It was successfully presented at the Austin Film Festival in Texas, and will be shown again on 29 October. The film The Glory by Joseph Todd Walker builds an intense story of a human encounter between an isolated rancher and a young Mexican woman on the run, touching on the delicate and highly relevant theme of internal American migrants. The cinematography is directed by Sara Purgatorio CCS AMC, who has frequently worked on the American continent.
The festival itself deserves a closer look. Now in its 31st edition, this annual Texas event has become a major reference point for promoting the art of written and visual storytelling. The film programme is paired with the Writers Conference, the largest screenwriters‘ conference in the world, featuring over 200 speakers and panels that, along with cinema and television, also explore narrative media such as plays, podcasts, and digital series.
The Glory, as mentioned, tells the story of Carter (David Morse), a 70-year-old man living alone on his remote ranch, haunted by the death of his wife years earlier. When a group of migrants crosses his property, he fires into the darkness, only to discover the next day that he has severely injured Irena (Jaklyn Bejarano), a very young, pregnant woman. Forced to confront his actions and their consequences, and under the threat of a criminal investigation, Carter reluctantly agrees to let Irena recover in hiding on his ranch. This unusual and enforced coexistence gradually leads to a bond of respect and friendship, reconnecting Carter with his past and allowing him to process it. Carter ultimately decides to take the risk of bringing Irena to her family in the United States, pursued by his son (Bill Heck), a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Sara Purgatorio told us: «In this film, we used the ARRI ALEXA Mini combined with Panavision Ultra Speed lenses, aiming to tell the story’s settings and characters organically through the qualities of natural light. We focused on making the spaces the actors move in feel tangible, achieving an image that’s as textured as possible. The natural daylight and diegetic night-time light, enhanced or recreated in their nuances, play an important role in respecting the essence of the story».
