{"id":4613,"date":"2011-07-29T08:35:31","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T12:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=4613"},"modified":"2011-07-29T10:01:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T14:01:53","slug":"caught-on-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2011\/07\/caught-on-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Caught On Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Filmmaker Spotlight: Philip Brubaker<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>by Margot C. Lester<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Oscar Wilde<\/em><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe lines between art and life are blurred in Durham filmmaker Philip Brubaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2008 documentary, <em>Brushes with Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illness<\/em>. The film showcases a creative arts program for people in the Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program at the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health and Club Nova. Through interviews with patients and supporters, it explores the connection between art and mental illness and how creativity offers relief and release. Says one subject: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The art is better medicine than the medicine is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Brubaker made the film for creative and personal reasons. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted to make another documentary and I knew the people who ran the Brushes With Life art gallery,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he recalls. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I also wanted to give something back to the organization, because I had submitted my photographs to their gallery for many years.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Brubaker, you see, has overcome his own battle with bipolar disorder. Films and still photography are the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153beautiful forms\u00e2\u20ac\u009d through which his life expresses its creative energy. <\/p>\n<p><em>Brushes with Life<\/em> has picked up several awards, including Best Editing in a Short Documentary in the 2010 FirstGlance Film Festival, an Honorable Mention in the 2009 Voice Awards and second place in the 2009 Eli Lilly Reintegration Awards. Brubaker is currently seeking an online distribution deal for the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Documentary is Brubaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chosen form. His first film, Squish Story, was a four-hour epic shot when he was 16. <em>The National Hollerin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> Contest was his first widely seen documentary, released in 2005. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s currently in the middle of a multi-year doc project about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a real-life mystery about the search for God and an infant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death in 1945.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>His favorite documentary is <em>Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe<\/em>.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is very inspiring because it shows the lengths Herzog will go in the name of making movies,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Brubaker, who gets much of his inspiration from music and dreams, as well as his own footage. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a fan of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first two are my favorite filmmakers and the first and third are very private, enigmatic individuals I would like to know more about.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>But filmmaker wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t on Brubaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list of what he wanted to be when he grew up.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A writer, a stand-up comedian, a zookeeper, an aquarium attendant and a private detective,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were the professions he thought he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d pursue. He got into photography at a young age, when he was given a point-and-shoot camera to play with. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But I always found moving pictures to be more exciting than still ones,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. <\/p>\n<p>The Washington, D.C.-area native graduated from UNC-Greensboro in 2004 with a degree in media studies. Brubaker also studied filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He is in the inaugural class of the MFA at Duke in Experimental and Documentary Arts. <\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a coup for a kid who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t apply himself in school. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned that the real world is an unforgiving place and good grades will take you further in life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he notes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But I guess it all worked out, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting my master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from Duke in the fall.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Festival Notes<\/strong><br \/>\nLocal filmgoers will want to check out the lineup for next month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <strong>N.C. Gay &#038; Lesbian Film Festival<\/strong> in Durham. The 16th annual event comes to the Carolina Theatre Aug. 11-14. Individual tickets are $9; a 10-film pass is $75. Film synopses, schedules and tickets are available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolinatheatre.org\/ncglff\/\">ncglff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The latest installment of <strong>Movies on the Lawn<\/strong>, presented by the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and American Tobacco, presents a music-based double feature starting at 9 p.m. on Aug. 12 on the main lawn at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham. The evening starts with a re-screening of <em>One Night in Kernersville<\/em>, which documents a recording session with jazz bassist John Brown and his big band. The second film is <em>Do It Again<\/em>, in which a reporter attempts to reunite the epic rock band The Kinks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153collecting spontaneous performances by some of rock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s royalty along the way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bring a chair or blanket and snacks. (A little bug spray may also be helpful.)<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Carrboro Film Festival<\/strong> is accepting submissions for its sixth annual show in November. Submissions for the Nov. 20 event close Sept. 30. Films received by Aug. 20 carry a $10 entry fee; $15 per film after that. The festival is open to any filmmaker who has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153breathed the good air of North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sometime in their lives. Filmmakers may submit their films and pay entry fees at carrborofilmfestival.com. Those unable to use the online submittal system should email filmfest@carrboro.com. Complete submission details may be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/carrborofilmfestival.com\/\">carrborofilmfestival.com<\/a>. For more information, email filmfest@carrboro.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Filmmaker Spotlight: Philip Brubaker by Margot C. Lester \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Oscar Wilde<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4616,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions\/4616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}