Honorable Mention – “Bass Reeves, The Invincible Black Marshal” (USA)

Title: Bass Reeves, The Invincible Black Marshal
Runtime: 7 min
Country: USA 
Director: Larry Foley
Placement: Honorable Mention
Competition: June, 2021

Synopsis: Bass Reeves was a brave African American U.S. Deputy Marshal who rode for Judge Isaac Parker out of the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, commissioned to hunt down and capture outlaws hiding in Indian Territory. Reeves worked for thirty-two years as a deputy marshal–the only marshal to begin with Parker’s court and last until Oklahoma statehood in 1907. “Throughout his career, he insisted that he had never started a fight, or drew first blood in a fight. Yet in the course of making arrests, his own belt was cut in two by an outlaw’s bullet, his hat brim was shot through, his buttons were shot off his coat and his bridle reigns were shot out of his hands, while pursuing all kinds of bad men.”

He was master of disguise–a no-nonsense lawman who helped bring justice to a region infested with killers and thieves. The truth of his life is greater than his fictional legend.