Festival Award Winner Buck Opens Across Canada

from vkpr

Hot Docs 2011 Top Ten Audience Favourite & Sundance 2011 Audience Award: Documentary

Opens:

Toronto (Carlton) – Friday, October 28th

Edmonton (Metro) – Friday, November 4th

Vancouver (Vancity) – Friday, November 18th

“I am pretty hard to impress, so I thought if someone could inspire me that much, then they would probably inspire others too.” director, Cindy Meehl

The Horse Whisperer may be the stuff of Hollywood legend but the cowboy who inspired the novel and film is very real. Buck Brannaman – master horseman, raconteur and philosopher – is a no excuses cowboy who travels the world teaching a hard-won wisdom that’s often more about human relationships than about horses.

BUCK, a richly textured documentary, follows Brannaman from a painful childhood to his inspiring work as a trainer. He possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his deep understanding, compassion and respect. Saved from a violent father, Buck found a safe haven when he was sent to a loving foster family. There he learned the life lessons that he would later apply to his teaching–rejecting the use of fear, cruelty and intimidation and instead creating bonds of trust, tolerance and empathy. He often compares redirecting the minds and energy of troubled horses with the trials of raising children.

The astonishing strength of character that helped Buck transcend the darkness of his past is poignantly reflected in his loving relationship with his daughter Reata, who has clearly inherited the riding and roping talents of her dad. But Buck is often away from his family and travels alone in his horse trailer from clinic to sold-out clinic all across the country, dealing with fractious horses and, frequently, fractious humans. As Buck says, “Often instead of helping people with horse problems, I’m helping horses with people problems.”

Buck Brannaman

Buck Brannaman is a prominent advocate of natural horsemanship. He’s a widely respected horse gentler whose approach to training a horse has inspired and revolutionized the equestrian world. He travels extensively throughout the US and the world.

A mix of mentor, legend and folk hero to the thousands who attend his colt-starting and horsemanship clinics each year, Buck is the inspiration for the novel and feature-film, The Horse Whisperer. Employing techniques learned from Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt, Buck gets riders to understand as much about their horses as possible. He teaches people to understand the horse and where he’s coming from and is able, almost instinctually, to inspire trust in both the horse and rider. Buck has co-authored two books, Faraway Horses and Believe.

Cindy Meehl

Cindy Meehl met Buck Brannaman at one of his horse clinics in 2003.

His horsemanship and skills were exceptional, and once Cindy learned about Buck’s life, she was inspired to make her first documentary to tell his story and share his unique approach to horses and people.

She founded Cedar Creek Productions, LLC in 2008 in order to make this film.

Cindy’s background is in fashion and art. She created and ran her own label, “Sasha, Cindy and Phil”, as well as “Cindy Hughes Designs”. She has designed couture evening wear that sold across the country. In the 1990s, she began fine art painting, which led to her interest in photography and film.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband, writer Brian Meehl, 2 daughters, 4 dogs and 2 horses.

Buck is being distributed in Canada by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential), through his company FilmsWeLike, a boutique distributor of documentary, independent and international films in Canada. Recent releases include: Pearl Jam Twenty, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Bill Cunningham New York, and the Cannes Palm D’or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

For more info check out the Official website: http://www.buckthefilm.com/

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