Official Trailer
“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” So says Buck Brannaman, a true American cowboy and sage on horseback who travels the country for nine grueling months a year helping horses with people problems.
BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds.
AWARDS
BUCK premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2011 where it won the Audience Award and continued to go on to win many awards including the 2011 Academy Award shortlist and recognition by the National Board of Review as one of the year’s top 5 picks. Other honors and awards include:
- Zurich International Film Festival – Best International Documentary
- Crossroads Film Festival – Best Documentary
- Christopher Awards – Feature Film Winner
- Bergen International Film Festival – Best Documentary
- Full Frame Doc Festival – Audience Award
- Hot Docs Toronto – Top Audience Favorite
- Seattle International Film Festival – Best Documentary Runner up & Golden Space Needle Award
- Provincetown International Film Festival – HBO Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
- Nantucket Film Festival – Best of Fest
- DocuWest Film Festival – Best Feature Length Documentary
- Canberra Film Festival – Audience Award & Best Documentary
PRESS
Some of Our Favorite BUCK Reviews
“IRRESISTABLE”, Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Sundance gets real: More memorable documentaries come from this festival than anywhere else. This year’s group included “Buck,” “If a Tree Falls,” “The Interrupters,” “Project Nim,” “The Redemption of General Butt Naked,” “Senna” and “We Were Here.” Mention should also be made of non-Sundance docs “Circo” and “Nostalgia for the Light.”
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David Carr, The New York Times
You Can Also Lead a Horse to Nirvana. LAST Sunday evening, Buck Brannaman strolled the High Line, two stories above the streets of Manhattan and hundreds of miles from his native habitat, the ranch country where he runs clinics in enlightened horsemanship. The documentary “Buck,” which won a Sundance audience award this year and will open on Friday in New York and Los Angeles, details his shaman-like skills around horses and the people who ride them.
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“An exceptional slice of Americana…EXTRAORDINARY.”, Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
The best documentaries of 2011
One of the big documentary hits of the year. Buck Brannaman was the original “horse whisperer,” the character who Nicholas Evans based his novel on and Robert Redford used as the on-set consultant for his film. He has a way with horses, and Cindy Meehl’s documentary is moving as he shows them engaged in dances of understanding.
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BUCK premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2011 where it won the Audience Award and continued to go on to win many awards including the 2011 Academy Award shortlist and recognition by the National Board of Review as one of the year’s top 5 picks. Other honors and awards include:
More awards and acknowledgements >