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The Rider (2018)
The Rider is a 2017 American contemporary western film written, produced and directed by Chloé Zhao. The film stars Brady Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lane Scott, and Cat Clifford and was shot in the Badlands of South Dakota. It premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2017, where it won the Art Cinema Award. It was released in theaters in the United States on…
Directed by Chloé Zhao · Shot by Joshua James Richards · 103 min
How it was made
- Zhao cast horse trainer Brady Jandreau, whom she met on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 2014, after watching him train a horse and deciding that if he could manipulate an animal's emotions, he could manipulate an audience.
- The story was built around Jandreau's real 2016 rodeo accident, in which a bucking horse stepped on his head and drove manure and sand into a three-inch gash in his skull; the finished film includes actual footage of the accident and repeated shots of his scar.
- Zhao financed the production herself on her and her boyfriend Joshua James Richards's credit cards, shooting with a crew of only six people who relied on natural light and Walmart LED strips for lighting.
- The entire cast is made up of non-professional Lakota people from Pine Ridge playing fictionalised versions of themselves, including Jandreau's own father, sister and wife, with scenes shot at real local horse sales, rodeos and auctions.
- Zhao edited the finished film herself from 50 hours of footage after shooting wrapped.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Chloé Zhao
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