About the Film

Before the highway, there was the trail.

For generations, cowboys drove cattle across the American heartland, through dust, heat, and endless open country to feed a nation.

Today, that same journey belongs to the long-haul trucker. Same soul. Same routes. Different rig. The Last Cattle Drive is a feature documentary that follows filmmaker Doug Birnbaum as he trades his camera for a commercial driver’s license and sets out along the old Chisholm Trail, from South Texas all the way to Chicago.

He wants to understand what’s really at stake for the American trucker before the road changes forever. Along the way, he meets the veteran drivers, owner-operators, and lifelong road warriors who’ve built their lives around this work. He also encounters the engineers and innovators racing to build the technology that could soon replace them.

Currently in production.