'Not One Drop of Blood,' is a visually striking odyssey through Harney County, Eastern Oregon that documents the resurgence of the decades-long mystery of cattle mutilation and the remote agricultural community it overshadows. Capturing the essence of the contemporary American West, it reflects on the raw interplay between the stark procedures of livestock husbandry and the inexplicable acts that disrupt it. In their directorial debut feature, Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton offer intimate vignettes amongst a cyclic pastoral life caught in the intersection of tradition and modernity, revealing a diverse community wrestling with existential threats to its future. What forms is both an ode to and observation of the instability and transformation of the American cowboy mythos amongst a changing rural landscape.

JACKSON DEVEREUX & LACHLAN HINTON
DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS

Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton are both Australian documentarians based in NYC. Their character-focused films have captured a broad range of social and human-rights issues, including corruption in Rikers, offshore detention on Nauru, the 2016 European refugee crisis and life in North Korea.

Their work has premiered at world-leading festivals including Tribeca, DOC NYC and CIFF. Jackson is an Emmy nominee, a RFK Journalism and AAFCA award recipient. Lachlan's work has been featured in The New York Times and Vice.

ANNA KING
PRODUCER

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for Northwest Public Broadcasting, an NPR member station that spans much of Washington state. She covers the wide opens of Washington and Oregon, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.

She recently created, wrote and hosted a popular podcast called Ghost Herd. It explores the mystery of $244 million worth of cattle that went missing. Her other large project is called Daughters of Hanford – stories of women and their relationship to creating or cleaning up 56 million gallons of radioactive waste.

Anna’s work has been recognized with two Gracie awards, a Sigma Delta Chi Award in Breaking News and she was Woman of the Year for Washington State University.

The South Sound was Anna’s girlhood backyard and she knows its rocky beaches, mountain trails and cities well. She left the westside to attend Washington State University and spent an additional two years studying language and culture in Italy.

While not on the job, Anna enjoys hiking, clam digging and wine tasting with friends. She’s most at peace atop a Northwest mountain with her husband and their muddy Aussie-dog Misia.

ROXY HUNT & TONY CASTLE
PRODUCERS / BFD PRODUCTIONS

BFD Productions, founded by Executive Producers Roxy Hunt and Tony Castle, is an award-winning film and television production company based in Brooklyn, New York. Wife and husband team, Roxy Hunt and Tony Castle, focus on telling human stories on the fringes and bringing them to the forefront of entertainment.

Notably, they have produced documentary television series’ for HBO Max, Discovery+, CNN, Marvel, CBS, Showtime, as well content for Vox, Fast Company, The Guardian, The Women’s March, Emily’s List, Everytown For Gun Safety, and Planned Parenthood. For more than a decade, the BFD team has brought together a diverse collective of creatives devoted to the future of how stories are told and consumed.

Roxy Hunt and Tony Castle also founded The Lower East Side Film Festival (LESFF) alongside filmmakers Damon Cardasis and Shannon Walker in 2011 to showcase independent filmmakers in Manhattan’s vibrant Lower East Side. In 2022 they launched ‘The Stay Indie Project’ - a development and fellowship program, as a part of LESFF and BFD Productions’ dual mission to seek out emerging voices in film and support their work.

In the shadow of Eastern Oregon's expansive skies, our first feature project as directors, "Not One Drop of Blood," began as a whisper of intrigue and blossomed into a deep exploration of a community at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. The genesis of our film was an article by journalist Anna King, detailing the enigmatic mutilation of five bulls in rural Oregon, drained of blood and with their sexual organs precisely removed. It was the most significant resurfacing of the phenomena in recent years, reigniting interest in the long-standing mystery of cattle mutilation. Beyond its viral appeal, we saw this story as a portal into a world seldom seen, where the echo of cowboy boots and the hum of agriculture speak volumes about American heritage. This notion and approach was what earnt Anna King as our collaborator and guide into this closed off, conservative region where relationships were priority over story.

ncluding 'Rikers: An American Jail' and LeBron James Executively produced 'I Promise,' has been a testament to this ethos, revealing the resilience and complexities of human nature against diverse backdrops. In Eastern Oregon, we found a narrative imbued with the stark beauty of the landscape and the stoic resolve of its inhabitants.

The film delves into the dichotomy of Eastern Oregon’s existence. Here, the romance of the cowboy way, with its tenets of self-reliance and fortitude, collides with contemporary challenges. The region grapples with the worst drought in decades, threatening the survival of family-run ranches and intensifying the debate over climate change and corporate encroachment in agriculture. These mutilations, surrounded by conspiracy theories, serve as a metaphor for a community grappling with vulnerability and change.

Our commitment to inclusive storytelling led us to engage deeply with all segments of this community, including the youth, indigenous peoples, and agricultural workers. This holistic approach allowed us to capture a range of perspectives, adding depth and authenticity to our narrative. Our interactions with these diverse groups not only enriched our understanding but also ensured that our film reflects the true spirit of Eastern Oregon.