"High Horse reminds you that in the Western United States, Black hands have always been on the reins, breaking horses, moving cattle, riding fences, racing and training. The problem is not that Black cowboys are being added to the West's familiar story; the problem is that the country keeps acting surprised to see them."
"The series stitches stunning archival footage and photographs with present-day scenes of Black cowboy life, traveling through film, music and marketing history to show that the way the story of the West gets told isn't always the way it plays out in real life. History gets airbrushed, not always with a single dramatic edit but with a slow narrowing of who gets to be seen as the real thing."
High Horse is a three-part docuseries that challenges the whitewashed narrative of the American West by centering Black cowboy history and contemporary life. Through archival footage, photographs, and present-day scenes, the series demonstrates that Black hands have always worked breaking horses, moving cattle, and training throughout Western history. The documentary, executive produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions and directed by Jason Perez, explores how Western storytelling has gradually narrowed representation through subtle erasure rather than dramatic omission. The series refuses to treat Black cowboys as an addendum to Western history, instead establishing them as fundamental to the region's authentic story and challenging the country's persistent surprise at their existence.
#black-cowboy-history #western-narrative-erasure #historical-representation #documentary-film #american-west
Read at High Country News
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