WILD WEST SHOW

The multimedia "Wild West Show" project takes its inspiration from Buffalo Bill's Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World-- an American entertainment spectacle that toured the world for twenty years on the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The show featured such legendary figures as Lakota warrior and holy man Sitting Bull, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and of course impresario "Buffalo" Bill Cody, often portraying themselves in re-enactments of events like the Battle of Little Bighorn and the adventures of the Pony Express.

These simulations-- often of dubious accuracy-- helped establish narratives of culture and conflict in America. The "Wild West Show" project explores the resulting flux of history, biography, mimicry, and spectacle. These works are not about the show itself, nor about the "realities" of America, but about the gaps in between.

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Wild West Show on YouTube

Contact filmmaker Mike Hallenbeck

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