Help me identify this experimental film we watched in in college in 1995

May 22, 2021 2:00 AM

I took a class in Western cinema. We were shown this low-budget, experimental short film about machismo and a boy who is killed in a hunting accident.

A boy goes on a hunting trip with his dad. They are in some mountainous Western forest terrain. Maybe the Rockies. There might have been some sparse dialogue about being a "real man." Or if not, that felt like it was part of the theme of the movie, criticizing the Western myth of being a real man.

Then the boy dies in a shocking hunting accident, when his dad shots him by mistake. The movie then ends abruptly.

All of this was shot in a super low budget way. Anyone remember anything like this? Date-wise it seemed like a movie from not too long before 1995.

posted by johngoren to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Jon Jost's Sure Fire (1990) is not a short film but a feature - it ticks most of your boxes and Jost was considered one of the great independent film makers of that time so likely to turn up on a course. He is better known for his film All the Vermeers in New York.
posted by spibeldrokkit at 4:00 AM on May 22, 2021

Best answer: If it is Jost and you want to see Vermeers, it's on Mubi. One of my favorite all-time movies.
posted by dobbs at 5:54 AM on May 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Here is the trailer for Sure Fire
posted by bluefrog at 6:49 AM on May 22, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks! This totally looks like this was what I remember. Apologies for the spoiler.
posted by johngoren at 8:29 AM on May 22, 2021

If you want to watch it, it's available on VOD, like most of Jost's work: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/122677
posted by Awkward Philip at 12:27 PM on May 22, 2021 [1 favorite]