MOUNTAIN HOME, ID – With public lands facing the greatest threat in his lifetime, Mountain Home-based filmmaker Andy Anderson is setting out across the West filming a documentary about public lands and the people who love them.
The documentary, “We the Public,” is being filmed entirely on public lands and features interviews with a range of public land enthusiasts including hunters, Native American tribal members, hikers, scientists, off-road trail users and more.
Anderson refers to all public lands enthusiasts and users as public land owners – emphasizing the public nature of the land he seeks to celebrate. Despite the differences of each of the public land owners interviewed in the film, Anderson said all of them are united by a love of public lands and a commitment to protect them.
“I wanted to make a film that is going to unify all the parties, all of the public land owners,” Anderson said. “We need to bring them all into the same room and have a conversation about why public land is so important and why we need to keep it. That’s the impetus of the film.”
A documentary unlike any other about public lands
“We the Public” is being filmed on a variety of public lands across the Western United States, including Idaho’s Bruneau Canyon and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.
Anderson said filmmakers are heading to Montana in September to film interviews on public lands.
Anderson is a retired Air Force firefighter who now works as a photographer and filmmaker. He was one of 10 photographers whose work was featured in a 2013 Super Bowl commercial set to a voiceover of the late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” speech.
Anderson said he hopes to make a documentary unlike any other about public lands. As Anderson and the team of filmmakers work on their film, they plan to document America at a time when public lands face threats of being sold off to the highest bidder.
Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, made an unsuccessful attempt in Congress to make millions of acres of public lands – including in Idaho – available to be sold off. Lee pulled his proposal back following a massive public backlash, but Anderson said public lands still need protecting.
“Public land has been under a constant threat for many decades of either being sold off or taken away, whatever you want to call it,” Anderson said. “But this last year, especially the last six months, was really kind of eye-opening for me.”
Public lands filmmakers are at the filming, fundraising stages of making documentary
Anderson and a team of filmmakers are filming this summer and fall and seeking to raise $500,000 to produce the documentary. Plans call for releasing it in 2026 to movie theaters and streaming services, as well to educational audiences and students.
“From alpine peaks to desert canyons, dense forests to wide-open plains, national parks to local fishing holes — these lands represent freedom, access, and a shared American heritage,” Conor Callahan, one of the film’s producers, said in a written statement. “They drive tourism, support jobs, and give every American a place to find peace outdoors.”
“This film will explore what public lands mean to Americans with wide-ranging backgrounds and perspectives, to capture why the protection of our shared lands transcends political boundaries,” Callahan added.
How to find out more about a public lands documentary being filmed this year
Information about the forthcoming public lands documentary film “We the Public” is online at www.wethepublicfilm.com.
This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.
