The edge halfway between: deconstructing the myth of the west through an exploration of Montana's ghost towns

Abstract

The Wild West. A vision of swinging saloon doors, a woman in need, and a man and his horse, all set against the backdrop of a little town and a great big sky. These romantic notions of the American West run rampant in our culture. But what happens after the cowboy rides off into the sunset? The town, taken for all it is worth, exploited, extracted, bled dry, turns into a ghost. Hundreds of years later, these ghost towns become commodified and turned into chapters in a guidebook. Yet the deeper history of these towns is far more expansive than can be contained in a quick blurb. Much of the history of ghost towns is rooted in fear, colonialism, and struggle. The ghost stories of those left behind in these towns- a teenage drowning victim, children fallen from sickness, and an elderly widow- speak to this deeper truth. A horror-like aesthetic of the film pays homage to the darker underbelly of these towns and the West as a whole. Taking an experimental approach, this film seeks to be an expansive expedition through history. This film exposes the essential truths about ghost towns, and what they say about both the past and the present.