First Cow is the movie on the lovely cover of our March-April issue, directed by Kelly Reichardt. The setting of the movie is an Oregon frontier town in the 1820s, when newcomers are busily trying to get a foothold in life and in business. Two such newcomers are at the center of First Cow, a cook named Cookie and a fugitive he befriends named King Lu. It’s another chapter in Reichardt’s richly imagined vision of America, a portrait of outsiders and of friendship which also accounts for the unruly forces of commerce and greed. First Cow is now in theaters and it screened last year in the New York Film Festival, where Film Comment “Chief Factor” Nicolas Rapold spoke with Reichardt between events at Film at Lincoln Center. She generously went into detail about images and the sounds that compose the film’s historical snapshot, as well as the artistic influences.

Be sure to check out our features on First Cow in the print magazine as well as our discussion of the film on last week’s podcast.