This Q&A was conducted with Jaripeo, who took the red carpet at the Yarrow Theatre in Park City on January 25, 2026, ahead of the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere.
Edited for clarity and length; repetitions and filler have been removed and indicated with ellipses.
Q: What drew you to a story that complicates masculinity, lineage, and queer longing?
Sarah:
For me, the jaripeo was this incredible microcosm of so much of that. I felt like there was such a rich story here to be told. But it really was Efraín. When we were like, “Do you want to make a documentary? You’re the only person who can make this documentary about your home.”
When Efraín met Becca and me, they said, “The only way I want to tell this story is if it is told through the lens of the queer community and queer stories that I think don’t get enough attention.”
Early on, we weren’t sure that was going to be 100% of what the film was about, and it became clear that it was what the film needed to be about.
I think it’s also a theme that crosses borders. We have the same type of machismo and macho rodeos that happen here. What’s beautiful about this film is that there’s a lot of nuance in it. We’re trying to show a spectrum of what it means to be queer and what it means to be macho, and that queer identity is not just one thing.
We’re trying to break down people’s preconceived notions that there are no gay people who go to these rodeos, when actually, there’s a very thriving gay community there.
Q: Did you go into it thinking it would be a hybrid documentary, or did that develop over time?
Sarah:
It kind of developed over time. That was partly natural because of the artistic leanings that Efraín and Rebecca have, specifically Efraín.
Early on, Efraín had this idea. It’s a scene in the film with two men meeting in a cornfield. It’s this shared memory that a lot of queer men have because it’s a hidden experience.
I remember sitting at the table when we were prepping for the first shoot, and everyone was describing it and saying, that sounds really awesome, let’s just do it, let’s try it.
When we were making the sizzle, it was clear that this was a central part of the film and what made it stand out. So we leaned into having more of those scenes throughout the film that could evoke this shared memory space.
Q: Was that also an ethical decision—especially around protection and trust?
Sarah:
That played into it for sure. That’s not an experience most people are going to let you into. Building trust with our characters was a process that took a lot of time.
It wasn’t the kind of thing where people were just going to openly let us in. That experience is not something anyone is going to fully let you into in a documentary.
It allowed for a creative space to perform that experience without filming that directly.
Q: You mentioned earlier that the funding took years. How long was the filming process?
Sarah:
It was four years. Some people do it for a lot longer.
Because it was a hybrid documentary, we filmed a lot less than a lot of documentaries. I’ve worked on documentaries with hundreds of hours of footage, and this was not that. The directors really knew how they wanted to tell the story and what the scenes would be. They wanted this to be portraits, a visual poem.
We filmed three rodeo seasons. Initially, it was supposed to be from one season to the next, following people in a linear way. But it took longer to build trust, and the structure evolved. It didn’t need to have a linear arc. This was the backdrop.
The first two years we had zero funding. The second two years we started getting funding. We couldn’t have finished it in four years without that funding. That’s independent film.
For more information about Jaripeo, including screenings and updates, visit the Sundance Film Festival website.
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