Video & On Demand - Nokota Heart DVD & Download

Nokota Heart DVD & Download

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The true story of Leo Kuntz, Vietnam vet turned North Dakota horse rancher, and his fight to save Nokota horses, the equine legacy of Sitting Bull from the adversity of the 21st Century. Told in Leo's unique campfire tone this Neo-Western biopic is an unfussy, straight-from-the-gut tale of personal woe and hard-won passion. Leo's humbling nature and maverick soul is a world removed from the rigid new laws put in place by the US government. As much about the man himself as and his newfound spirituality with the land as it is about the legendary horses of the great Indian chief.

Sean Garland Director

Filmography Selected

Irish writer/director SEAN GARLAND began his career as set assistant on Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER followed by a production assistant stint on Neil Jordan's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.

On Jordan's film he worked alongside actors Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and legendary creature effects designer Stan Winston (ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR, JURASSIC PARK) at Winston's own STAN WINSTON STUDIOS in Los Angeles.

His first short film, 1996's THE MAJESTY OF THE HAUNT was officially shepherded to the Jury of the Galway Film festival by the Irish Film Board and garnered a cult following through festivals across Ireland and the UK.

It was followed in 2000 by ABBOT’S APPROACH which scooped Best Cinematography at the London Portobello Film Festival that same year.

Since then Garland has written and directed an array of award winning shorts, music promos and documentaries over the years. They include commissions from MTV, SONY MUSIC, and TATE MODERN.

His short film, THE WHEELHOUSE, a moody, psychological thriller shot entirely out at sea on a weather-beaten fishing trawler, won the TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES COMMENDABLE LIST with judges Sally Potter and producer Stephen Woolley on the panel. It also made the Official Selection at the DENVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

The CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL have featured a number of Garland's shorts as part of their up and coming directors-to-watch series.

Recently Garland's feature documentary NOKOTA HEART won BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY at the WHITE SANDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in New Mexico, USA. A 'neo Western' about Leo Kuntz, a Vietnam vet turned horse rancher and his fight to save the equine legacy of Sitting Bull, the acclaimed doc also won BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY at the ARIZONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Currently Sean is in post production on BANSHEE BLACKTOP, an Irish supernatural thriller in the vein of Jack Clayton’s THE INNOCENTS and Peter Weir’s PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK. He is also in development on OWL , a New Mexico-set Indian country 'noir' thriller starring American Indian actor WES STUDI (THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, HEAT, AVATAR).

NOKOTA HEART is Garland's first feature film.

FILMS

Banshee Blacktop (post production)

NokotaHeart (2010)

The Wheelhouse (2006)

The Sunflowerist (2004)

Inside Me Like A Warmth; A Venetian Diary (2002)

Abbot’s Approach (2000)

The Majesty of The Haunt (1996)

DOCUMENTARIES

THE TOWERS & TURBINE HALL SPIDER: The Work of Louise Bourgeois

(2000)

Commissioned and funded by Tate Modern for the Century City

exhibition.

CAPRICE (2003)

Commissioned and funded by Guildhall School of Music

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

A combination of wanderlust and life circumstance landed me up on the unending plains of North Dakota after a road trip half-way across North America in the summer of 2007 left me in an enthralled stupor. My chance meeting through with Leo Kuntz himself was to come several months later after I was introduced to him by a friend. Initially it wasn’t the plight of the Nokota horses he’d taken so heartily to his bosom that sparked the storyteller in me but his personality. A wry, campfire warmth, unbridled with narcissism or self-consciousness, flowed through the man. It was in his speech, his tone, his manner. A kind of hardscrabble albeit inscrutable spirit that I heretofore believed only existed in the pages of Cormac McCarthy or the movies of John Ford. But here, tucked away on the open prairies of one of the least populated and most forlorn American States, was the real thing. And Leo, for all his humility and grounded ease, was the real deal.

The longer I spent there, two scorching Summers and two bitter Winters, the more I came to realise just how much Leo embodied the unplumbed mysticism and broken heart of the landscape he lived in. To me, he became a prism, reflecting and refracting the people I met, the places I visited. And so little by little his plight, economic and existential, and his spirited race to save the lineage of Sitting Bull’s horses, began to kindle in me. So too the desire to tell his story. With Leo graciousness and trust I resolved to tell his tale, without hyperbole or fanfare, just the slow, steady voice of a good man, riven with quiet haunt at times but always sincere.

In Ireland you grow up with stories and magic. They run a mile deep at every turn. Perhaps as an outsider, an Irishman miles from home, that conditioning allowed me to glimpse, if only for a moment and only if I was very very lucky, the landscape of Leo’s soul.

Sean Garland

‘Nokota Heart is a haunted, deeply spiritual film.’

Cambridge Film Festival

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