Luke Gilford & Charlie Plummer on dreamy queer rodeo movie National Anthem

The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann speaks exclusively with filmmaker and photographer Luke Gilford and actor Charlie Plummer about their collaboration on the film National Anthem, which world premireed at SXSW 2023, before playing the 48th Toronto International Film Festival, the Milly Valeyy Film Festival, and NewFest's 35th New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival. They also share their own first queer rodeo experiences and the LGBTQ+ culture that’s had the biggest impact on them.
Growing up in Evergreen, Colorado, some of filmmaker and photographer Luke Gilford’s most vivid childhood memories are of being at the rodeo with his father, who was a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Leaving the rural Southwest for New York City and Los Angeles, Gilford only returned to the rodeo arenas of his youth in 2016 when he discovered the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA). The organization stages queer events in those very same arenas, but makes them inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ folks, allies, and all those who typically feel unwelcome at traditional rodeos, while also offering community resources.
As both a participant and an observer on the queer rodeo circuit, Gilford began taking portraits of many of the riders whom he encountered as well as interviewing them about their lives. He also wrote about his own experience of a year spent living on a queer-run farm in Tennessee. All of which led to his stunning photography book, National Anthem, published in 2020.
It was during his time at queer rodeos and on queer ranches that Gilford penned his debut screenplay, also entitled National Anthem, which he went on direct last year. The dreamy, emotionally potent, and visually breathtaking film-which received its world premiere at SXSW, before going on to play the 48th Toronto International Film Festival and this month’s NewFest’s 35th annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival-stars Charlie Plummer as isolated 21-year-old construction worker, Dylan, who shares a trailer with his alcoholic mother and younger brother in New Mexico. His world expands when he’s hired as a cowboy on a queer ranch, where he is warmly embraced by the chosen family of rodeo performers who live there, including the free-spirted Sky (Eve Lindley), whom Dylan is immediately captivated by. The cast also features Rene Rosado, Mason Alexander Park, and Robyn Lively, while the film’s eclectic soundtrack includes two original songs by Grammy-nominated queer musician Perfume Genius.