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The essential guide to Kelly Reichardt

Roads to nowhere

Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams

With this ebook, you will discover how one of the best directors working today ticks through essays on all of her films and in-depth interviews with Reichardt and her collaborators on First Cow.

The ebook Roads to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams will be delivered to you as both a PDF and ePub.

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Celebrate your love of Kelly Reichardt every morning with your cup of tea or coffee, as you remember fondly that ‘sorrow is just worn-out joy’.

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Why we wrote the book

About Kelly Reichardt

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.

Roads to nowhere offers the first in-depth, 360-degree look at Reichardt’s process through interviews with Reichardt herself and her collaborators on First Cow, many of whom have been working with her for years 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). The interviews get technical without assuming any background knowledge from the reader, so you can learn about aspect ratios, acting technique and more without needing a film school background. Beyond Reichardt’s own work, the book reveals how film is a collaborative process across disciplines and how these artists interact to create great films.

Through essays on each of Reichardt’s films, Roads to nowhere explores how her modern westerns are melancholy odes to lonely American lives through essays on each of her films. From unconventional crime dramas (River of Grass and Night Moves), to odd-couple buddy movies (Old Joy and First Cow, Reichardt’s 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 Roads to nowhere, to discover how this modern master operates, and to read a series of essays about each of Reichardt’s films, which examine her thoughtful, quiet portraits of everyday lives. 

Order Roads to nowhere now!

Wendy and Lucy, Lean on Pete, Kelly Reichardt, Andrew Haigh, Modern westerns

Chapter Preview

An interview with Lily Gladstone

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What’s inside Roads to nowhere

1. Interviews revealing Reichardt’s collaborative process

  • Kelly Reichardt on First Cow and on her body of work to date
  • Co-writer Jon Raymond on First Cow and his ongoing collaboration with Reichardt
  • Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt (Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves, Certain Women, First Cow)
  • Costume designer April Napier (Certain Women, First Cow)
  • Production designer Anthony Gasparro (Certain Women, First Cow)
  • Sound designer Leslie Shatz (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Certain Women, First Cow)
  • Actress Lily Gladstone (Certain Women, First Cow)
  • Actors Orion Lee and John Magaro (First Cow)
  • Composer William Tyler (First Cow)
  • Assistant editor Ben Mercer (Certain Women, First Cow)

2. Essays on each of Reichardt’s films

3. Case studies on Certain Women and First Cow

  • Table of Contents for Roads to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt's broken American dreams book ebook
  • Table of Contents page 2 for Roads to nowhere ebook on Kelly Reichardt book

Praise for Roads to Nowhere and previous books

I can’t recommend Roads to Nowhere enough

“A book that celebrates the auteur that is Reichardt without erasing the collectivity of making movies… This is a book about making films, but it’s also about watching cinema, experiencing its refracted perspectives, and going into the imagination of others.  As a Kelly Reichardt fan, I can’t recommend it enough and hope that, if you do venture into its pages of knowledge and discovery, you can find as much joy as I did…one sometimes feels alone in their cinephilia. Roads to Nowhere assures us, at least it assured me, that we’re not lonesome after all.”
Cláudio Alves
Critic, The Film Experience

Breathtaking in its insight

“Once again, the Seventh Row team of Alex Heeney and Orla Smith have collaborated on a book that is breathtaking in its insight. Roads to Nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s Broken American Dreams follows the release of what might be the director’s finest work to date, First Cow. While there is plenty here about the early 1800s-set Cow, Reichardt’s entire career is represented….Reichardt deserves this sterling tribute, and readers will gain even greater appreciation for her work.”
Christopher Schobert
The Film Stage

A cornerstone for future Sciamma scholarship

“Portraits of Resistance covers enormous ground, reading Sciamma’s work as queer cinema, women’s cinema, European cinema, looking at the both the stories and the aesthetics, and how Sciamma has already created distinct and unique films with a singular voice. Not only is it a great introduction for any who want to learn more about the filmmaker, it will be a cornerstone for any future Sciamma scholarship.”
Shelag Rowan-Legg
Editor, Screen Anarchy

Listen to the book’s editors discuss Reichardt + the ebook

How to buy Roads to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams

Snag our ebook, and become an expert on Kelly Reichardt and discover her filmmaking process through the lens of First Cow.

The ebook is available as an ePub and PDF, which are readable on all tablets, smart phones, and eReaders.

Buy our Kelly Reichardt book here for the early bird price of $24.99 CAD, which is roughly $19 USD and 15 GBP. Sign up for our newsletter to access sneak peaks and exclusive deals. One week after the book’s release, the price will go up.

Or save money by joining book club, and get this book and 4 others!

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Our Ebooks

  • In their own words: Fiction directors – an ebook on filmmaking
  • Roads to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams – an ebook to prepare you for First Cow
  • Portraits of Resistance: The Cinema of Céline Sciamma
  • Beyond Empowertainment: Feminist Horror and The Struggle for Female Agency
  • The 2019 Canadian Cinema Yearbook
  • Tour of Memories: on Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir
  • Peterloo in Process: A Mike Leigh collaboration
  • Leave No Trace
  • Lean on Pete
  • You Were Never Really Here
  • Call Me by Your Name

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