Cindy Meehl’s Buck not only emerges as a fine, fascinating portrait of a living but also a moving look at the transformation of a broken soul into a nurturing, inspiring role model. Buck Brannaman is a soft-spoken cowboy who for 9 straight months a year, spends his time travelling across America taming wild colts. Most notably, Brannaman served as the technical advisor on Robert Redford’s 1998 film The Horse Whisperer, and was one of the inspirations for the Nicholas Evans novel it was based on. But Buck isn’t singularly concerned about the act of “horse whispering”, which perhaps implies some sort of fanciful, magical circus trick; it’s what Redford says of Brannaman’s character - “a kind of humanity and gentleness of spirit” - that is communicated throughout as we watch him patiently, and effortlessly rein these animals in with grace and sensitivity. Gleaned from mentors Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt, his non-aggressive approach makes for a stark contrast to the brutal old-fashioned methods of horse “breaking”, and for Brannaman himself, his past as a victim of unspeakable child abuse. Occasionally Meehl belabors her points with talking heads when the footage speaks for itself, but we rarely get tired of listening to Brannaman: he’s a calming, good-natured presence on-screen as he is to his spectators and horses, and it’s this universal notion of human empathy that gives the doco a broad, engaging appeal beyond the niche of horse-lovers.