Only In The West Is There a Word For That.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (NCWHM) is America’s premier institution of Western history, art and culture. More than 12 million visitors from around the world have sought out this unique Museum to gain a better understanding of the West, a region and a history that permeates our national culture.
When a request for proposals went out to media production studios to produce a film for a new theatre included as part of a major expansion, we were thrilled to be invited to submit our ideas. The challenge was a significant one. How to capture the many layers and dimensions of the American West in a single film. It was important and stated clearly that the film should include all three major stories of the Museum: the Native American, magnificent landscapes of the West and the Westward movement focusing on stories of people, places and perseverance.
It was also important that it embrace diverse perspectives and stories represented in the shared identity of the West. With those objectives in mind our creative team went to work. A creative breakthrough occurred when we began exploring the diverse languages and people of the West and discovered culturally significant words so unique that they defied translation.
This became our key for unlocking ideas and concepts unique only to the West while discovering through the deep, complex meaning of each word that they are all rooted in our shared human experience. This creative approach won the day and led us on an incredible journey of video production around the American West and to collaborate with great men and women who to this day keep the spirit of the American West alive.
