Sundance Review: Strangely Compelling Logging Drama 'Bob And The Trees'

There's a new trend in blending non-fiction and narrative, wherein actors or non-actors play some version of themselves in a story that hews close to their own experiences. Obviously, 2014 Sundance juggernaut "Boyhood" uses elements of this approach, as well as the lauded "Actress" by Robert Greene. For his debut feature film, "Bob and the Trees," Diego Ongaro found himself taken with the world of loggers in Western Massachusetts and set out to tell their story, in a somewhat fictionalized environment, but utilizes non-actors to play themselves, or versions of themselves, and he manages to get quite the performance from his lead Bob Tarasuk as Bob Tarasuk.

When Ongaro befriended Tarasuk after moving to the Berkshires, he wanted to tell the story of the dangerous and challenging life of a commercial logger/forester. After making a short film, they decided to expand it to a feature, and the result is “Bob and the Trees.” In many ways, there are...