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The Cowboy and the Ballerina
a Carrion Productions film

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Short Film Awards
won by
"The Cowboy and the Ballerina"

Grand Prize Winner
at the Cheyenne Western Film Festival

Grand Prize Winner at the Gold Camp Film Festival.

Best
Short Film at the Northampton Film Festival

Best Experimental Film at the Hardacre Film Festival

Grand Festival Short Feature Award at the 6th Berkely Video & Film Festival

Best Film Narrative at the Utah Short Film & Video Festival

Short Pictures International Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA
November 1998

Santa Clarita International Film Festival
Santa Clarita, CA
February 1999

Fantasporto '99 International De Cinema Do Porto
Porto, Portugal
March 1999

Sedona International Film Festival
Sedona, AZ
March 1999

Newport Beach International Film Festival
Newport Beach, CA
April 1999

Film Fest
New Haven
New Haven, CT,
April 1999

Saguaro Film Festival
Scottsdale, AZ
May 1999

Visit the
Carrion Productions Web site

Clint Eastwood
movie posters

Click here!

Related Video:
Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso
A never-before-seen documentary that provides fascinating insights into the life and legendary career of Clint Eastwood, together with interviews with many of his closest collaborators, colleagues and co-stars including Genevieve Bujold, Frances Fisher, Gene Hackman, Marsha Mason, Jessica Walter and much more.

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RTW [ReadTheWest]: You went from being a body builder to a filmmaker. Was filmmaking always a desire of yours?

MI [Mark Joseph Isham]: Filmmaking had always been an unspoken desire of mine. It wasnt until just a few years ago that I even began to refer to myself as a poet. Which in essence is what I really am first and foremost. I guess I just kept adding muscle onto my frame until no one would dare laugh at me when I said I wrote poetry. At least not laugh in my face. Now getting people to read my work was an entirely different thing.

   In my first attempts at getting "The Cowboy and The Ballerina" done I came up against the same prejudice. Even today, I still come across people who would rather refer to me as their trainer or a bodybuilder when my work is in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. I find people for the most part are very uncomfortable or non-accommodating in allowing others to change or in recognizing the success of someone they think they know. Unfortunately, success can come at a seemingly slow rate too slow for most people to watch or understand.

RTW: You mentioned earlier that you're a great admirer of Western film director John Ford. What do you find most appealing about his movies, and how does that apply to the kind of films you would like to produce in the future?

MI: To me, John Ford was a no-nonsense type of filmmaker, personally as well as professionally. I think he would get to the heart or truth of a scene, frame it and shoot it. He had one way of telling his story and that was his way. John Ford did not cut (edit) his own (studios) films, but while he was off on his boat he certainly did not leave a lot of room for artistic interpretation to his editor. Whereas the French think a "gun and a woman" are all you need to make a movie, with Ford it was his realization that there was no better subject for a moving picture than a "horse".

   I tend to agree with him in its purity and simplicity. I believe John Ford wanted to stand for something I feel he stood for truth. In these times, I feel if I can stand solidly and firmly by my truth, personal and artistic, that I have done a commendable thing. It takes longer and it hurts more but that is all part of the fun and the journey. I only have one name just like John Ford had. I dont intend to readily throw it away over something I dont believe in or want to do. The Samurai took pride in not knowing what the currency of their times looked like. There is tremendous honor in this. That is how I want to approach my lifes work but unfortunately it comes with great sacrifice not only for myself but also for my wife.

RTW: "The Cowboy and The Ballerina" received numerous awards and high praise at many film festivals. This being your first short film, were you confident that it would do so well?

MI: I knew from the beginning that I had something good. I had to believe this, especially when you are the only one believing in it. It took five years just for me to finally get to the first location. I always knew I could hit a homerun if I ever got the at bat. It just seems that the "at bats" are few and far between. But on that first day on shooting when the sun was going down and Todd Tesen (the Cowboy) put Bonnie Rich (the Ballerina) up on that horse and the wind was blowing through her hair, I felt more than vindicated because it was even more beautiful than I had imagined. I had tears in my eyes but I can truthfully tell you that every struggle up to that moment had been completely worth it and completely forgotten because no matter how bad it was or could be I was finally making a movie.

RTW: What was the most difficult challenge you met while making the film?

MI: The most difficult challenge I faced was in convincing people to believe in me and the vision I possessed. Even when the film was happening, there was no one besides my wife who realized or recognized what I had accomplished and what I was doing. People did not even know what they were a part of. Amazing.

   Slowly at some point along the way to being accepted to over fifty International film festivals, seven first prizes, twenty awards, fifteen Internet sites, thirty-five television stations, part of the Permanent Film & Video Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and having also been acquired by forty Arizona public schools, libraries and universities did people start to realize what was going on with the film. Otherwise I think it had been dismissed as just a job, or a dalliance.

   Another challenge I faced was dealing with the many people before, during and after this project that have been in a position to help and have refused. But the biggest challenge by far is money, money, money always money. Cinema is a very expensive art form.

RTW: You have been referred to by some within the industry as "a Steven Spielberg in the making." How do you feel about that?

MI: That was a nice metaphor and compliment but the only thing I think I share in common with Mr. Speilberg is probably his passion for film.

RTW: Let's talk about personal visions. What is your vision for the Western film in the 21st Century?

MI: I realize that art is a reflection of the times and one of the duties of an artist is to reflect the times. This is quite evident at the theatre. Unfortunately, I see too much glib talk between characters we really do not care for. These characters are not even anti-heroes, which I consider the best type of characters. They are people we would not want to sit next to.

   I partly blame television for this because we have filmmakers who grew up strictly on dialogue (not very good dialogue) driven material encompassed in an extremely small vehicle, the television set. Now we see the spillover. Case in point is the studios attempt to bring television shows to the big screen, television and its content were not made for the big screen. The big screen was meant for bigger-than-life heroes. It was meant for drive-in screens exploding out of the flatness of a desert where legends do battle. That is storytelling. That is myth. That is something that can touch or change a persons life or viewpoint. It can teach us how to live or handle a situation with grace or give us strength and comfort when we are in need. There is tremendous responsibility with filmmaking. I feel this responsibility for the most part is being ignored.

RTW: Obviously, you are very passionate about what you do.

MI: I guess film is a type of religion for me. The more reading and research I do about the West, the more material I find. Incredible stories and characters that have as yet been untapped. I want to assimilate as many of these stories, struggles and characters and see where it leads me when I approach the next screenplay. Powerful simplicity is something I would like to strive for. That is what a Western should be life and its tests broken down to its very essence, life or death, good or evil.

RTW: Speaking of struggle, what do you think the future holds for the Western film?

MI: Right now it doesn't look very good. Simply because the studios, producers, and the powers that be dont think they can make money or the type of money that makes the project attractive. I recently had a short telephone conversation with a writer-producer-director of 50 years experience who has done Westerns starting with John Ford all the way up to a short film he has just recently finished. I mentioned to him a Western that I would like him to be involved with. He said if we took the script to a studio, and mentioned the word "Western", they would throw us out on our ears on the sidewalk. I think that basically sums up the current state of the Western in the film industry. But this is not going to stop me, I got one made and I will get another one made and then another. It just takes a while.

RTW: What is your opinion of the Spaghetti Westerns of the sixties?

MI: I love the Spaghetti Westerns. Those that Sergio Leone did have had a tremendous influence upon me. It took an Italian like Leone to bring a European understanding and sensibility to this very American art form. Much the way Jazz music and its musicians were received in such a positive light in Europe as opposed to the resistance they were met with here in the U.S.. Leone was obviously aware of the mythic quality of the Western genre and was able to exploit it.

   Unfortunately, because of language and location barriers he fell short, which exposed him to unnecessary criticism. But overlooking these inadequacies, his accomplishments were extraordinary and should be regarded as such. He, as much as anyone, had a tremendous and deeply rooted respect for the American Western and its players. This should be noted, complimented and respected. He introduced an operatic quality, which granted a necessary majesty to the subject matter and its players. The West was mythology. The West was bigger than life and as an art form its heroes were portrayed as such. The mere fact that Eli Wallach was captured running through a cemetery in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is not only celebration of death but of life and survival. It is at once a celebration of the joyous and sublime in the ephemeral moment within the realm of art. Leone accomplishes this without tongue and cheek no matter what the drive-in consensus was as the time.

   It is a noble and commendable endeavor that should not be taken lightly. With "The Cowboy and The Ballerina" I wanted to take a standard Western character basically an icon and take him out of his natural environment and play him against a renaissance type canvas. I tried to do a reversal of what Leone had accomplished.

RTW: Tell me, why did you dedicate your short film to Clint Eastwood?

MI: Mainly because of his influence on me and of course, the Western genre. He epitomizes the Western hero/anti-hero. He is the cowboy I grew up watching. John Wayne was a little before my time. I also appreciate the struggle Clint faced in being accepted as an artist/director.

  I grew up being told that he couldnt act. People still say that today. Actually, now they say he is too old. But this is the man who made "White Hunter, Black Heart" and "Bird". Fantastic films with great subjects. Subjects close to his heart that he was able to do on the studios ticket. There are not many autonomous people in Hollywood but Clint (Malpaso Productions) is one. In fact he is the only one. That aint bad.

RTW: In closing, what advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers?

MI: I would tell aspiring filmmakers dont ever quit. And when they are ready to quit Id tell them dont ever quit. And when they quit Id tell them dont ever quit. Failure isnt losing. Quitting is.

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