Cowboy Indian, Raphaël Montanez Ortiz, 1958, 5’
Raphaël Montanez Ortiz produced experimental works in which he used existing films as the raw material for his own art. In his Cowboy and “Indian,” he ritually cut up several copies of Anthony Mann’s classic Western Winchester ’73 (1950) and then randomly reassembled snippets to completely destroy the original movie’s narrative and audiovisual integrity. Ortiz considered this shaman-like process in harmony with his Indigenous heritage.

Winchester 73, Anthony Mann, 1950, 92’
From 1950 to 1955, Anthony Mann directed a remarkable series of Westerns in which his directorial talent matched the quality of the scripts.In Winchester ’73, James Stewart sets out in pursuit of his estranged brother, and in search of a famous precision rifle that passes from hand to hand and kills all those who covet it. At the helm of this exhilarating scenario, the filmmaker creates an action-filled gallery of portraits of the American West. Boasting an outstanding cast, from Rock Hudson as an Indian chief to Tony Curtis as a cavalry soldier, Mann’s favorite Western was also one of his biggest commercial successes.