Sacramento Bee journalist wins two film festival awards for documentary

One man. One mustang. Two awards.

Sacramento Bee visual journalist Autumn Payne’s short documentary, “A Horse, A Convict, A Chance for Change,” was awarded two distinctions at the Sacramento Film & Music Festival.

The festival, which ran from Sept. 26 to Sept. 30, screens films from both local and international filmmakers.

Payne’s documentary won two jury awards: Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short.

The film documents the experience of Chris Culcasi, an inmate at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center who trained a wild mustang as part of the Wild Horse Training Program at the jail. In and out of jail for seven years, Culcasi’s life was changed by the program.

The program pairs inmates with captive wild horses, and the horses are then trained by the inmates to become adoptable.

The aim is to give both the horses and the inmates a second chance – the horses get adopted, and the inmates gain skills and experience in the equine field, where there are jobs in training, horseshoeing and more.

Payne joined the Bee in 2005. “A Horse, A Convict, A Chance for Change” was previously screened at the Animal Film Festival in February and won the first place award for audience choice.

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 6:58 PM.