THE WESTERNER: New documentary follows lives of three Montana ranchers

There exists a gap between urban consumers and and producers regarding their respective perceptions of production agriculture. A new documentary film, “Ridin’ for the Brand,” attempts to bridge that gap. With her film now being screened, director and filmmaker Stephanie Alton admits the movie changed since she first started to film “Ridin’ for the Brand.” “At first I just wanted to show the cowboy way of life, but then I realized there was more to it,” said Alton, who lives in Bozeman, Mont. That “more” included showing the entire process a rancher takes to raise cattle and bring them to market. It also shows the disconnect between city-dwelling consumers and those in agriculture. Her film is the bridge between the two. During the course of filming, Alton followed three ranching families in Montana for a year, filming them through the seasons as they raise and care for their cattle. “So many people have never seen that before,” said Alton. “A lot have never even seen calving before and that is surprising to them.” In addition to showing the modern way of ranching, Alton’s film takes a look at the history of ranching. “I have a lot of archival footage, some of it from the ranchers themselves and others from archives,” said Alton. The result was nine years of effort and a lot of selecting and editing to get the footage down to an hour. “I got it down to three hours but then I had to hire another film editor because I couldn’t do it anymore,” said Alton. “It is hard to trim down and condense what you love.” The result was a documentary that shows ranching families doing what they love and lets those in the city get an honest look at how involved ranching is...more