Did you know the term “cowboy” has racist origins that date back to slavery? The job of herding and tending ranch cattle was initially reserved for Black slaves, Mexicans and Native Americans. In fact, “cowboy” is believed to be derivative of the emasculating use of the word “boy” to refer to Black men. But the stories of these pioneering cowboys and cowgirls have largely gone untold within literature and film. Generations later, the cowboy – and its classic imagery of rugged masculinity and heroism – have been deified in United States culture as white. With Room Rodeo, we intend to reclaim the stories of this country’s Black cowboys as told from the imagination of one little boy.

Room Rodeo utilizes elaborate production design, clever sound design, stylized video portraits and documentary elements like archival footage and interviews to celebrate the beauty and triumph of an overlooked piece of Black history. In the film, our protagonist Jamil finds what he believes to be a family heirloom that substantiates his whims about his great grandfather’s legacy. He then ventures into a colorful “dreamscape” where the audience will hear him begin to construct his story, which is validated by the voices of real Black cowboys.

The technical execution of this involves archival footage enhanced with rich sound design, stylized documentary interviews that will be cut with Jamil’s narration, and elevated styling and wardrobe for video portraits. By the conclusion of the film, Jamil embraces his belief about his great grandfather and, more importantly, the legacy of real Black cowboys. When his Mom calls him to dinner, he snaps back to the real world, unaware that his dreamscape has slipped out of his imagination and into his room – a feat we accomplished visually on our film set by transforming Jamil’s room into a horse stable. As Jamil steps out of his room for supper, the audience is left with one final image: a lone Black cowboy figurine perched atop a bale of hay.

As former journalists with a combined decade of experience, we are pursuing careers as filmmakers with a shared goal of leveraging similar storytelling backgrounds. In our work as producers, we aspire to elevate the experiences of Black people with great nuance and careful attention to authenticity, which we know to require detailed research. Our journalism backgrounds and the skills acquired as soon-to-be graduates of Columbia College Chicago’s Creative Producing MFA program have prepared us for this very moment: To revive the stories of extraordinary American heroes in a hybrid format that entertains, educates and encourages marginalized audiences to claim authorship of their own stories – just like Room Rodeo's protagonist, Jamil.

In recent years, African American musicians like Lil Nas X and Megan Thee Stallion have pushed the Black cowboy and cowgirl aesthetic to the forefront. They have made Western cowboy culture marketable and desirable, opening the door for filmmakers like us to deliver the real history of the Black cowboy to a wide audience.

In 2019, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” spent a record-shattering 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. With the song’s historic music video, he also shed light on a lack of knowledge about Black history among young children. For example, we’ve heard anecdotes about kids questioning why Lil Nas X was dressed like a cowboy when “cowboys are white.” Because Room Rodeo is told from a child’s perspective, we hope we'll be able to reach them.

While representation is increasing, Black stories are not monolithic. Room Rodeo is our contribution to the body of cultural and creative work that exists to challenge the historical erasure of the diverse Black diaspora.

During the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to drastically shift the way we all work, connect, learn and navigate our daily lives. With in-person classes canceled and dreams for our individual thesis projects dashed, the pandemic also threatened to delay graduation. We couldn't accept that. Instead, we worked together over the summer to create the script for Room Rodeo. We forged ahead with a shared thesis project, a physician-vetted COVID safety plan, and our sheer determination. And we became the only advanced project approved to shoot at Columbia College Chicago during the Fall 2020 semester. 

We worked with an amazing team of students and Chicago-based actors for months before ever stepping foot on set. Along the way, we also met some amazing cowboys and built partnerships with organizations who believed in our project. Then in December 2020, our cast and crew of camera, lighting and sound technicians, designers and craftspeople assembled. Many of them we met in person on Day 1 of the shoot due to COVID restrictions. Our efforts culminated in a safe, collaborative and successful six-day shoot. After filming Room Rodeo, we spent an additional two days interviewing Black cowboys and cowgirls for the film.

Our efforts so far have nearly put us back on track to graduate on schedule, despite the pandemic, on May 14, 2021. With your support, we can make that happen.

We’re in post-production now or what you might know as the editing process. This is when Room Rodeo gets transformed from images filmed on set into a real film. It involves an editor, sound design, music composition, coloring grading, sound mixing and mastering all to make a shiny finished product. Right now we’ve got the rough gem. We’ve come 80 percent of the way by paying for production costs through a mix of grants and personal savings. But we need your help to get the film 100 percent finished and out into the world.

In a time of financial uncertainty, your contributions will help us:

• Pay a fair wage to a post-production team of young working professionals.
• Purchase the systems that will keep Room Rodeo and its final edited files safe for years to come.
• Afford the costly technical systems that many premiere and international film festivals require in order to submit films to them. We believe films are made to be seen so these institutions are an important platform for our story. 

Any additional funds over our campaign goal will be used to develop and execute kid-friendly programming with Room Rodeo's partners. After Room Rodeo screens at its last film festival, we will submit the film to Short of the Week and Nowness and we intend to make the film available on a streaming platform like Amazon’s Prime Video.