the “rough” daily life of three young Texan girls

ARTE – WEDNESDAY AUGUST 16 AT 10.35 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY

In the American West, the rodeo is not a piece of folklore for passing tourists. It’s a sport like any other and an economic activity: each year, some 5,000 competitors share more than 60 million dollars (54.7 million euros) in rewards for their prowess in the bronco riding, the riding of wild horses without a saddle; for their achievements in steer wrestling, lassoing a calf weighing more than 100 kilos; or to bull riding, the queen event, the most dangerous, which sees cowboys trying to hold on for at least eight seconds on the back of a raging bull.

Women have their own competitions. They are rodeo queens (“queens”) or princesses, which requires a great mastery of riding. They compete in calf lassoing events or horse races around barrels. For teenage girls, it’s often a way to brighten up a dull day-to-day life, as the documentary shows. Rodeo Girls. The competitions then provide the opportunity to get out of the isolated ranches, to rub shoulders with the outside world, in fashion, in the glamorous country version… The cowgirls dream of Las Vegas, where the junior rodeo championships take place every year.

The directors, Justine Morvan and Kévin Noguès, followed three young Texans, aged 9, 12 and 15. The youngest, Naia, is an ace in the event of goat tying (“goat tie”). We never tire of seeing her, a rope between her teeth, jump off her horse at a gallop to seize the goat, turn it over and tie its legs. The eldest, Jessi, is a lasso champion, whom the local university Howard College wishes to enlist. “How many girls?” », Jesse asks. Seven, replies the team coach, immediately making it clear how much “managing the personalities of girls is difficult for him”, especially if they are ” in competition ” against each other…

A family matter

The documentary thus shows a slice of the daily life of American teenagers, in a world attached to the earth and to animals, far from urban landscapes and its revolts. With an anti-journalistic bias: no commentary, no identification of places or heroines or their families.

We guess that the action is located in the west of Texas, a state larger than France, where oil coexists with livestock. Sometimes, we distinguish signs. An oil pump, crosses, lots of crosses around Shelby, 12: we are at the heart of the Bible Belt, the “belt of the Bible”, which designates the strongly religious (and conservative) southern states. The parents of the three riders are unwavering supporters, the coaches of tough guys. “You are a little sore. Take a nice hot bath »advises the coach of bull riding while Shelby, in tears, complains that she can no longer move her leg.

Rodeo is a family, community affair. “That’s not what I do, Jessi proclaims. It’s who I am. It’s a lifestyle. » Shelby’s father is proud of his daughter who, having barely fallen, immediately got back into the saddle. He himself was almost killed by a bull in 1973, when he was 12 years old. Shelby carries the weight of the legacy. “I feel like it’s going to help me do something girls don’t want to do”she explains between two falls.