California-based filmmaker and Roaring Fork High School graduate Cameron Doherty has dreamed for years of using his talents to create a visual love letter to his beloved hometown: Carbondale. 

“I had always wanted to make a film about Carbondale, I just hadn’t really found the story to do it,” Doherty told the Post Independent. “I just love Carbondale so much, and I feel like it’s such a welcoming and supportive community, so I always wanted to make a film that was sort of like my love letter to Carbondale.”

On Thursday, his long-awaited passion project, “Buckwild,” will screen at the 2026 5Point Adventure Film Festival in Carbondale. 

The film features Doherty’s former classmate, local rancher and bronco rider Nate Nieslanik. 

“I think Nate is such an interesting person and his whole family is just so admirable,” Doherty said. “I felt like they embodied the values of Carbondale so much.”

“(Nate is) sort of larger than life, kind of a character, sort of someone out of like a tall tales episode or film or something like that,” Doherty added. “I had always noticed that about Nate and really admired the work (the Nieslaniks) did up there on the ranch.”

The seven-minute film offers a glimpse of Nieslanik’s life as part of a local, multi-generational ranching family. 

“I feel like the Nieslaniks are so important in the community,” Doherty said. “Not only are they conservationists, but they’ve helped conserve 166 acres in the Roaring Fork Valley to help preserve the agricultural heritage, which I feel like makes this place so desirable to live in and just so beautiful.”

Doherty went to school with six of the Nieslaniks and grew up as their neighbors. 

“I feel like they represent something that’s super deeply rooted,” Doherty said. “They’re a multi-generational ranching family that has preserved a way of life in Carbondale for so long, and they’ve helped shape the identity of the community itself, too.”

After two years of summer shooting for “Buckwild,” Doherty gets to return to his hometown and the film festival that started it all.

“I think Carbondale in general is such a great place for creative people and is such an inspiring place for creative people…” Doherty said. “I think growing up in Carbondale was a huge inspiration to want to become a filmmaker, and I grew up in the action sports world, so I did skating and still work builds and stuff like that, and then got into advertising just to make a living.”

Although he hasn’t lived in Carbondale for 12 years now, Doherty’s love for his hometown hasn’t faded. 

“​I think it’s the greatest place on earth,” Doherty said. “No matter where I’ve gone in my life, coming back to Carbondale is such a dream. Everybody is so awesome there. I’ve never met a community like it. I think they’re deserving of more than this film.”