Documentary 'Riding Legacy' rounds up Oklahoma's Black cowboy history at OKC festival
You can't make a rodeo documentary without getting down in the dirt — and without occasionally coming face to face with some intimidating animals.
That's one of the lessons the makers of the new film "Riding Legacy: An Oklahoma Black Cowboy Story" learned as they were wrangling the often-overlooked history of the Sooner State's thriving African American rodeo community that dates back to the 1850s.
"I fought a bull, and I won. I don't know why I was in the ring — they told me to get out of there — but a bull came. He looked me right in my eyes, and, bro, he squared up. He tossed his head ... and came at me," co-director James "VideoHero" Ridley told The Oklahoman at a private screening of the film hosted by local rapper, activist and entrepreneur Jabee at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
"I'm alive. I wish somebody had it on camera. Nobody believes me when I say I dodged like a matador."
But the three-person filmmaking team — Ridley, writer/producer Nicole Jocleen and co-director Kian Taylor, who did eventually find footage of his partner dodging the aforementioned bull — faced head-on the challenges involved in spotlighting many of Oklahoma's Black buckaroos and tracing the legacy those rodeo contenders are living out every time they ride a bull, wrestle a steer or rope a calf.
"Being from Oklahoma ... I was surprised at how much I didn't know about the cowboy world. Every time I went to a rodeo, I was like,' 'Y'all been doing this? And you come back every year?'" Jocleen said. "So, this film is to close the gap, because there are people from here that have no idea that this is going on."
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When is 'Riding Legacy' showing at OKC's deadCenter Film Festival?
"Riding Legacy" will have its official world premiere during the June 8-11 deadCenter Film Festival in downtown Oklahoma City. The documentary feature is screening at 4 p.m. June 10 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and 7:30 p.m. June 11 at Harkins Bricktown 16 as part of the 23rd annual deadCenter, Oklahoma's largest and only Oscar-qualifying film festival.
The film features interviews with Sooner State cowboys and cowgirls including Danell Tipton, Denard Hunt, Kandra Demery, Tory Johnson, Ronnie Davis and Reggie "Lawman" Williams. It also spotlights rodeo events like breakaway roping, bull and bronc riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, calf roping and especially Pony Express racing, a horseback relay event unique to Black rodeos that's based on the history of the U.S. mail service as well as a Native American tradition that can be traced back to Nuyaka, Oklahoma, in Okmulgee County.
Along with the filmmakers, Davis and Williams fielded questions about the documentary at the invitation-only screening at the National Cowboy Museum:
Q: When and why did you start this project?
Taylor: Back in 2022, myself and J actually met at Eastside Pizza House when Jabee first opened it, and we were talking about doing a project on Black cowboys. Didn't even have a story, didn't have a concept ... but we all met down in Midtown, had a couple ideas, threw 'em against the wall, and whatever stuck, we ran with it.
We started getting information on the Black rodeos, and we started following the circuit from April to September. As we're following the circuit, we're getting to learn so much about the community. We're deriving stories of the actual rodeo-experienced individuals that's been doing this. And since like the early 1800s, there's been generations of people who have been riding ... and doing rodeo for years.
Being from Oklahoma, and knowing that there's not much of a presence of the representation of Black cowboys, I thought that a documentary would be definitely the best way to do this, being on the outside looking in.
The best way to tell what we're doing with this is just enlightening and uplifting. ... We take it from giving you the history of the Black cowboy, but then also leave you guys with, "Hey, where's this going to go?" — what the community should do moving forward and how to progress.
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Q: Can you talk about the challenges of filming the rodeo action?
Taylor: There's definitely a lot going on out at the rodeos. ... We ran a two-camera system: It was only my camera and then J's camera ... so we tried to get different angles. So, when the bulls are coming, I'm gonna get up in the stands and film from the downward angle. Meanwhile, J's risking his life. ... So, shout-out to J for taking the risks to get the shots. Great camera guy. He did great.
There were some other challenges, as well, with so much going on, with horses and just with being respectful. We try not to keep the cameras all in people's faces, because there is a lot going on. These are athletes, and they're nervous, too, just as the animals are nervous. So, we can't be out there flying drones and things like that.
Stuff is happening fast, so we got to keep our heads up but also to try to get beautiful shots.
Q: There's a lot in the film about the Pony Express event and what needs to be done to truly take it from the local to the national level. What are your thoughts on that?
Williams: The sport of Pony Express has a ceiling that is so high. As you heard me say in the documentary, we're the only ones that have that. Nobody else has that: My father started it back in the 1970s. I started with it probably when I was 8 or 9 years old, out in the back yard with him just walking me through and teaching me how to do it.
Only two teams ran it back then. At the end of every race, both teams would come together, shake hands. One team would go to the left, wave to the crowd; the other team would go to the right, wave to the crowd. They would all ride together one time around. So, I learned a long time ago ... no matter what happens, no matter who wins, you go on. Some of that has been lost over the years, so now we're trying to bring that all back and clean it up.
They're running now for tens of thousands of dollars. Some pots have been $15,000, $16,000. When I ran as a kid, it was 50 bucks ... but the sport has gotten so big and so national that many people come just to watch it. And the more that we clean it up, the better we can get it.
Davis: First of all, I'd like to give credit to these people up here (who made the film) because without that, you all wouldn't have been able to see as in detail or in-depth ... what we do as riders. It's something that if you don't see it, you won't really know exactly what we're talking about.
The push is to clean up the sport so that it is more respected and moreso on the national level. ... There's a lot of talent out on the circuit. There's a lot of guys that are dual athletes: You got kids right now that are star football players or basketball players that do Pony Express as a hobby.
So, just to see somebody come and take an interest and shed light on it, I have the utmost respect.
DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL
When: June 8-11.
Where: Multiple venues in and around downtown Oklahoma City.
Tickets and information: https://deadcenterfilm.org.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Riding Legacy' documentary wrangles Oklahoma's Black cowboy history
