New Film
Sweetwater
Somehow the life lines of Shaunda Larsen and A.P. Harreld intersected in Rock Springs, WY. It’s not a love story by any stretch. But they both arrived to Rock Springs at middle-age, fleeing demons of their very distinct pasts, seeking divergent futures, hoping that one dusty oblong race track could propel them forward.
The film Sweetwater weaves the stories of A.P., Shaunda, and two others whose lives converge for a seven-week horse racing season at Sweetwater Downs in Rock Springs, WY. It's a contemporary western about people trying to achieve the best version of themselves while chasing dreams with long odds.
The Backstory
There aren’t many sports more dangerous than horse racing. Jockeys on tiny saddles with flimsy boots and bean-cap helmets cling to the reins, often the actual mane, of young, barely broken horses. They cram into a tiny metal stall and for a few seconds inhabit the tension between a caged and a free animal. The race itself is 10 seconds on the edge of a deadly fall.
At Rock Springs, Wyoming’s Sweetwater Downs a winning jockey could make a few thousand dollars. Outside the top three finishers, a jockey earns $65 per race. To be a jockey is a crazy notion.
We knew nothing about this world in early 2022. A former high school baseball teammate of mine found me on LinkedIn. A.P. Harreld was, in his words, the backup pinch runner, but we won the State Championship his senior year (1993), and that sort of thing sticks to you. A.P. has led a meandering life and left his Atlanta comfort zone in his thirties to pursue a dream of becoming a sports announcer. As track announcer at Sweetwater, he had a view into the world of small-time horse racing and the characters in its orbit.
A.P. believed that there—light years from the big hats and seersuckers of Louisville and Saratoga—was a story to tell: young jockeys on the rise, mid-career jockeys resurrecting their careers, the traveling carnival of it all. He’d seen fights in the jockeys’ trailer lot. Affairs, arrests. Crashes and injuries during races. Modern western life at the edge of the Red Desert. And his boss was willing to fund a doc film.
So we rented a RV and parked it in the lot behind the Sweetwater track, near the other jockeys and trainers, and we spent most of two months in Rock Springs following the action and hoping for a story arc. Filming a doc in this way is exciting and difficult. We needed to be present to capture unfolding moments. We shot as much as possible in good light but the races are mid-day. We were constantly cataloging the events (Post-It notes all over the RV walls) and anticipating where a storyline could go without getting too hopeful since we had no control over any of it. And all the while trying to be respectful and gracious with the characters whose lives we were invading.
We’re proud of this film and we’re honored that Shaunda, A.P., Harvey, Lois, Aislinn, Sean, and the others let us share their stories. The film didn’t have any success in the film festival game, which was disappointing, but we feel good about it and we encourage people to watch it.
Big thanks to Eugene Joyce, the godfather of Wyoming horse racing and this film.