DP/30 @ Sundance by The Hot Button
January 3, 2011
A favorite interview – Movie City News
January 13, 2014 by
2011 Sundance Festival Awards Announced
January 13, 2014 by
Cindy Meehl, Julie Goldman and Buck Brannaman accepting the US Documentary Audience Award
January 30, 2011
The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Acura went to Cindy Meehl’s Buck for documentary
Also see Best of the Reviews and Awards
Cindy Meehl Meet the Artist
December 28, 2013 by
Sundance Video – Cindy Meehl Interview
Sundance 2011 Screening Schedule
December 2010
A living legend in the horse world, Buck Brannaman was the inspiration for The Horse Whisperer. For this true cowboy, horses are a mirror of the human soul. See video and read more…
Horsing around at Sundance: Director Cindy Meehl’s perspective
January 2, 2012 by
Digital Journal Reports | January 2, 2012
Michael Krebs
Andrea Meditch, Julie Goldman, Buck Brannaman, and Cindy Meehl at Sundance 2011
With the 2012 Sundance Film Festival set to begin on January 19, I caught up with Meehl to ask her about experience with “Buck” and about her Sundance perspectives.
KREBS: Often with journalism and with documentary film making the story reshapes the storyteller’s original thought on the subject at hand. And with Buck, the cowboy helps reorient the perspective of a given troubled horse. How did Buck shape you as a director? And when you see the film now, how does he continue to have an impact on you?
MEEHL: Buck actually did a lot to shape me as a director, though I’m sure he does not know it. He has a way of “raising the bar” on everything you do. There is no such thing as too tired, too difficult or not trying your absolute best in his world. Excuses are a joke to him. He’s like the Nike ad ~~ Just Do It! His hard work philosophy and tenacious manner was a big influence on me. Anyone who has ever made a film knows that it is a job full of challenges and choices. It is not for the faint of heart. Knowing his dedication to his work made me work harder than ever to accurately depict him and achieve what it was that I wanted to say in this film. Seeing the film, even now, I still get choked up when I see him riding alone in that field at the end of the film because I know how hard won his success is.
Live @ Sundance
November 19, 2011 by
BUCK winning the Acura U.S. Documentary Audience Awards at Sundance 2011
BUCK is at/around 49:00 minutes
Watch the Trailer for Buck, About a Real-Life Horse Whisperer
May 10, 2011 by
By Kyle Buchanan
The movie won the Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.
Hartford Courant Review
February 6, 2011 by
Documentary About Real ‘Horse Whisperer’ Makes Sundance Splash for Local Filmmaker
Connecticut Connections to Park City Festival
Filmmakers from Connecticut made a huge impression at the recent Sundance Film Festival, but no one was a bigger surprise than Cindy Meehl. With zero filmmaking experience, Meehl, a 54-year-old Redding resident, made a movie about a horse trainer that won the festival’s U.S. Documentary Audience Award. “Buck” earned over-the-top reviews and a distribution deal with Sundance Selects/IFC Films. Read complete Courant article
Hollywood Reporter – ‘BUCK’ Gallops With Empathy
January 29, 2011 by
PARK CITY — (U.S. Documentary Competition) A quietly captivating portrait of an unlikely character,
“Buck” is as modest as its subject and wins viewers over just as easily. Holding strong appeal in the nonfiction arena, the pic could be a hit for distribs who manage to book it into Middle-American markets where few docs fear to tread.
Buck Brannaman, who inspired The Horse Whisperer, proves as impressively gifted in reality as any fictionalized version could be — and even, though his not-quite-handsome face would never compete with Robert Redford‘s, possessed of an undeniable magnetism. A quiet man who almost seems to mind-meld with horses, he makes no secret of the belief that his training helps both horse and owner. Read complete Hollywood Reporter review…
Sundance Video: Robert Redford at Sundance 2011, Buck, Owning Chaz, Oprah Winfrey
January 28, 2011 by
Thompson On Hollywood
Sundance Festival and Channel founder Robert Redford opened up the Fest with his customary press conference, where he talked about new Sundance initiatives and Slamdance. As a big supporter of the doc Buck, about the original inspiration for his film The Horse Whisperer, it was no surprise when the film sold to Sundance Selects. Read complete article at Thompson on Hollywood…
Deadline.com – Sundance: 2011 Film Directors to Watch
January 27, 2011 by
Cindy Meehl: This first-time filmmaker came to Sundance with U.S. Documentary Competition entry Buck, a cinematic doc which follows Buck Brannaman, the cowboy who inspired The Horse Whisperer. It was quickly scooped up by IFC Films’ sister division Sundance Selects. Connecticut-based Meehl met Brannaman at one of his horse clinics in 2003 and learned about his troubled childhood and transformed life. Read complete Deadline.com article