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 — and where the industry is headed next. Along the way, he meets the veteran drivers, owner-operators, and lifelong road warriors who've built their lives around this work. He also sits down with the engineers and innovators developing the autonomous technology reshaping freight, tracing where the road might lead without pretending to know the answer.

Currently in production.