Setting West was made using original printing materials from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as wood type, borders and stereotypes of “Cowboys and Indians”, trains and bison. These words and images were printed directly onto 35mm clear film stock at eminent letterpress studios in North America: the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, the Center for Book and Paper Arts in Chicago, the Hatch Show Print in Nashville and the Musée de l’imprimerie du Québec & Lovell Litho in Montréal. Judith Poirier printed 1,643 feet of film to produce her abstract western and her technique of printing onto celluloid creates a unique texture on screen, as well as generating an original soundtrack. Setting West reinterprets a classic cinematic genre while exploring a formative period in the history of typography and printing.
Parolee Bart Tullison becomes foreman of Anita Stillwell's ranch near the Nevada border. While Anita considers Bart a coward because he will not pursue cattle rustlers across the border, Jefferson Bradshaw learns of Bart's past and resolves to use it to end the growing affection between Anita and Bart.
A land grabbing robber baron attempts to chase a man and his daughter off their rightful property when he realizes a railroad will soon be going through their ranch.
An infamous band of thieves continues to succeed in robbing private caravans and government carriages as they pass through the countryside, puzzling the authorities. Soon, though, a mysterious masked man begins to upstage the gang of thieves by robbing the cargoes before the thieves can, and then returning the stolen money after the robbers find the travelers empty-handed. Soon, both the government and the band of highwaymen are trying to discover the identity of the "Jinete Fantasma.
When a drifter is cutting through the backwoods of Kentucky in search of gold, he decides to weather the snow storm in a small church called Soul's Chapel. But will soon find out the fate that awaits him is anything but holy.
The efforts of crooked rancher Stephen Laban to force his local bank into an unsecured loan are foiled by Fred Hunter and Jake Robbins, and Laban vows vengeance on the pair; but he is temporarily thwarted by the arrival from the East of society girl Millicent Delacey. Knowing her weakness for social prestige, Hunter arranges to masquerade as the Duke of Black Butte, a visiting nobleman on a hunting expedition; Millicent and her social-climbing mother completely succumb to the duke's charm.
In the dynamite-packed frontier of 1870s America, Pistol Whip Polly and her companion Pablo must take back their home, Calamity Canyon, after it's overrun by ominous outlaws lead by the dastardly Cacti Carl.
Bill Miller, youngest member of the notorious Range Riders, gets job as pony express rider. Indians become dangerous on the war path. Bill forestalls plan of a bandit chief to rob mails while trying to win the love of a girl and the respect of "Uncle Sam."
Set in a small town in the backwoods of Kentucky, RED RIVER tells the tale of Roland Thatcher: a family man, a business man, a man of God...and a man who doesn't take kindly to strangers. When a group of city kids sets up camp on the outskirts of his property, they spark a chain of events culminating in bloodshed, dismemberment and mass murder. As a local, fledgling reporter inches closer to the Thatcher property, the shocking truth about Roland and his 'family' may finally emerge...