Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival

Unbranded | Directed by Phillip Barribeau | 1 hour and 45 min. Feature Documentary | USA, 2015.
Four young men take an unprecedented journey on adopted mustangs from the Mexican to the Canadian border through the backcountry of deserts and mountains. Their goal: to prove the worth of the iconic horses that are the subject of often bitter controversy. As they cover the 3000 miles of often unforgiving landscapes, the riders succumb to the contradictory tensions of camaraderie and rivalry. Filmed almost exclusively by first-time feature director Phillip Baribeau, who was with the riders every mile of the way. As with so many Western films, Unbranded's story is a metaphor for the decisive actions needed to preserve wild places and their animals and personal and political conflicts that threaten these national treasures.