Sweetgrass begins with a frozen Montana landscape. The man-made structures are mired by the ravages of cyclical time. Sheep suddenly fill the screen, lazily chew and mill about. Have they taken over this barren terrain? One turns its head and looks out over the audience intently. Are we in some post-apocalyptic world a la Planet of the Apes? The explanation is a lot less fantastical, but no less provocative. Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, the documentary film-making couple, train their lens again on rarely seen communities—this time the cohabitation of man and ruminant.
When man finally does enter the picture it is as a silent assailant stripping the sheep of their coveted wool or tossing newborn lambs around into sodden piles. However, it is far from a one-sided relationship. Man also feeds the sheep and clothes the young in modified long johns…
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Filed under: Beartooth Mountain, Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Casting-Taylor, Montana, New York Film Festival, Sweetgrass, sheep
