This month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival promises audiences their fair share of glamour, industry hullabaloo, and of course, great films. But according to director, Matt Livadary, some attendees can also expect a little something extra… “The gay rodeo’s bringing a whole lot of people out for our screening and they’re going to be in their chapter shirts, belt buckles and cowboy hats.”
No, the LA-based filmmaker isn’t planning on converting State Street into a romp’n stomp’n round up, he’s merely touting the world premiere of his latest documentary, Queens and Cowboys: A Straight Year On The Gay Rodeo.
“I think that every American has this weird nostalgic passion for cowboy culture that can’t really be explained. It’s just the romanticism of it all that’s ingrained in us, whether we realize it or not.” Mr. Livadary speaks from personal experience, having been fascinated with the world ever since his father took him to his first rodeo in Cody, Wyoming. at the young age of three.
It’d be 20 years before he would attend another, but the mix of curiosity and desire born within him that day would eventually lead the documentarian to spend 12 months on the circuit, attending some 30 rodeos and striving to uncover exactly what it is that makes these cowboys and girls tick. And assumedly you can guess from his film’s title that when he says every American, he means every American…
“The gay rodeo, for a lot of gay people who’ve grown up in the rural west, is really the only place where they can be themselves and still express their country western backgrounds.”
Though not gay himself, the documentarian has always enjoyed strong relationships with his queer friends and family members; he simply had no idea – like many gays who live in urban meccas – what life is like for these soldiers on the front lines. “It’s so easy to feel like gay is just accepted everywhere now with the way media sometimes portrays it, but there are definitely still two Americas, and it can be very difficult for gays to be out and accepted in the vast majority of this county.”
That’s precisely the reason why members of the IGRA (International Gay Rodeo Association) – not to mention the thousands who helped to finance the indie labor of love on Kickstarter – are so anxious to support it. And to promote tolerance within a sport that isn’t exactly known for it… The director explains: “Theirs really is an all-inclusive rodeo, it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, which I think, is very different from the traditional rodeo circuit that seems to be reserved only for those who grew up with it or fit into this homogenous idea of what a cowboy is.”
Also different are some of the undeniably campy events included in the festivities at the IGRA-sponsored rodeos that he attended – like “Goat-Dressing” and a “Wild Drag Race” – but don’t get it twisted for a second, these guys and gals do not fool around when it comes to their roping and riding: “It’s as dangerous as any traditional rodeo that you find. Same events, same injuries.”
And the same love for a way of life that continues to inspire millions, regardless of color, creed, and sexual orientation, because in the end, it’s not about what horse you’re riding, just how long you stay in the saddle…
Livadary says it best when describing his baby: “I don’t think it’s a gay film at all, I don’t think it’s a straight film at all. I think it’s a film about people and their goals and the courage and perseverance they have in trying to get to them.”
Queens and Cowboys: A Straight Year On the Gay Rodeo premieres this Friday at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.