looking forward to seeing it soon, keep us posted here.
sorry to read the lead died.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
Originally posted by duke62
Wow. Thanks Ken. The trailer looks great. Hope it gets picked up by some distribution company, so at least we may see it on DVD.
I'm hoping the same thing, too. I'm going to email Nahchey and Megan directly so I can get more info more quickly.
Megan made 2 trips to Gonzaga Bay during the filming, and for each filming, she was there 2 weeks at a time. The rest of the crew were there setting
up the camera for good angles/photography, etc.
The location for the shooting was Alfonsinas and also Papa Fernandez's. The cast were mainly from Alfonsinas - at least thats what I remember Megan
telling me.
Originally posted by Neal Johns
If I had a Jeep, I would go on your trips! Did I really say that?
Toyota Fanboy
Neal,
Nick (a participant last year) can be seen in this photo blasting through the mud in Green Valley - just east of Coco's Corner where this neat canyon
reveals tons of water and green grass: http://www.justruns.com/gallery2/d/12338-2/DSC06043.JPG
The two in the middle drove down from Northern CA in their brand-new (at the time) '07 4 Runner. We trashed the running boards on Mission Impossible,
and they didn't even get upset.
It will be fun to race the Toyota again like I did last year. I think 60 m.p.h. was my top speed along the route back to Alfonsinas/Rancho Grande.
Those Toyotas sure have plenty of speed built into them!
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
Thankyou to Baja Bound
Mexico InsuranceServices for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.
Emergency Baja Contacts Include:
Desert Hawks;
El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
Tracing Cowboys! Thanks! Will check it out!
