Joseph Aguirre — AKA — The Rainmaker

Director Joseph Aguirre

In Next Year Country, three Montana farming families who have struggled to keep afloat through years of drought, take their chances on hiring a rainmaker. Director Joseph Aguirre shares the genesis of the story and why it was so hard to stay dry while shooting a film about drought. Look for Next Year Country on public television this July (check local listings).

I originally heard about rainmaker Matt Ryan and the work he was doing with drought-stricken farmers in Montana from an article that ran in the Los Angeles Times in February of 2003.

On first read, the story seemed to me to have a lot of cinematic potential. I liked the folkloric Americana aspect of the rainmaker story, and the story of drought and hardship in the American West made me think of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and the seminal work of the depression-era FSA photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange.

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Tags: documentary, drought, ITVS, joseph aguirre, Montana, next year country, PBS, rainmaker