Gail Steiger Films
In 1987, Gail, along with his brother Lew and friends he had worked for and with, made a film about cowboys called Ranch Album. It was released as a national PBS special. The film was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle. TV Guide called it "cinematically brilliant and wonderfully constructed" and the Wall Street Journal said it was "a gorgeous film." Ranch Album was included in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts/ UCLA Film and Television Archive Series of Outstanding Documentaries.
Gail has been the foreman of the 50,000 acre Spider Ranch since 1995. The ranch runs from 6100’ to 3400’ with Ponderosa pine trees at the top end, cedar mesas and chaparral in the middle, down to saguaro cactus and Sonoran desert at the bottom end.
He continues to work part-time with Lew on various film and multimedia projects. He sings songs and tells stories at cowboy poetry gatherings around the southwest.
Gail has traveled to Mongolia, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, and Hungary with the Western Folklife Center in connection with their cultural exchange program. The State Department invited Gail to travel to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to work with the US Embassies in Kabul and Ashgabat to connect some American cowboys with Afghan and Turkmen horsemen and herders.
Photo by Kevin Martini-Fuller
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Ranch Album
Nationally released as an hour-long PBS special, Ranch Album celebrates rough country ranching in Northern Arizona and shows real cowboy life. Season by season, the people of this film describe what they do and why they do it. In the process, they reveal a sense of something more important—a spir...
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1988 Greetings from Gail I. Gardner
Filmed and edited by Gail Steiger for the 1988 Gathering, this short film features his grandfather, Gail I. Gardner, author of "Sierry Petes" and many other cowboy poetry favorites.
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Sagebrush to Steppe
In 2004, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering hosted a group of Mongolian horsemen and artists for performances at the Gathering. In 2005, we took a group of cowboy poets and Folklife Center patrons to Mongolia on a reciprocal journey. This film shares some of the highlights of that trip.
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Excerpt from Sagebrush to Steppe
In 2005, the Western Folklife Center traveled to Mongolia as part of its cultural exchange program. Gail Steiger captured the experience with his video camera.
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The Western Folklife Center Visits Brazil
In 2006, the Western Folklife Center took Wylie Gustafson and Sourdough Slim to Brazil and Argentina along with several members and supporters to pay a reciprocal visit to Luis Carlos Borges and Renato Borghetti who had previously been to the Gathering in Elko. Gail Steiger brought his video came...
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The Western Folklife Center Visits France
This clip is from a documentary Gail Steiger filmed for Lorraine Rawls. Patrick Laurent describes his family business in the Camargue. Patrick and his wife Estelle attended the Gathering in 2005, and the Western Folklife Center took a group to visit them later that year in France.
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The Western Folklife Center Visits Hungary
This film looks at life in Hortobagy National Park, which is devoted to preserving Hungarian herding culture. A group of Hungarians traveled to Elko and attended the Gathering in 2011. This project was made possible by Larry & Maggie Biehl.
