REBUILDING Special Screenings

In this tender and timely follow-up to his wistful, timeless debut feature, A LOVE SONG (2022), Max Walker-Silverman continues to explore forgotten corners of the American West and the rural communities residing in them. Divorced Colorado rancher Dusty (played with self-effacing charm by Josh O’Connor) is reeling from the aftereffects of a ruthless wildfire that’s cost him nearly everything besides his family land and some cattle. Estranged from his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and their young daughter Callie Rose (a bright and perceptive Lily LaTorre), Dusty re-enters their lives now distraught and displaced, living out of boxes in a FEMA-operated trailer park. He gradually revives his tenuous relationship with Callie Rose, who soaks up every drop of her dad’s cowboy etiquette and rancher gusto. But with the looming threat of climate disaster on the horizon, Dusty must grapple with how to move forward on the precarious patch of land that he calls home. Working with frequent collaborator, cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, Walker-Silverman crafts an expansive, heartfelt panorama of both American society and the environment reaching its limits. –Julia Kipnis