Official Selection - Competition 2015 / Bob and the Trees / USA 2015
Massachusetts logger Bob Tarasuk, a charismatic workhorse and hard-head with a soft spot for golf and gangsta rap, plays himself in this vérite-style drama – an unpretentiously intense character study of an individual surrounded by a landscape both majestic and inscrutable.
Bob Tarasuk, a native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, holds a degree in programming and graduated from the University of Connecticut in natural resource conservation. He and his wife Susan have been married since he was 19, and together they have raised three children and two dogs. Before settling in Massachusetts, he lived and worked in New Mexico and in the Ozark Mountains. A logger and farmer for more than three decades, the charismatic workhorse and hard-head with a soft spot for golf and gangsta rap, plays himself in this vérite-style drama. “I was instantly attracted to his magnetic personality and his fascinating stories,” Ongaro says, describing his first meeting with Bob, whose work, love of trees, prudence, and infectious spontaneity inspired the filmmaker to make a short and, now, feature film as well. Bob, the irresistible hero of Ongaro’s subtly powerful and highly authentic character study of an individual surrounded by a landscape both majestic and inscrutable, repaid the director for the opportunity and his trust by turning in an exceptionally intense performance for a non-pro actor.
Karel Och
91 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Diego Ongaro
/ Screenplay Diego Ongaro, Courtney Maum, Sasha Statam-Weil
/ Dir. of Photography Chris Teague, Danny Vecchione
/ Music Brian McBride
/ Editor Benoit Sauvage
/ Producer Rob Cristiano, Diego Ongaro, Christie Molia
/ Production Bob and The Trees, LLC
/ Cast Bob Tarasuk, Matt Gallagher, Polly MacIntyre, Winthrop Barrett
/ Sales The Film Sales Company
www: www.bobandthetrees.wix.com/home
Diego Ongaro, French director and screenwriter, lives in western Massachusetts. In 2006 he made the short film Me My Bag and My Ball, which won the Canal+ Award at the festival in Clermont-Ferrand. He then directed an additional three shorts: Return to Labradoria (2008), Rice and Meat (2009), and Bob and the Trees, which inspired Ongaro’s feature debut of the same name. The film world-premiered at this year’s Sundance festival.
The Film Sales Company
165 Madison Avenue, suite 601, NY 10016, New York
United States of America
Phone: +1 212 481 5020
Fax: +1 646 274 0923
E-mail: [email protected]
Diego Ongaro
Bob Tarasuk
Actor
Courtney Maum
Screenwriter
Benoit Sauvage
Film Editor
Rob Cristiano
Producer
Matt Gallagher
Actor
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