
Around the film hang fascinating questions about border politics, which I’ll touch on in an introduction before the screening. One of Eugene Buck’s motivations for making the film may have been his rough cross-examination during his kidnappers’ first trials, in October 1913, when defense attorneys cast him as a confused and unreliable witness against idealistic freedom fighters. On film he could reproduce the pursuit, the shootouts, his kidnapping, and his friend’s murder just as he had testified. Reenacting the crime on film may have been the best revenge—and a way to honor the sacrifice of Deputy Ortiz, a twenty-year police veteran and, for the era, a rare Mexican American lawman.

Somewhere between the stars is a place that has gone missing. Hazel is a time traveler. Hat is a zealot. Lily is ghost. And something is always watching. Through the lens of five interconnecting stories, the secrets of the Rift are revealed.

One of 12 Westerns in 12 Months: this film tells the story of two women, isolated in the wilderness, whose peaceful life is forever changed when a third woman arrives one day. Along with her, a supernatural force lurks in the woods nearby.