The Land Piranha - a work in progress
16mm and video
The Land Piranhas is a feature-length documentary about the fight for the identity of the ‘rewild, wild’ West in the 21st century. This new take on the genre of the western examines intersections between fear, food politics, land use and immigration and how these relationships are incited by the reintroduction of gray wolves into their original habitat of the American West. The Land Piranhas will have an original score by Montana-born musician Chris Sands, with additional songs by Michael Hurley.
"I wish to understand how the social and political conditions of the past are inextricably linked to the present. This wolf mess we find ourselves in at the moment, having reintroduced them into the lower 48, and now killing them again with such hatred, seems to repeat itself through the ages. Will the wolf ever be accepted, as women to vote, civil rights, biracial marriages and now gay marriage? Or will it always be the villain forever more? Can it ever be "just an animal"?
credits:
cinematography: Bob Landis and Vanessa Renwick and Bill Daniel