Birth of the Acid Western
A forgotten archive. A lost film school. A story reborn.
Birth of the Acid Western
How an unexpected archive revealed a lost chapter of film history.
In late 2018, I had recently completed my Ph.D. in Literature, Theory, and Culture, and was teaching a course called Film as Art in the English Department at New Mexico State University — the same course Orville Wanzer had taught 60 years before me.
As a scholar working across film, literature, and gender studies, I’ve always been drawn to the unconventional — to the places where art pushes against the grain of tradition. Wanzer’s work embodied that same resistance: a refusal to fit neatly into categories, a reaching beyond the boundaries of genre and convention. In his archive, I recognized a story that wasn’t just historically significant but also personally urgent.
The Archive
144 reels, countless stories — a living history of the Southwest on film.
Over the past six years, I’ve worked to digitize nearly all of the 111 reels of 16mm films in Wanzer’s archive. What I uncovered was more than just Wanzer’s legendary The Devil’s Mistress (1965) — often considered one of the earliest examples of an “Acid Western.” The reels revealed fragments of his unfinished projects, outs from The Devil’s Mistress, student films spanning over two decades, and glimpses into the independent filmmaking spirit that was alive in the Southwest long before Hollywood took notice or film schools took root in New Mexico.
Wanzer’s archive is not just a time capsule — it’s a living history of the region’s first film school, which he launched at NMSU in 1966. For twenty years, he nurtured students who experimented with film outside the mainstream, leaving behind an untold story of cultural rebellion, desert landscapes, and visionary art.
The Legacy
When the Western collided with counterculture, a new vision was born.
What began as an academic curiosity has grown into a full-scale documentary project: Birth of the Acid Western. The film explores the legacy of Wanzer and the strange, visionary subgenre he tapped into — a genre where the Western myth collides with countercultural visions, surreal storytelling, and the spirit of rebellion.
Rare Archival Footage – Films digitized for the first time from Wanzer’s collection.
Interviews and Testimonies – Scholars, artists, and those who knew Wanzer help piece together his legacy.
Cinematic Storytelling – The landscapes of the Southwest become a backdrop for a story about death, failure, loss, and what Wanzer descibed as, “the strange influence that some people have over others.”
This isn’t just a film about the past — it’s about how forgotten archives can reframe our understanding of art, history, and the American frontier.
Where We Are Now
The film is currently in post-production, with Deadeye Post in Santa Fe building out the first public cut. A new trailer has just been completed, and the journey toward the premiere is underway. With community support, we’re raising the resources needed to finish the edit, create an original score, and bring Birth of the Acid Western to audiences for the very first time.
