“One aspect of human resilience, in all its marvelousness, was the ability to recalibrate, to adjust to new circumstances with astonishing speed.”

“The day is a woman who loves you. Open.
Deer drink close to the road and magpies
spray from your car. Miles from any town
your radio comes in strong, unlikely
Mozart from Belgrade rock and roll
from Butte. Whatever the next number
you want to hear it. Never has your Buick
found this forward a gear. Even
the tuna salad in Reedpoint is good.

Towns arrive ahead of imagined schedule
Absorakee at one. Or arrive so late—
Silesia at nine—you recreate the day.
Where did you stop along the road
and have fun? Was there a runaway horse?
Did you park at that house, the one
alone in a void of grain, white with green
trim and red fence, where you know you lived
once? You remembered the ringing creek,
the soft brown forms of far off bison.
You must have stayed hours, then drove on.
In the motel you know you’d never seen it before.
Tomorrow will open again, the sky wide
as the mouth of a wild girl, friable
clouds you lose yourself to. You are lost
in miles of land without people, without
one fear of being found, in the dash
of rabbits, soar of antelope, swirl
merge and clatter of streams.”

film · certain women, kelly reichardt's 2016 film, is a beige and pink triptych of three women maneuvering through moments of disquietude and repose under montana's boundless winter sky.

words i · our film is taken from several short stories from maile meloy who hails from montana and whose work encapsulates the grit and longing of this compendium.

paintings i · reichardt drew inspiration from milton avery's landscapes as a visual foundation for this film. here are several of his works including red rock falls.

words ii · richard hugo details the heartbreak of driving through the big sky country in his poem driving montana.

paintings ii · works by riccardo vecchio from his war x artifice series. vecchio created the cover art for the criterion collection's release of certain women.

music · mazzy star's halah represents all the relationships that didn't work out as planned.