ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT – CARDONA STORY WORKS

From award winning short filmmaker Don Cardona, “Buckin’ Bulls” is the story of stock contractor and former bull rider Ty Rinaldo.

Winner of 8 Awards at the 6th Annual Wild Bunch Film Festival, including Best Documentary and Best Cinematography (Documentary).

LOGLINE:

TY RINALDO’S PRO BULL RIDING CAREER ENDED WITH A WRECK BUT HE FOUND SUCCES AS A STOCK CONTRACTOR IN THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS SPORT.

SYNOPSIS (SHORT):

Ty Rinaldo is a former PRCA ranked bull rider. After a wreck with a bull ended his career, he turned his attention to becoming a stock contractor, providing elite bucking bull athletes for the PBR World Finals, the National Finals Rodeo and many events in the Rocky Mountain region. He produces many of his own events and teaches bull riding to the next generation of riders at his TZ Ranch in Larkspur, Colorado. A retired firefighter (captain), Ty gives us a glimpse of his life behind the chutes, as well as the injuries and loss he suffered in this dangerous sport, his love for these massive animal athletes and the passion he has for helping people appreciate what bull riding is all abot. With appearances by PRCA World Champion bull rider and PBR Founding Father Cody Custer; NFR Champion, PBR Ring of Honor & Coach Lyle Sankey; and PBR bull rider Chase Outlaw.

SYNOPSIS (MEDIUM):

Ty Rinaldo is a former PRCA ranked bull rider. After a wreck with a bull ended his career, he turned his attention to becoming a stock contractor, providing elite bucking bull athletes for the PBR World Finals, the National Finals Rodeo and many events in the Rocky Mountain region. He produces many of his own events and teaches bull riding to the next generation of riders at his TZ Ranch in Larkspur, Colorado. There are many perceptions about the treatment of bucking bulls. Ty provided all-access to his ranch and the bull riding events he produced to show how these animals are athletes that require a lot of care and attention.

A retired firefighter captain, Ty gives us a glimpse of his life behind the chutes as well as the injuries and loss he suffered in this dangerous sport. His professional career was promising and world-championship caliber as attested in the film by his rodeo coach and friend Lyle Sankey (2-time PRCA World Champion). Ty’s early rodeo travel partner Cody Custer became a PRCA World Champion in 1992 and went on to be a founding father of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). PBR bull rider Chase Outlaw appears in an interview giving a bit of his perspective on this dangerous sport.

In addition to his love for these massive animal bovine athletes, Ty shares his passion as a coach with the Sankey Rodeo School, hosted at his TZ Ranch twice a year and we see how students, young and old, learn to ride bucking bulls.

With appearances by PRCA World Champion bull rider and PBR Founding Father Cody Custer; NFR Champion, PBR Ring of Honor & Coach Lyle Sankey; and PBR bull rider Chase Outlaw.

SYNOPSIS (LONG):

A retired firefighter captain, Ty gives us a glimpse of his life behind the chutes as well as the injuries and loss he suffered in this dangerous sport. His professional career was promising and world championship caliber as attested in the film by his rodeo coach and friend Lyle Sankey (2-Time PRCA World Champion). Ty’s early rodeo travel partner Cody Custer became a PRCA World Champion in 1992 and went on to be a founding father of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). PBR bull rider Chase Outlaw appears in an interview giving a bit of his perspective on this dangerous sport.

The production shoot took place in 2018 and parts of 2019 and 2020 in an effort to show the behind-the-scenes of bull riding: the logistics that go into it; the hard work and long days required by stock contractors; Ty’s passion for the bulls; and his camaraderie with his rodeo family.

With appearances by PRCA World Champion bull rider and PBR Founding Father Cody Custer; NFR Champion, PBR Ring of Honor & coach Lyle Sankey; and PBR bull rider Chase Outlaw.

FILMMAKER BIO:

Don Cardona

Don Cardona is an award-winning director, producer, writer and documentarian based in Parker, Colorado. He was born and raised in Western Colorado (Grand Junction) and while in high school used his dad’s video camera to shoot and direct his first short film, “The Two Bandidos,” a western, in lieu of writing his final assignment in creative writing class. From that day, he was hooked on storytelling.

He attended Arizona State University studying broadcasting and his first job was as a weekend sports reporter/achor at KJCT-TV8 in his hometown. Don returned to Phoenix to work as a camera operator on major sporting events, and produced/directed his second short film, “Crescendos,” an abstract film set in the Arizona desert. He performed as Jerry in Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story” on stage in downtown Phoenix.

Don later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a filmmaking and acting career, and directed/ produced his third short film, “Car Lot,” a comedy about the struggles to get a car fixed. While his filmmaking and acting career was progressing, Don was lured back to. Sports broadcasting and was brought on as director for TVG Network covering thoroughbred horse racing.

Bristol, Connecticut was the next stop for Don as he became producer at ESPN, working many sporting events in the U.S. and the Caribbean/Latin America, primarily Major League Baseball. He returned to his home state a few years later to produce and oversee the day- to-day production for both Universal Sports Network and NBC Sports Group Denver, covering Olympic and endurance sports such as The Boston Marathon.

In 2018, Don directed and produced the short film “PUNISHMENT” about bull riding school. The film won Best Documentary in the MY RØDE REEL INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION. He later produced and directed, “FIRST RUNWAY,” a short film about a pre-teen who walks the fashion runway for the first time.

Don’s first feature length documentary, “Buckin’ Bulls: The Story of Ty Rinaldo” follows stock contractor and former bull rider Ty Rinaldo who has been in rodeo his entire life. The film won 8 Awards at the 6th Annual Wild Bunch Film Festival in Wilcox, Arizona, including Best Documentary and Best Cinematography (Documentary). The film is currently in self- distribution.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT:

What makes a person jump on nearly 2,000 pounds of muscle and risk their lives trying to ride it for 8-seconds? This was a question I had growing up in a Western Colorado town, but never thought much about it until I worked as a camera operator on a network tv sports broadcast covering bull riding. Watching these cowboys hyped up in the bucking chute was amazing to see — the intensity, the grit, and at the time what I thought was the stupidity or craziness of it all. And how did they may the bulls buck? In those moments of being up close, it sparked a casual interest and as I watched bull riding on tv over the years, I always wondered about the details of the sport.

Many years later, I reconnected with a high school friend, Ty Rinaldo, who was a two-time Colorado high school bull riding champion. He has continued in the industry as a stock contractor (owner) of the bucking bulls. I attended his 7th Annual Castle Rock Bull Challenge event in Castle Rock Colorado (2018), and I invited some neighbors to join me. One of my neighbors had his theories on how and why the bulls bucked so hard (by tying a rope around the bull’s sensitive anatomical parts) and that re-ignited my interest into how it works and I re-introduced myself to Ty.

After talking with him and asking a ton of questions about what he does, and how there are many misperceptions about this exciting sport, I asked if I could follow him around with a camera to see what goes into it, both from a rider’s perspective and how the animals are treated with the main question, “What do you do to make them buck?” What I discovered gave me a different perspective about the entire process and I felt compelled to document ll that I could about the cowboy culture, and more specifically, bull riding, one of the fastest growing sports around the world.

I also discovered that Ty was an up-and-coming professional bull rider (ranked as high as 12th in the PRCA world standings), who’s promising career was cut short by a head-on collision with a bull during competition. Ty was also travel partners with Cody Custer in 1992, the year Cody won the PRCA World Championship.

Ty turned his love from riding bulls to owning them, producing some of the best stock in the business and also coaching bull riders at his TZ Ranch in Larkspur, Colorado, where much of this film was shot. It was there that I learned that bulls decide whether they want to buck or not, and how much effort goes into developing them as athletes for competition and all of the hard work it takes to be a stock contractor. I also saw students of all ages and backgrounds attend bull riding school, either crossing it off their bucket lists or attempting to make a living out of it.

I was granted “all access” at Ty’s ranch and at all of his events. Initially I was going to produce short video clips on social media to show what happens behind the scenes but after a couple of events I thought it might show better as a complete story. Because of the risks involved I shot and directed this without assistance. While shooting, I crashed into steel gates, pinched fingers, tripped inside the rodeo arena, strained muscles and was up close for many a cowboy’s injuries. In one instance I was the unfortunate recipient of a bull’s horn slamming into my hop when I didn’t get out of the arena quick enough, being flung like a rag doll over the fences with camera in-hand. On another occasion I had to climb onto the gates and slipped, cracking a couple of ribs while avoiding a bull’s charge. But the most challenging part of making this film was documenting the cowboy lifestyle and showing all of the expertise and hard work that it takes to make a living in this industry.

After three years of covering Ty, my hope is that the audience walks away knowing more about what bull riding is about, how one of the most dangerous sports in the world is not just a bunch of crazy cowboys accepting a dare (although that happens too), showing a bit of a bucking bull’s personality and their desire to buck, and showing how much love and passion Ty has for this sport.

“PUNISHMENT”

Don’s short film “PUNISHMENT” was honored as Best Documentary in the 2018 MY RØDE REEL INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION. It is a snapshot of life at the 3-Day Sankey Rodeo School in Larkspur, Colorado.

CAST:

TY RINALDO

Stock Contractor (PBR World Finals 2004, ’05, ’08, ’12, ’15)
- Championship Bulls Include:
- Crown of Thorns (2004, 2005 PBR World Finals)
- Jazz (2007 PBR World Finals
- Perfect Storm (2015 PBR World Finals)
- Black Powder (2015 PBR World Finals)
- Page Break (2015 PBR World Finals & 2015 National Finals Rodeo)
2-Time Colorado High School State Champion
3-Time National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Champion (Central Plains Region)
Colorado Professional Rodeo Association Bull Riding Champion

LYLE SANKEY

2017 PBR Ring of Honor Recipient
2-Time NFR Bull Riding Aggregate Champion
Owner, Sankey Rodeo Schools
Rodeo Coach. Some of Lyle’s protege’s include:
- Tim Ningham – NFR Bull Rider, Clayton Sellars – two-time NFR Qualifier
- Dylan Werner – BB & BR Circuit Finalist
- Drew Flynn – SPBR Champion, Circuit Finalist
- Austin Meier – IRPA Champion & PBR Rider
- Weston Rutkowski – Multiple Bull Fighting World champion
- Gary Jones – Wrangler Bull Fighting Series World Champion & Inventor of 1st bull fighter protection vests
- Cory Wall – PRCA Bull Fighter of the Year

CODY CUSTER

1992 PRCA World Champion Bull Rider
1999 Cheyenne Frontier Days Bull Riding Champion
2017 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inductee
Original Founding Father, Professional Bull Riders (PBR)
2003 PBR Ring of Honor
1998 & 1999 PBR World Finals Qualifier and National Finals Rodeo Qualifier
Hosts bull riding clinics in the central and southwest U.S.

CHASE OUTLAW

PBR Ranked Bull Rider
7 PBR World Finals Appearances

FUN FACTS:

There are 3 connections to Grand Junction, Colorado: Director Don Cardona was born and raised, attended Central High School and was a sports reporter/anchor for KJCT in 1995; Ty Rinaldo also attended Central High School and won two Colorado High School State Championship titles in bull riding; and Lyle Sankey was born in Grand Junction, moving away at an early age.
Shooting took place primarily in Larkspur, Castle Rock and Calhan, Colorado. One interview took place in Branson, Missouri.
Ty Rinaldo was the travel partner of Cody Custer, the same year Cody won the PRCA World Championship in 1992.
Don Cardona was a one-man unit, shooting video, capturing sound, editing, color correcting, marketing, promotions and financier.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

How long did it take to shoot? Shooting began in March 2018 and most shooting took place in that same year with additional interviews taking place in August and September 2020.
What was the rodeo school like? It was interesting to see students get on bulls at The Sankey Rodeo School. Some had never been on bulls and others were refining their skills. The nervous energy and adrenaline were definitely felt (metaphorically, of course) in the chutes and the arena.
Did you get on a bull? While I was tempted and thought about it every time I was at the TZ Ranch, I never did get on a bull. Focusing on shooting the film versus paying attention to what a bull rider needs to hear are two separate things.
Would you try to ride a bull? At my age, I doubt I would try to ride a bull. My body doesn’t heal like it used to.
Did you have any close encounters with the bulls? I was very close to the bulls on a number of occasions, but mostly they were behind the gates or in the chutes. I did feed a cookie to a bull (Macho Man) who later tried to run me over while I had the camera. As noted in the About section, I was the recipient of a bull’s horn while shooting. Other than that, when they are in an open space they stay away from strangers.
What did you do on the film? I pretty much did everything you see in the final product (shooting, producing, editing, logo design, graphic animation, sound design, etc.) I also did the website, content and some of the marketing. I did not do any of the legal aspects and didn’t compose any music.
How much did the film cost to make? Unfortunately, I’m not able to share that information but considering I did most of it myself, I didn’t spend near what it should have cost.
What was the most interesting thing about shooting this documentary? I was really surprised by the care given to these bulls. Before starting production, I never considered that these animals were expensive and well taken care of. My observation after being around it for nearly three years is that they truly are big pets.

CREDITS:

DIRECTOR: DON CARDONA
PRODUCER: DON CARDONA
WRITER: DON CARDONA
EDITOR: DON CARDONA
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DON CARDONA
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: ALEX CARDONA
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: ERIN CARDONA
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: ALEX CARDONA
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: LUKE STOUT
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: DON CARDONA