after Triple F
after Triple F counterposes a startling roadside encounter—a truck loaded with at least half a dozen deer carcasses, bearing the logo “Triple F LLC: Faith, Family, and Farming”—with an investigation into deer as cultural signifiers and ecological actors. Deer occupy a unique space in American consciousness as symbols of wilderness, yet ironically, it was intensive conservation efforts favorable to hunters, combined with the eradication of its predators, that allowed populations to swell to their current unsustainable numbers. Deer overpopulation has led to the destruction of young forest ecosystems, the spread of diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease and Lyme disease, and thousands of fatal vehicle collisions. The film takes a critical lens to past conservation efforts, questioning the narratives and policies that transformed deer from near-extinction a century ago to their current status as an overabundant species reshaping forests, ecosystems, and human communities.