Roads to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams – an ebook to prepare you for First Cow

To celebrate the release of First Cow and shine a light on Kelly Reichardt, one of the best directors working today, we’re publishing an ebook on Reichardt’s work. Featuring essays on all of her films and in-depth interviews with Reichardt and her long time collaborators, this is the essential guide to her incomparable body of work. 

Seventh Row recently named Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women the #2 film of the 2010s and the four leads appeared on our list of the 50 best films of the decade. Reichardt is a modern master, and yet very little is known about her working process as a writer, director, and editor, despite the existence of more than one book on her films. This new ebook will change that through interviews with Reichardt’s collaborators, including cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt (who has worked with her on every film since Meek’s Cutoff), author Jon Raymond (who co-wrote almost all the Oregon films), and costume designer April Napier (Certain Women, First Cow).

From unconventional crime dramas (River of Grass and Night Moves), to odd couple buddy movies (Old Joy and First Cow), Reichardt’s modern westerns are melancholy odes to lonely American lives. Her characters, who often live on the margins of society, are forced to come to terms with their mundane and isolated lives that are so far from the grand promises of the American dream. Reichardt is fascinated by the routine processes of their everyday lives — milking a cow, cleaning out a horse stable, pitching a tent — and their failed attempts to connect with the people around them, who are equally as lonely. Snag a copy of our book to read a series of essays about each of Reichardt’s films, which examine her thoughtful, quiet portraits of everyday lives.