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A documentary feature nearly 10 years in the making, “Land with No Rider” follows the everyday lives of aging ranchers, both Anglo and Hispanic, in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico.  at  called the film “a stirring ode to the last few acres of the West.”

“I am interested in stories about the American West, and in people’s voices and how they express their truths,” director Tamar Lando said. “I’m ultimately just very interested in people who we don’t hear from a lot.”

Lando, who was born in Southern California and currently lives in New York City, had never met real cowboys before making the film.

“These old-timer cowboys are a different kind of American man I had never encountered before,” she said, “and I felt like they were the heart and soul of the country, in some way.”

Lando had initially intended only to photograph the cowboys, but that all changed when she met John Fowler.

“He’s the first character that you see in the film … the old man, chomping on his cigar. … He had the most beautiful voice that I’d ever heard,” Lando said. “That voice is what turned me from wanting to make still photographs to wanting to make a film.”

Lando returned to Mimbres Valley year after year, gradually becoming friends with her septagenarian and octogenarian subjects. Over time, they opened up to her, and she was able to capture their authentic voices.

“To me, they were incredibly poetic … which is why I just wanted to let them talk and not have any kind of narration,” Lando said. “It is surprising and somewhat unexpected that they’re so introspective. … What they say is in this plain, straightforward language, but it has such beauty to it.”

She felt their voices mirrored the landscape itself.

“It’s this dry, rocky land that has such raw power to it. And it’s the same with them: their words are few, and they speak very plainly, but it has this incredible power.”

During the years she filmed them, the cowboys suffered a major drought, which decimated over 40% of their herds, she said. At the same time, the men were also dealing with the loss of loved ones, their own aging process, and the slow erosion of old ways of life in the face of social and technological changes.

“I didn’t want text cards from the filmmaker, explaining things, let alone my own voice. … But I do think there are lots of issues that are right below the surface (in the film) — issues to do with land use, how we manage our fires, and the battle that’s going on now between ranchers and environmentalists in the state, and in much of the American West,” Lando said. “There’s a lot that’s right beneath the surface that I didn’t want to bring out too explicitly, because then it would become a political film.”

Instead, Lando focuses on the men themselves — their rugged, solitary lifestyle, their deep connection to the land, and their intimate stories of love and loss.

Over the course of the years she spent filming them, Lando said she was impressed by their kindness and integrity.

“These men live by a code. It’s not an articulated one, but there’s a set of values that really touched me,” Lando said. “In the noise and materialism and rampant distractions of our world in places like New York and LA, where I’ve lived most of my life … we lose sight of what’s important sometimes and how to treat other people. Basic things about dignity, or giving your word to somebody else. … Those guys are really rough around the edges, but there’s a dignity and straightforwardness, and an acceptance of things.”

One of the cowboys in the film, named Ramon, told her, “Cowboys are careful.” That simple phrase, for Lando, encapsulated the cowboys’ philosophy of life, which is rooted in care.

“It really goes against the image of the kind of machismo we associate with cowboys,” Lando said. “What it tells me is that someone who understands the power of the land … when you are living on the land the way they are, then you’re careful. It’s only amateurs who go out and have this bravado … (like) how we see cowboys depicted in Western movies.”

“Land with No Rider” will be shown at Sky Cinemas in Santa Fe beginning on April 17 and at the Guild Cinema in sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ��� beginning on April 20. It will also be screened as part of the 2026 Taos Film Festival. For more information, visit .

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .