For 58 years, members of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Posse have participated in the Hashknife Pony Express, a 200-mile horseback ride that brings the Old West back to life.
A team from the Documentary Department at New York Film Academy Los Angeles campus accompanied the riders from Holbrook to Scottsdale, Arizona and have just released this short documentary entitled “Hashknife Pony Express.”
The historic Pony Express was only in operation delivering the mail for about 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861, and was never routed through Arizona. Llike the original riders, the Hashknife Pony Express members are sworn in as official representatives of the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail along the route from Holbrook to Scottsdale, Arizona.
Over three days, each horse and rider takes multiple one-mile legs, passing the mail bag from rider to rider, often at full gallop.
NYFA students Claudio Duek, Steve Estrada, Eva Luna Marini and Alejandro Talens and NYFA LA Documentary Chair Barbara Multer-Wellin split into teams to capture the action along the route. The film was edited by NYFA alumna Michelle Flores and mixed by Instructor John Sisti of the NYFA LA Sound Department.