About The Film
Emily Kaye Allen’s Cisco Kid follows Eileen (they/them)–a young queer dreamer who moves to a desert ghost town in Southern Utah, determined to live an independent and untethered life.
Originally a pit-stop for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and then for drivers traversing a former thoroughfare, Cisco was all but abandoned after the construction of an interstate highway. Almost half a century later, Eileen feels called by the town.
The film opens with patient, wide frames of trains passing, a defunct gas station and post office, fallen down cabins, and discarded vehicles. The landscape extends until the eye meets red rock cliffs and snow-capped mountains in the distance. Eileen has moved into an Airstream trailer, still filled with the belongings of the previous tenant, Ernie, who lived in Cisco until he died. Eileen completes one project after the next, rebuilding the tumbleweed collection of one room cabins with found and reclaimed materials, while reckoning with unpredictable elements and a past that feels ever present.
We get to know Eileen through objects and anecdotes: the memorabilia they collect; the music they play; a voicemail they leave for their mother. They spend days building a wall made of tires and barbed wire. In the evenings they smoke, soaking in an old oil drum, filled with water from a well they have cleared of branches. They meet friends at the river to escape the heat, catch up with a semi truck driver, evade questions from curious tourists. Seasons pass and progress feels hard won. Set against the startling tableau of the vast Utah desert, Cisco Kid is a portrait of a singular spirit who defiantly walks away from mainstream society and resurrects a place that has been left behind by a changing world.
A Note on the Title
Cisco Kid was filmed in Cisco, Utah. People occasionally ask about the fictional character, The Cisco Kid, when they hear the title of my film. Cisco Kid is not a Western, nor did I have any intention to pay homage to the original character. Yet, the film evokes inevitable comparisons to the Western genre, and people have said that Cisco Kid "reimagines," "queers," or "deconstructs" the idea of the Western narrative. In this sense, Cisco Kid appropriates its title from a complicated and often problematic genre and lineage. Irrespective of the original character, the title is meant to describe Eileen, whose ambition and fortitude sometimes feels driven by a youthful energy and uninhibited commitment to their goals. In relation to the original character, the title alludes to the ways in which Eileen, their story, and the film might dismantle preconceived notions of the American West and the stories that unfold in this complex and diverse place.
A Note on Pronouns
Eileen began using they/them pronouns after editing of the film was completed. In reference to the film, we use they/them to refer to Eileen, and we ask others to do so when writing about the film.
About The Team
EMILY KAYE ALLEN (she/her) | Director, Cinematographer, Editor
Emily Allen is a photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores the connection of characters and story to environment and place. She works as a freelance camera person and teaches video production. Cisco Kid is her debut feature film.
ELISE MCCAVE (she/her) | Producer
Elise McCave has been working with documentary filmmakers since 2008. As Kickstarter's Senior Director of Film since 2016, she's worked with film organizations and filmmakers worldwide, providing tailored support and mentorship on fundraising and audience-building for projects in development and production. From 2008-2016 she was Deputy Director of Doc Society (formerly BRITDOC) in London and then in New York, primarily overseeing the Good Pitch program.
SHANNON FITZPATRICK (she/her) | Producer
Shannon Fitzpatrick is an editor and producer working in fiction and documentary films. In addition to Cisco Kid, she is currently producing Softly in all directions, a feature-length documentary supported by Field of Vision and the Sundance Documentary Film Program. She was an additional editor on A24’s Past Lives, which premiered at Sundance and Berlinale in 2023. Shannon completed a Master's in Media Studies at The New School, where she studied cinematic representations of trauma and healing. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.