Bob and the Trees

Bob and the Trees
Film poster to Bob and the Trees
Film poster
Directed byDiego Ongaro
Produced by
  • Rob Cristiano
  • Diego Ongaro
  • Christie Molia
Starring
  • Bob Tarasuk
  • Matt Gallagher
  • Polly MacIntyre
Cinematography
  • Chris Teague
  • Daniel Vecchione
Edited byBenoit Sauvage
Music byBrian McBride
Release date
  • January 26, 2015 (2015-01-26) (Sundance)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Bob and the Trees is a 2015 American fictional vérité drama film that won the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Shot in The Berkshires, Bob and the Trees follows farmer and logger Bob Tarasuk (played by himself), his son and business partner Matt (Matthew Gallagher), and Bob's wife Polly (Polly MacIntyre) as they work to earn money during winter.[1] The film, Diego Ongaro's feature-length directorial debut, premiered in the noncompetitive Next section of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in January 2015, where it was met with positive reviews.

Background

Director Diego Ongaro moved from Paris to Brooklyn, New York to Sandisfield, Massachusetts, where he befriended Bob Tarasuk,[2] a farmer and logger.[3] Tarasuk and Matthew Gallagher, Tarasuk's son-in-law and business partner, took Ongaro to their work, where he "saw the conditions these guys lived under and how hard it is and the knowledge required", and, after he saw "how charismatic a character Bob was", Ongaro "felt [he] had a story".[2] Originally a short released in 2011, the film was expanded to feature-length with fifteen days of shooting in November 2014.[4]

Release

The feature-length Bob and the Trees debuted at the noncompetitive Next section of the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2015,[1] where it was met with warm critical reception. The Hollywood Reporter's Justin Lowe stated that the film "mines a rich vein of humanism shot through with characteristically dry New England humor", with Ongaro's "unsentimental empathy" a tone "too often missing from outsider perspectives".[5] In a review for Indiewire, Katie Walsh described Tarasuk as "wonderfully natural, open, and unstudied", though also wrote that the "story of the making of Bob and the Trees is probably the most interesting thing about the film itself", and that it "could stand to lose about 10 minutes in [an] edit".[6] Ben Kenigsberg of Variety drew comparison between the film's visuals and woodland work by Kelly Reichardt, and praised Tarasuk's "introverted performance". Kenigsberg called the film's resolution "at once pleasingly down-to-earth", but also "a little easy".[1]

At the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the film won the Crystal Globe, the festival's main award, which included a cash prize of USD$25,000 (EUR€22,400).[7][8] It showed at the Durban International Film Festival on July 21, 2015,[9] at the Woods Hole Film Festival in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on July 28 and August 1, 2015[10] and at the Molodist festival in Kyiv in October 2015.

References

  1. ^ a b c Kenigsberg, Ben (February 6, 2015). "Film Review: 'Bob and the Trees'". Variety. Penske Business Media.
  2. ^ a b Keough, Peter (July 11, 2015). "Diego Ongaro branches out with 'Bob and the Trees'". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC.
  3. ^ Christie, Tom (July 12, 2015). "'Bob and the Trees' Tops Karlovy Vary Prizes". Indiewire. Snagfilms. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  4. ^ "Press Kit: Bob and the Trees" (PDF). Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  5. ^ Lowe, Justin (January 26, 2015). "'Bob and the Trees': Sundance Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media.
  6. ^ Walsh, Katie (January 28, 2015). "Sundance Review: Strangely Compelling Logging Drama 'Bob And The Trees'". Indiewire. Snagfilms. Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  7. ^ Vlessing, Etan (July 11, 2015). "U.S. Film 'Bob and the Trees' Nabs Top Prize at Karlovy Vary". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media.
  8. ^ "US film Bob and the Trees wins top prize at Czech festival". Agence France-Presse. July 11, 2015.[permanent dead link‍]
  9. ^ "Bob and the Trees". Durban International Film Festival. Archived from the original on August 3, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  10. ^ "The 24th Annual Woods Hole Film Festival" (PDF). Woods Hole Film Festival. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2015.