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.