The Outlaws of Mendocino relies on tradition — and breaks the mold

MENDOCINO CO., 6/8/26 — California’s North Coast plays a significant role in the history of American cinema. Scores of films were wholly or partially filmed here, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, East of Eden – and of course, 2025’s big Oscar-winner, One Battle After Another. 

 But for the most part, of course, Mendocino and Humboldt counties are simply locations: the redwoods, the spectacular coast, the picturesque small towns and the bucolic agricultural vistas make for incomparable scene-setting and cinematography. Hollywood visits, drops a lot of money, shoots footage, charms or scandalizes the locals, then leaves. The films are edited, promoted and distributed from Southern California or the Bay Area. 

And that’s where Joseph Roberts breaks the mold.  

Roberts is making a film in Mendocino County, but he’s a Santa Rosa English teacher, not a movie mogul. His headquarters is his tidy home located in a leafy neighborhood on the west side of town. Though it’s not a one-man show, Roberts carries a disproportionate share of the burden: he doesn’t direct, but he’s the film’s scriptwriter, producer and primary actor; if there were bottles to wash, he’d likely be the chief bottle washer.  

Roberts’ evolution from pedagogue to auteur isn’t happenstance. He always had an interest in theater and film, acting in school plays while growing up in South Lake Tahoe, and later, after moving to the Los Angeles area, making several short films. But his current project grew more from an interest in his own family history than a fascination with the movies. 

“I moved up to Santa Rosa to take a teaching position, but my family has deep and long-established roots in the North Bay,” Roberts said. “At one point they owned a lot of the properties in downtown Calistoga, and my great, great grandfather had a blacksmith shop there.” 

Roberts’ movie – The Outlaws of Mendocino – roughly tracks the story of his great, great, great grandfather, Hal Brown, the father of that Calistoga smithy. Like any good dramatic film, it has a strong story arc moving from benign status quo to a disruptive incident, subsequent confrontations and cliffhangers, and ultimate resolution. And in Brown, it also has the charismatic, deeply flawed, but basically decent protagonist that excites audience engagement. 

Brown, the eponymous lead outlaw in the film, was living a quiet life until honchos from North Pacific Railroad attempted to dislodge him from his land, said Roberts.   

“At about the same time, his wife died in childbirth leaving him with his son, Billy,” Roberts said. “At that point he was in basic survival mode – he felt he had to do whatever was necessary to provide for Billy.” 

That led to a series of crimes that likely – if apocryphally, in some cases – included horse theft and various robberies, culminating with the fatal shooting of a deputy sheriff by Brown and his gang near the town of Covelo. One of the longest manhunts in California history followed as lawmen tracked the desperados through the rugged Yolla Bolly wilderness of eastern Mendocino County.  

Roberts takes some artistic liberties with the narrative, and no spoilers will be revealed here – except to say, perhaps, that both the times and people were hard back then. 

 “I strongly resisted the impulse for a happy ending,” Roberts noted dryly. 

While The Outlaws of Mendocino is indubitably a western, it also grapples with themes more nuanced than rustling, manhunts, shoot-outs and the transcendent Code of the West. The relationship between Hal and his son Billy, for example, was complex and marked by tensions likely to resonate with audiences today. 

“Billy’s mom died giving birth, and Hal clearly struggled to raise him as a single parent,” said Roberts.  “He worried about him. He bought Billy that blacksmith shop in Calistoga, and he tried to help him whenever he could, but they became deeply estranged. Their relationship is central to Hal’s story, so we naturally focus on it in this film.” 

Also important to the story is Mendocino County itself – the wild coast, the groves of old-growth redwoods that characterized the county’s forests in the 19^th century, and the steep, rugged landscapes of the Yolla Bolly wilderness.  

“There were times on set that we were deep in the redwoods,” recalled Roberts.  “It was early morning, it was quiet, it was damp, and the low light was filtering through the mist and trees. We could sense what it must have been like for Hal and his gang. We could feel their presence” 

While Roberts’ approach to moviemaking diverges radically from most productions, it does boast some Hollywood connections. Roberts knew some industry people from his days in Los Angeles making short films, including director Manuel Crosby and the actor Ryan Adams. Crosby directed and Adams acted in the 2021 film, First Date. 

“I pitched the film to Ryan, who was very enthusiastic, and he suggested we bring in Manuel, who also signed on. Then it just became a matter of finding the money.” 

That quest began with a Kickstarter campaign, which raised $40,000. 

“Looking back, it seems naïve to launch a movie with $40,000,” says Roberts, “but we were able to generate enough interest to draw in some reliable investors. We have a great cast, including Ryan and Veronica Cartwright [who starred in The Birds, Alien, and the Witches of Eastwick], and we’ve been filming it in blocks as we secure funding. We anticipate completing production by the end of this year or early next year.” 

Trying to plumb and explicate Hal Brown’s motivations has forced Roberts to reconcile disparate aspects of his own character. An amicable, mild-mannered man with a clear intellectual bent, Roberts had to dig deep to find the rage, grief and impulsiveness that drove Brown to a life of crime. 

“I’ve had to wear a lot of hats for this project,” Roberts said. “Writing feels more authentic to me as a person, but acting has made me look inward and express what I find more directly and honestly. Part of the challenge is researching newspapers and other sources to determine what actually happened and reconciling that to what feels ‘real’ in a film.” 

At the same time, Roberts has had to meld the creative pursuits of writing and acting with the mundane work of scheduling, casting and fundraising. 

“I’ve had to do a lot of work on the production side,” he said.  “I don’t like it nearly as much as writing or acting, but it’s been a valuable lesson. If production isn’t handled competently, the movies won’t get made.”