The Mustang & Return to Freedom
By Erin
*I attended a screening and visited Return to Freedom as media for purposes of this post. All thoughts and opinions remain my own*
Last week thanks to Focus Features, I had the opportunity to see The Mustang and learn first-hand how Return to Freedom is helping to save and protect wild horses and mustangs. The young female filmmaker, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre first unleashed The Mustang at Sundance 2019. Now audiences across the nation can see what all the fuss is about. You may have seen other films about the bond between humans and horses, but none like this one. It will tug at your heartstrings and have you feeling all the emotions right along with Roman and Marcus.
About the Film:
Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts), a violent convict in a rural Nevada prison who struggles to escape his violent past, is required to participate in an “outdoor maintenance” program as part of his state-mandated social rehabilitation. Spotted by a no-nonsense veteran trainer (Bruce Dern) and helped by an outgoing fellow inmate and trick rider (Jason Mitchell), Roman is accepted into the selective wild horse training section of the program, where he finds his own humanity in gentling an especially unbreakable mustang.
Matthias Schoenaerts (left) as Roman Coleman & Jason Mitchell (right) as Henry in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang, a Focus Features release. Credit : Focus Features
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Writers: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mona Fastvold (“The Sleepwalker”), and Brock Norman Brock (“Bronson”)
Producers: Alain Goldman
Executive Producer: Robert Redford
Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Connie Britton, Bruce Dern, Jason Mitchell, Gideon Adlon and Josh Stewart
Return To Freedom
We also had the amazing opportunity to meet the folks behind Return to Freedom and the mustangs who live here. Return to Freedom provides a safe haven to about 400 wild horses and 29 burros. With ongoing federal roundups, the sanctuary fills a very important need to meet the immediate needs of rescue and sanctuary for wild horses and burros. It is also a very important venue to educate the public about America’s wild horses and burros along with solutions to protect them in viable free ranging herds for future generations.
Return to Freedom is dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses through advocacy, sanctuary, education, and conservation, while enriching the human spirit through direct experience with the natural world.
KoLa ( formerly known as Viggo). Born at RTF’s wild horse sanctuary in the Hart Mountain Herd. You can see him in The Mustang!
They are pioneering the way with innovative alternatives to standard wild horse management that can be applied on the range and advocates for viable solutions to prevent the removal of wild horses from their natural rangelands.
Located on 1500 acres on the Central Coast of California, as natural an environment as possible is provided for the herds to maintain the natural behaviors and social structures they knew in the wild.
Spirit who was used as inspiration & a model for DreamWorks Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron also lives at Return to Freedom.
I love that their first priority is to keep wild horses in their original family bands or naturally selected social groups, to provide for their emotional well being as well as their physical care. Wild horses are herd animals and within this herd structure, bonds are formed and education is taking place all the time. In the wild, the herd ensures survival.
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Return to Freedom, do it! Be sure to check out their website to see how you can go visit the mustangs or go on one of the safaris to see these amazing creatures running free in their natural environment! It is an amazing experience you will NEVER forget!
Meeting Isadora-Cruce a special Spanish Mustang who was also a Breyer Model Horse in 2010!