Director Tamar Lando’s “Land With No Rider” had its world premiere on Thursday, Feb. 27, at the True/False Film Fest. The film is filled with artistry and affection as it contains shots of vast, barren landscapes in southwestern New Mexico and visual studies of old ranchers who have formed a deep connection with the land that provides for them. 

The film follows the lives of four ranchers as they rise with the sun to care for their herds. Their voices are each uniquely powerful and endearing, and they share stories from their lives that are sincere and unintentionally poetic. 

Lando successfully captured the ranchers’ stories as well as their relationship to the land with such intimacy. One of the ranchers sings to himself — and the cows — while he works, and another enjoys admiring the landscape and reminiscing with a can of Bud Light in hand. A third rancher, who had been married to upwards of five women, now finds companionship in his dog, Katy Two. A wide shot shows her laying on the bank while he fly fishes at sunset. 

Despite the beautiful cinematography, “Land With No Rider” reveals grit and depth about a place where ranchers have worked for centuries. The men in the film are all in their eighties and still work every day. They don’t know who will care for the land after they are gone, but it is clear that they love what they do, even if it is only because it is all they have ever known. 

The ranchers have learned to adapt an “it is what it is” outlook on life. One of the ranchers tried to care for a calf that couldn’t eat, bottle feeding and helping it walk. When the rancher returned to the field in the next shot, the calf had died. This highlights the land that gives to them also takes from them, and as unfortunate as that may be, the ranchers understand that. Their connection to the land is “unsentimental,” as Lando put it during the Q&A following the film. This is their livelihood, and it always has been. 

Towards the end of the film, this theme still persists. The rancher that owns Katy Two recalls their trip to a little cabin in Colorado to fish. Katy Two was an old girl, and one night during their shared dinner of steaks she was panting heavily and went to the door to go outside. He let her out and finished his steak, saving the fat for her like he had always done. However, she never came back. He said he thought she went off to find a spot to die on her own. 

After he tells this story, the rancher sings along to an old country love song, presumably in tribute to his old companion. There is a lot of old country music laced throughout the film, some of it played in an old pickup truck and some sang karaoke-style in a pool bar. 

As the film comes to a close, the credits roll to Colter Wall’s “Cowpoke,” full of steel guitar and harmonica. The handful of cowboys in the audience – sporting boots and cowboy hats – sang along to lyrics that speak to the characters on-screen: 

“I’m lonesome, but happy / Rich, but I’m broke / And the good Lord knows the reason, I’m just a cowpoke.”

A sentimental feeling lingered as the audience applauded Lando at the end of the film. “Land With No Rider” was somber, yet evoking, and reflected on the power of the land and the intensity of the connection these ranchers had to it. 

“Land With No Rider” will show again at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 1, at The Blue Note in downtown Columbia. 

You can keep up with The Maneater’s 2025 True/False Film Fest coverage here. 

Edited by Ainsley Bryson | abryson@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com 

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com