Portsmouth Brewery’s Matt Gallagher makes his big-screen debut in “Bob and the Trees”
by Larry Clow
When audiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival gathered in Park City, Utah, to watch the latest independent films and major studio movies, they saw a Seacoast brewer’s face on the big screen.
Matt Gallagher, the head brewer at the Portsmouth Brewery, makes his big-screen debut, alongside his father-in-law, Bob Tarasuk, in “Bob and the Trees,” a feature film that premiered this week at Sundance.
“It’s just really exciting. I’ve never acted before, and neither has my father-in-law,” he said.
Gallagher’s journey to the big screen began in 2010. He and his wife, Emily Tarasuk, were living and working on her family’s farm in the Berkshires. That year, “Bob and the Trees” director Diego Ongaro and his wife, novelist Courtney Maum, bought a home in the area.
“It’s a tiny town, and these are some very interesting people who moved into town, so we became fast friends,” Gallagher said.
Maum and Ongaro had written a script for a short film called “Bob and the Trees,” about a middle-aged logger and his son living in the Berkshires. They thought Tarasuk, Gallagher’s father-in-law, and Gallagher were the perfect fit for the father-son duo. Ongaro asked the two to star in the short and they filmed it in three days in the woods around Tarasuk’s farm in 2010.
The short was submitted to a number of film festivals and attracted some interest, Gallagher said. “Diego wanted to take it further, and he spent some time working up a script for a feature-length film.”
The feature film, also called “Bob and the Trees,” follows Bob, a 50-year-old logger with a “soft spot for golf and gangsta rap,” as he tries to make ends meet while working in the dying logging industry.
“When (director Diego Ongaro) posed the idea to us, we said, ‘Are you crazy?’ But I said yes. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t said yes and tried something new.” — Matt Gallagher
Gallagher said his and Tarasuk’s roles are “fictionalized versions” of themselves. Tarasuk is a farmer and forester who’s made a career out of managing forestland throughout the Berkshires. “He’s the liaison between the logger and homeowners and manages forests in a way that benefits” everyone, Gallagher said. Tarasuk’s son and Gallagher helped Tarasuk manage the forests and run the family farm.
“We were the ones going in and executing his plans in the woods and extracting logs,” Gallagher said.
Ongaro again shot the film in and around Tarasuk’s farm, this time in Feburary 2014 — in the middle of an extreme cold wave.
“We spent the whole month of February … 16 hours a day in the Berkshires, in the polar vortex, filming logging scenes and farming stuff,” Gallagher said.
Despite the long days and freezing temperatures, Gallagher said filming “Bob and the Trees” was fun.
“It was a completely positive experience. We really put our trust in Diego … to guide us and hold our hands through (filming),” he said. “When Diego posed the idea to us, we said, ‘Are you crazy?’ But I said yes. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t said yes and tried something new.”
A still from Bob and the Trees.
Filming “Bob and the Trees” was something of a homecoming for Gallagher. He and his wife left the Berkshires in 2012. A University of New Hampshire graduate and a surfer, Gallagher had his sights set on the Seacoast.
“We decided to throw our chips in the air and see where we landed. I sold my tree equipment — it was really fun in my mid- to late-20s, but as I got into my 30s, it was getting really old really quickly,” he said.
Gallagher and his father had both been homebrewers, though he’d never considered it a possible career. But after arriving in the Seacoast and talking with former Portsmouth Brewery head brewer Tyler Jones, Gallagher was hired as an assistant brewer. He took over as head brewer when Jones left to open his own brewery in Connecticut last year.
Gallagher and Tarasuk ventured out to Utah to catch the film’s first screening. He isn’t sure when or if “Bob and the Trees” might be shown locally. “That’s all up in the air. I would love for it to get shown at The Music Hall because there’s a lot of interest. People have been hearing about the project for the last year,” he said.
Despite a small brush with big-screen fame, Gallagher said he doesn’t have any further acting plans. But he’s not entirely ruling out future roles.
“I fully enjoyed the experience, but I also fully enjoy my career here as a brewer,” he said. “It’s not something I plan to pursue, but I’m not going to close the door on any projects that might come my way.”