Oki's Weird Stories

Docuseries Update

Added 2023-07-15 20:46:16 +0000 UTC

*For context, please scroll down to watch the documentary update video I posted in February*

For those of you who have seen my past updates you probably noticed that I'm now referring to this project as a docuseries rather than a single documentary. When I decided to cover the Bundy family story I assumed it wouldn't take more than a few months to finish and upload a doc—clearly I was mistaken since I've been working on it for the past seven months.

Working on this series has felt like learning a new language. In order to do it justice I learned the stories of four generations of Cliven Bundy's maternal and paternal ancestors. I've read thousands of pages on the history of western public lands administration, Mormon history, Southern Paiute history, and the history of the tug of war between public land ranchers and the environmental movement. I've read up on the obscure history of western common law and interviewed experts to ask them questions like what the Mining Law of 1872 has to do with ranching cattle on western public lands (hint: it has to do with water rights).

The depths of the Bundy family story are such that I could spend several years researching it without being fully satisfied. Of course, I have no intentions of doing that.

So, here is a list of when and how I plan to release the docuseries:

1) It will be a three part docuseries. Each part will be one hour, so all parts together will have a total runtime of around three hours.

2) I'm aiming to upload the first part of the series on Patreon in late August. It will cover a timeline from the year 1846 till 2014, ending with the aftermath of the Bundy standoff. At the moment I am currently editing the first part and have hired an editor to assist me.

3) I hope to have the whole series finished by at least early November. The entire three part series will be available on Patreon a long time before I upload anything to Youtube. Once all three parts are complete, I will post one part a week to Youtube.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay. If you have any questions please leave them below and I'll answer them as soon as I can.