With filmmaker Matthew
Testa
The lives of America's last wild buffalo heard are
on the line as the concerns of ranchers and environmentalists
clash in the prairies of Montana. Every year, Montana officials
round up and kill bison that migrate out of Yellowstone National
Park in search of food, for fear that they will transmit disease
to livestock. As capricious political figures in Montana refuse
to take sides, environmentalists respond with acts of civil disobedience,
and a family of ranchers caught in the crossfire worry about
their future. Meanwhile, the Lakota Sioux rally around elder
Rosalie Little Thunder as she takes a 500-mile spiritual march
across Montana in support of the bison. Filmmaker Matthew Testa
presents a remarkably evenhanded look at the conflicts in America's
heartland, and it's most emblematic resident. Directed by Matthew
Testa. 2000, USA, 56 min.
Cosponsored with the Center for Religion, Ethics and
Social Policy; the American Indian Program; and the Department
of Rural Sociology. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Cornell
Council for the Arts.
The Buffalo War is Producer/Director/Photographer Matthew Testa's
first feature documentary. He has worked on documentary productions
for New York Times Television, National Geographic, Showtime,
The Discovery Channel and PBS. In 1995 he co-produced and directed
Bill Briggs: Teton Pioneer for ABC. Prior to working in
film, Testa was a newspaper reporter in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
He lives in Brooklyn.
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