Taimi Arvidson’s Cheyenne is an exhilarating, heartfelt documentary about four fearless cowgirls challenging rodeo’s long-held traditions. With breathtaking action, this powerful story of grit and determination shows how hard it is to break barriers that should never have existed.

A group of fearless cowgirls compete on the rodeo circuit, riding wild broncos after nearly a century of being excluded because of their gender.

A sport that lasts at best eight seconds seems like a breeze, until you watch those eight chaotic seconds. How anyone could have the nerve to think about doing such a thing, never mind revel in it, and still have the urge and need to go back time and time again. It takes a special type of bravery to do that in a sport that banned one gender for 90 years because of a death. Yet in Taimi Arvidson’s Cheyenne, we follow a small group of women willing to take the biggest risks.

Arvidson captures this perfectly: rodeo is an insanely physical sport; we see the injuries and the bruises, but with one rider, we see the haunting risks that come with it. But we also see the psychological side of it all as well. These cowgirls are expected to keep their emotions in check and show they can get up and keep going “just like the guys”. It’s a horrible double standard. The riders’ abilities should concern those around them, but they don’t, and they likely won’t for much longer than we’d like to admit.

But that’s the point of Cheyenne: to show us the struggles these riders went through to get where they are now, to get into competitions, etc. The fact that they are performing should negate the need to prove themselves, yet they still do, an uphill, seemingly never-ending battle that seems harder to conquer than a bronco itself. Arvidson takes special care in her film not to lecture us about letting these women, and any woman who wants to compete or do whatever she wants, into male-dominated worlds. She lets the women speak for themselves by sharing their stories and showing us what they can do. Action in Cheyenne speaks far louder than any words Arvidson could feed into her film.

Cheyenne inspires you; it’s the kind of documentary everyone should see, even if you know nothing about the sports this group competes in. It’s a film about resilience, refusing to let gender norms push you away from what you love. These four women love the sport they play, and it shows every second on screen. Their different motivations are one of the film’s most compelling parts. Each has their own reason for competing, letting the audience root for them in different ways.

One can only imagine the work it took to get the cameras in the right place for the rodeo sequences; again, each ride lasts at most eight seconds. That’s barely any time when you are trying to capture as much as possible, so Arvidson and cinematographer Nic Midwig let the action do the work; the unpredictability of it all leaves you wide-eyed and on he edge of your seat as if you are watching a thriller as you hold your breath for them to reach the time limit. It’s just excellent work production-wise.

Ultimately though, Cheyenne is so much more than riding a bucking horse for eight seconds in a stadium. It’s about resilience, ambition and refusing to accept your lot just because of your gender. Arvidson’s film not only inspires but also celebrates women who aren’t afraid to push boundaries they feel are in their way.

★★★★

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