Hunting Stories is a vérité-style, character driven documentary film that follows four hunters through a year of seasons, and seeks to answer the question; why do Americans hunt? Hunting is a sport, tradition and ritual that is both glorified and reviled, alternately blamed for decimating wildlife and preserving it. The film will reflect this contradiction, taking the audience on an unexpected adventure that will provide a new lens on American identity. The film follows four hunters and their search for quarry, but in doing so, it becomes a film about our relationship to the wild and the philosophies that define our culture.
For centuries, the reason for hunting was obvious. It was a primary source of nutrition and a way of sustaining oneself on undeveloped land. Today, food is seldom the solitary goal, and even if it was, hunting rarely pays off in economic terms – after calculating fuel, ammunition and labor, wild game becomes an expensive source of calories. Yet the urge to hunt has endured. While numbers have fallen over the decades due to increased urbanization and shifting economies, some 12 million people still hunt in America every year. In rural areas of the country it is a significant source of income for the government. In 2006, 23 billion dollars was spent on hunting activities across the country. Acres of wild land have been preserved for and by hunters in the last century. Locavore movements spawned in urban centers have filtered up the food chain, and now a few brave young hipsters are turning their eyes toward wild game as well.
This project was made possible with support from California Council for the Humanities, an independent non-profit organization and a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit www.calhum.org
