DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I thought long on how best to tell this story.  The underdog, struggling against great odds to achieve his dream, has been told. Though satisfying, it presents the audience with the obvious, for who would not give up a life of hardship to reach for glory? But what if the hero had it all, 一 position, influence, money 一 and was presented with the option to pursue his quiet aspirations of a simple life? Could he really give it up? What would it do to him inside 一 and how would he face the future knowing he’d passed on his one chance for true fulfillment?

I was driving my son, Patrick, to a Boy Scout camping trip on Maryland’s Assateague Island.  It was March 一 cold, gray, and raining 一 and I was struck by the natural beauty of the Eastern Shore, with flat farmland punctuated by the inlets and waterways of the Chesapeake Bay.  On that drive, the story of Cole Bard coalesced in my mind, a man who felt called to the simple beauty of these small communities and away from the insincere glamour of Washington DC, my hometown. That night, against the cold, wet canvas of our tent, poorly staked on a windy beach, with wet sand stuck to nearly everything we had, I sat with a flashlight pinched between my chin and shoulder and scrawled the outline of The Road to Galena on a scrap of paper.  Over breakfast the following morning, with Patrick peering at me over a stack of pancakes, I shared with him Cole's story 一 to which he replied, “sounds like your life.” When I told him I never wanted to be a farmer, he corrected, “Dad, the story's not about being a farmer.” 

Despite the accusations of a highly insightful son, I see this as my story only in that it's universal 一 one shared by so many who carry with them dreams, often never spoken, and sometimes to the grave.
                Thoreau once said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Cole Baird's journey shows us the possibilities that come with overcoming that desperation 一 sharing aloud our aspirations and taking that unthinkable step of living our own lives, instead of the lives of others 一 and defining success in terms measured only by our happiness and that of those we love.