Plus 3 Ferris Wheels

Desperado: Rodeo Duet, 2006
Running Time: 1:58
Anna Campbell - Grand Rapids Michigan

The dual narratives in this piece describe the continual, slow-motion falling of rodeo cowboys as they are thrown from horses and bulls, and a homophobic encounter at a gas station that is too banal to justify an emotional response. Combining these accounts underscores both the continual threat of harassment that can be expected by queers, and the cowboys’ tragically hopeful insistence on riding, given the inevitability of their crashing. Heroics traditionally associated with a cowboy and exhibited here by the narrator further blend these figures together, complicating a fixed understanding of either one.

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