The forests of northeastern Washington have been a place where wolves and ranchers have been at odds over livestock for decades. When wolves attack cattle, it threatens farmers’ livelihoods and puts the endangered animals at risk of being killed. The Cascade PBS documentary Wolf Land follows “wolf-protecting cowboy” Daniel Curry and fourth-generation rancher Jerry Francis for two years as the unlikely pair team up to show how non-lethal methods can humanely protect both.
Now Wolf Land is coming to local theatres. The documentary will premiere at Seattle International Film Festival on May 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Shoreline Community College and screen again on May 18 at 1:30 p.m. at AMC Pacific Place. Cascade PBS will broadcast and stream the documentary this fall.
Director and producer Sarah Hoffman, a Cascade PBS senior video producer, first profiled Curry for a 2023 episode of the environmental series Human Elements, where she found a larger story of conversation, perseverance and discovering common ground in an often-polarizing conflict. Hoffman answered a few questions about her first full-length feature debut:
Madeline Happold, Cascade PBS: What made you want to continue following [Curry’s] story for the documentary?
Hoffman: I first heard about Daniel’s work in 2019 and had reached out to do a Human Elements episode on him. We were in the works, planning, and then COVID hit. We kind of took a pause, and in that time we decided to come back to the story. When Human Elements came back, I really had this idea that this could be a bigger story that wasn’t just about Daniel.
When I pitched it originally, it was almost like this is a proof-of-concept if there’s something deeper there. On that [Human Elements] trip is when we met Jerry, the rancher that’s featured in the film. For the first time, we didn’t film. We just met with him and came back from that trip, which was about three years ago, now feeling like there’s definitely something deeper here, if we are able to include more voices.
Can you talk a bit about the filming process? Especially the difference between a series episode and then turning that into a larger-scale documentary?
I think, because we went in and filmed it with the intention that it could be part of something longer, we really were thinking about how can this story work without just fully relying on narration or voiceover interview? Like, how can we let these scenes fully play out?
Every trip the story was coming more into clarity or more into focus, so each time we were there, we had built deeper relationships filming. We knew what we had and then what we were missing. So, definitely looking for certain moments to tell an aspect of the story that we hadn’t maybe captured yet was different in a long-form piece first. In a short form, you can rely on outside narration or interview in order to fill in some of those informational gaps.
What did you learn while making the film? What are some things you learned working with either the ranchers or Daniel?
I think I learned about how complex the issue is, and because I was on the ground, I was able to kind of see a lot of different perspectives. I really learned about public lands, I learned about our state agencies. I learned about advocates and some of their perspectives.
But I think the thing that I took away from this, the narrow story that we told, was just that the people that choose to live in these places, they’re so connected to the land. We’ve kind of seen this as a topic where people are, like, living against the things that are out there, and this really felt like a way that we were watching people live with the land instead of against it, and kind of balancing that.
What made you want to release to different festivals first before having it broadcast on Cascade PBS?
I think that they’re a little bit different audiences. We’re really excited to have it play and premiere at SIFF because we’re able to share it with a local audience in-person, which, you know, it could be similar people that watch [the] broadcast, but it could be completely different people. And then there’s just something magical about sitting in a theater and being immersed in big landscapes and up close with people as they’re telling their story.
I’m excited about that aspect, because people have gotten so used to watching TV while they’re also on their phones. And so being able to give this full attention, and the people that are in it being able to fully listen to what they’re saying, I think, will be really special. And then just having a hometown audience is great. And I’m also really excited for it to go to broadcast, and for our audiences across the region to be able to see it there as well.
What do you hope people take away from the film?
It’s a really complicated issue that’s been really polarizing for a long time. I hope that people take away that there’s always ways to listen to each other, to hear each other, and that a lot of times that’s the biggest way to make change. And so I hope that that translates into other things outside of just this issue as well.
