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Tracing Cowboys

2008 American film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ116232734
Source-derived summary

Tracing Cowboys is a 2008 American romantic drama film directed by Jason Wolfsohn, starring Sacha Grunpeter and Megan Edwards. Grunpeter died on the film's last scheduled day of shooting.

Cast

Sacha Grunpeter as Ethan

Megan Edwards as Debbie

Eileen Dietz as Marilyn

Alvaro Alvarez as Fernando

Ana Alvarez as Alba

Veronica Fernandez as Estrella

Release

The film premiered at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival on 29 March 2008.

Reception

Joe Leydon of Variety wrote that the film's issues include Wolfsohn's "inability to follow his initial gameplan" and Grunpeter's voiceover narration. He also wrote that due to Grunpeter's death, his performance "comes off as compelling but, alas, incomplete." Despite the film's issues, Leydon wrote that it "has a curiosity value that cannot be measured or denied", and "may prove most instructive for anyone — academics, film buffs, would-be feature helmers — who’s curious to see how a filmmaker copes with a worst-case scenario."

Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times wrote that while the film "does have a certain impressionist grace", its "romantic ideal of the road -- lonely diners, vintage cars and seaside shanties -- seems misplaced, oversimplified and overused."

Ernest Hady of LA Weekly wrote that while Morrison's cinematography gives the film a "meditative beauty", Edwards' voice-over is "filled with clichéd philosophizing" and "drags the film down".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Tracing Cowboys” as 2008 American film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tracing, Cowboys and American.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Tracing, Cowboys and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tracing Cowboys”, the useful work is to connect “2008 American film” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q116232734. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tracing Cowboys”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tracing Cowboys primary sources, Tracing Cowboys archive and Tracing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tracing Cowboys”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Tracing Cowboys” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.