Through The Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film follows art collective Postcommodity as they construct Repellent Fence, a two-mile long outdoor artwork that straddled the US-Mexico border. Postcommodity consists of three Native American artists who put land art in a tribal context. In 2015 the artists worked with communities on both sides to install a series of twenty-eight huge inflatable spheres emblazoned with an insignia known as the “open eye” that has existed in Indigenous cultures from South America to Canada for thousands of years. The artwork crossed the border a mile in each direction and symbolized a suture stitching back together cultures that have inhabited the land long before borders were drawn. Interwoven with this narrative are lush scenes using stunning cinematography to absorb viewers into striking land art environments that have preceded Post Commodity’s work. Scenes with other artists and intellectuals working in the land art realm provide context and insight as well. These include scenes with Chris Taylor of Texas Tech University’s Land Arts of the American West program, writer Lucy Lippard, and Matt Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Sam Wainwright Douglas is a director and editor working in Austin, Texas. With co-directors Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson, Douglas recently completed Hot Grease, which premiered on the Discovery Channel. Recently, he also directed and edited Through The Repellent Fence, which premiered at the MoMA Doc Fortnight 2017 and then went on to South By Southwest and Full Frame. In 2016 Douglas's film Honky Tonk Heaven: The Legend of the Broken Spoke premiered and won an audience award at South by Southwest 2016 before continuing on to International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. He edited and co-produced No No: A Dockumentary, a film about legendary Pittsburgh Pirate Dock Ellis, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, screened theatrically in 35 cities and was broadcast on Showtime. Douglas also edited and produced the PBS documentary Ladonna Harris: Indian 101, which was executive produced by Johnny Depp and broadcast on PBS in 2014. He directed Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio in 2010, which was broadcast nationwide on PBS. As an editor he has cut countless hours of television for PBS, HBO, A&E, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, and The Food Network.