Writer/director of rodeo documentary “AMERICAN RODEO : A COWBOY CHRISTMAS” (now on VOD)
Highly-anticipated documentary American Rodeo : A Cowboy Christmas is now on VOD.
The film is set in the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July, when there are over 90 rodeos across 35 states. In hopes of grabbing their share of rodeo fortune and fame, the men drive hundreds of miles, day and night, to get to the next run and another seconds-long chance at winning, even as they risk breaking bones, overdrawing bank accounts, and sacrificing personal relationships.
Writer-Director H.D Motyl and his production crew hit the road with the cowboys in the summer of 2009, and traveled well over 2000 miles to capture them at 18 rodeos in their event of steer wrestling. “There are a lot of rodeos in this three week period–and a lot with big purses,” Motyl explained. “So the cowboys can win a lot of money in a short amount of time. And that’s how this circuit of rodeos became known informally as Cowboy Christmas.” The cowboys who win the most money (the top 15) by the end of the rodeo season in October go the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. “I was fascinated by the idea,” Motyl continued, “of these men putting everything in their lives aside for three weeks and hitting the road to rodeo.”
H.D. Motyl is an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale where he teaches Media Production and Writing for TV. He is also a media maker and his feature-length documentary about professional rodeo, Cowboy Christmas, won Best Feature Documentary at the 2013 Madrid International Film Festival and Best of the Festival at 2014 BEA Festival of Media Arts, in Las Vegas. His experimental video Nudes Descending a Staircase #2 recently screened at MADATAC04 in Madrid and at the 8th Directors Lounge Festival in Berlin.
Motyl has also produced, directed and written episodes for non-fiction series on The History Channel (“Conspiracy?”), National Geographic Channel (“The Final Report”) and A&E (“American Justice.”) For the home video and educational markets, he produced, wrote and directed such diverse work as the best-selling Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film, The Journey of Amistad, John Glenn: An American Legend and the award-winning Show & Tell series of children’s videos. One of Motyl’s short films, Token of Love, has the dubious distinction of being banned in Japan. Outside of Japan, the film has had numerous domestic and international screenings. Other award-winning work, including Memorial, Oh Michael/Oh Jesus, and Messages from Jeanne, has been screened in festivals worldwide. A short animation My Art is Not Dead, for which Motyl performed the narration, is being well-received on the festival circuit.
Currently, Motyl is writing Saturn Return, a film about a man who, as he turns 30, is forced to deal with three relationships, with each exploring a different kind of love: fraternal, romantic, and filial. H.D. is also working on a feature script titled Three Rivers, about a woman, time travel and the consequences of choices; it takes place on an island in the middle of the Ohio River.
Originally from Pittsburgh, he was graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. in English and holds an M.F.A from Northwestern University in Film/Video Production and Screenwriting.
