Hundreds of guests will invade the small California town of Lone Pine this October (Oct. 5th through the 8th) for the 33rd  annual tradition that celebrates the early days of the film industry. The theme of this year’s Lone Pine Film Festival is:  “When Cowboys Were King.”

It’s  not just about the 400 or so movies that have been filmed here — it’s a great chance to tour the locations where the films — many of the old westerns — were shot.  It’s organized by the Museum of Western Film History. 

Guides will take guests into the Alabama Hills — just west of town — to walk among the rocks, where filming has been going on since the early 1920’s. The Rocks – a unique geological formation of weathered and rounded granite rocks — some bigger than trucks — have been a key part of the backdrop of all the films shot here, but really gave early film mans a feel of the west.

People travel from all over the country but Ross Schnioffsky and Warren Davey have the record for the longest commute. Each year they fly in from Melbourne, Australia. Ross, a retired university archive librarian and Warren, a retired school teacher, first started coming in 2006, and are a popular part of the film festival. Both have a keen interest in the old western films and TV shows and offer a unique world view of the old films that have been viewed by so many and at the 2022 Film Festival we sat down and had a chat with this interesting team.