Prospects - an Indie Western (filmed on 16MM film) - 4/21 NYC

Event will have a Q&A with filmmaker Rick Schmidt on phone or a Q&A featuring fest programmer Sujewa Ekanayake.

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"As morals slip, and the financial noose tightens, Winfield drifts toward setting things right, old-west style."

-from description of film below:

The old west is certainly dead, but pack burro racers don't know it yet. Especially in Colorado. Although few outside the state have ever heard of the sport, the old-time races have continued to be conducted right into the new millennium. Running alongside a burro for twenty-five miles at 7000-plus elevation, with a fifteen foot tether in hand, is as daunting as it sounds. But it's everyday life for Everett Winfield (played by three-time world champion burro racer Curtis Imrie), who is dedicated to this sport. Winfield/Imrie also breeds his own burros, presenting his bearded face to theirs at birth, to establish him as their birth-mother and master. But all is not well at the ranch.
When a bank loan officer balks at supplying Winfield with a bailout – $22,000 for a final mortgage payment – he unwisely flaunts the $5,000 purse at an upcoming race as his "employment record." Of course, it's no dice. As Winfield's options narrow, his girlfriend (played by Sue Conroe) offers to share her homestead. But in the world of a cowboy, a man doesn't live off a woman – Winfield accuses a fellow rancher of being a member of the "lucky sperm club."
Not one to relinquish his free-range freedoms, Winfield becomes involved with a young rodeo queen half his age, to the chagrin of his young niece, Hannah. As morals slip, and the financial noose tightens, Winfield drifts toward setting things right, old-west style.
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"Thoughts on "PROSPECTS" by Carolyn Zaremba, actor-collaborator; A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER, SHOWBOAT 1988, EMERALD CITIES, and THE FIFTH WALL.
From the beginning, PROSPECTS presents a view or point of view unique to age. The past becoming dreamlike; the present less than assured; the future marred by fear of loss: of love, of potency, and of independence. These two meanings together create an intense and specific emotional experience and it is this that makes the tale of a man’s life at this particular point in time absorbing and affecting.
The situation confronting Everett Winfield (Imrie) has become daunting. He is massively in debt and about to lose his ranch, his personal relationships with different women are knotted and complex, and he resists the idea of growing old. Everett is a burro racer, a sport with which this reviewer was unfamiliar until now which, according to the film, involves running alongside a burro on a 15-foot tether for twenty-five miles at an elevation of over 7,000 feet. He also raises burros on the Colorado ranch that he is in danger of losing. His expectation is to use the winnings from a race he has not yet run as collateral for a loan to save the property. The likelihood of success is made more acute when we learn that his banker is dubious and his doctor has told him that his back is giving out and another race could paralyze him for life.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the many women in Everett’s life are important to his search for a way out of his dilemma, not least of which is the unforgiving fact that he hasn’t got endless time ahead of him to make things right. Throughout his life Everett has remained largely uncommitted to any woman, although there are several who love him. His niece worries about his sexual affair with a young “rodeo queen” less than half his age. The young woman in turn sees herself as being able to help and support him with her love. It is his long-term, on-and-off relationship with a woman closer to his own age (played by his real-life partner) that offers him the kind of emotional connection with the potential to keep him from sinking, although he resists this. We get a glimpse of these alternatives and their effects. While the conquest of the young woman can be understood as confirming Everett’s continuing sexual robustness and, by extension, his ability to deny his financial situation and failing health (in short, to prove that he’s still a man), it appears that his long-term lover represents a safe haven of trust and understanding. There is a genuine frankness and even tenderness in the scenes between the two of them, despite his reluctance.
Two of filmmaker Rick Schmidt’s signature strengths are on display in Prospects: his scintillating black and white cinematography and his elicitation of wonderful performances from non-actors. These skills were evident already in his first feature film, A Man a Woman and a Killer (1975) and have remained strong through his entire body of work since then.
More than just another hard luck story, PROSPECTS goes deep into the humanity of the protagonist and the people around him, conveying the manner in which their influences push and pull him, a complex dance that makes all of the conflicting feelings real to the audience. Schmidt achieves this through what looks like the telling of a simple story. But as we should all know by now, nobody’s story is simple or unworthy of the telling. PROSPECTS is a beautiful film.

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Host or Publisher Sujewa Ekanayake