THE LAST BUFFALO HUNT

USA
2011
74 minutes

Hardly recommendable to sensitive people, director Lee Anne Schmitt and producer Lee Lynch's intriguing but half-baked essay has too much on its mind to be able to communicate it properly. At its centre lies a managed bison hunt in Utah's Antelope Park, as hunting guide Terry Albrecht and his crew of local cowboys give big-city greenhorns a taste of the Old West shooting at buffalos. But it also delves into the mystique of the wide open skies, the callous disregard of modern hunters for nature, the commodification of hunting and of Western history and its place in modern society. 

     It's a lot to ask of a single short feature length, unhelped by the director's own monotone voiceover and a middling sound mix that betray the film's shoestring, homemade production. Individually, many of the episodes caught on film by Ms. Schmitt and Mr. Lynch would make for an interesting piece in their own right, but as they search for a connecting thread between them, the filmmakers never truly find the film they're looking for, kept out of sight among the footage. 

Directed by Lee Anne Schmitt; produced by Lee Lynch; created by Mr. Lynch and Ms. Schmitt; music by Rogier Pijpers; filmed by Ms. Schmitt, James Laxton and David Fenster; post-production by Ki Jin Kim.
     Screened: DocLisboa 2011 advance screener, Lisbon, October 11th 2011.