occidental

Dirs. Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross. 2015, 92 mins. Digital projection. For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, Texas, from Piedras Negras, Mexico, was the Rio Grande. But when violence from Mexican drug cartels begins to spill into these previously peaceable border towns, a cowboy, a lawman, and an entire way of life are threatened. For their third feature film, the Ross Brothers (45365, Tchoupitoulas) infuse sensitive observational filmmaking with the texture and mythos of the western. With stunning digital cinematography that manages to evoke the earthy grain of film, and a deep empathy for its subjects, occidental is a poetic, minor-key American epic. Nominated for two Cinema Eye Honors, including Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.