Braaains

As the constant scrutiny of our appearance has become increasingly normalized, filmmaker and actress Maddy Foley goes to the extreme to explore the cost of our relentless pursuit of perfection in her TIFF-premiering short, Fivehead.

Fivehead follows Eve, whose childhood insecurity resurfaces after an arcade caricature artist draws her with an impossibly oversized forehead. What begins as a playful joke quickly spirals into a dark obsession with transforming her appearance.

In Fivehead, body horror and comedy become the perfect vehicles for exploring the lengths we'll go to achieve our idea of perfect. In a frank conversation about rumination, body dysmorphia, and OCD, we deep dive into the question: how far is too far when it comes to changing ourselves?

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Music: @_Deppisch_

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Writer and creative producer, Helene Taylor, joins us to talk about her recent diagnosis with Frontotemporal Dementia, or FTD. Throughout this conversation, we cover what FTD is, how it is diagnosed, and what to do now to reduce cognitive decline.

We also discussed films such as Still Alice, which represents dementia in a very real way, especially when it comes to the experience of carers, and Shrinking, which shows a character figuring out how to maintain autonomy and live life with a degenerative disease. We also talked about the importance of prioritizing important experiences in our lives including going to events like TIFF, where we also saw other dementia related films such as The Road Not Taken and Arrested Memories

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Music: @_Deppisch_

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Our guest, Tom Sinclair, is an actor and filmmaker based in Winnipeg who joined us to talk about his journey into acting and filmmaking in Manitoba and his experience working on the feature film, Champions, which was his acting debut. We first met Tom at Banff World Media Festival as he was a DSO (Disability Screen Office) delegate like Heather!

DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Podcast-EP084-Champions-and-Intellectual-Disabilities-Transcript.pdf

Contact us: BraaainsPodcast.com

Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Veteran Filipinx-American filmmakers and LGBTQIA+ activists Desireena Almoradie and Barbara Malaran join us to talk about their new film, BECAUSE OF YOU: A HISTORY OF KILAWIN KOLEKTIBO. This doc is the first archival look at a previously uncovered era of 90s queer activism amongst a group of Filipinxs activists and artists that started in New York City and rippled across the U.S. and Canada.

In this conversation, we discussed the history of this film's making, memory, forgiveness, finding joy in community, and the complications that live alongside any group fighting for change.

Transcript: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Episode-83-Transcript_-Because-of-You_-A-History-of-Kilawin-Kolektibo-and-Filipinx-queer-ac-cbx2.pdf

Contact us: BraaainsPodcast.com

Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Brian Ceci is a filmmaker and cinematographer who has worked on productions in over 30 countries across six continents. Brian's feature film debut as a director, 'Heard,' chronicles his experience being Hard of Hearing as he talks to other Hard of Hearing (HoH) creatives across BC who use their hearing loss to further their practice as artists and creatives.

Today's conversation delves into Brian's inspiration for Heard and how making this film helped him continue exploring his own place on the Hard of Hearing Spectrum. We also spoke about the Deaf community, deaf gains, deaf joy, and how riding motorcycles gives Brian a sense of normalcy in a world that can feel socially isolating.

Transcript: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Podcast-EP082_Heard_-A-Film-about-the-Hard-of-Hearing-Spectrum-transcript.pdf

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Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Actor, writer, and disability advocate, Alicia Grace is a spark of joy! She joined us to talk about living with blindness and a brain tumor. We talk about How to Train Your Dragon, the first film that helped her connect to her disability, and the limited series, All the Light We Cannot See, which included a blind character (and actor) who was more than her disability.

Alicia really wants to have more authentic representations of people living with a brain tumor on film and TV. Brain tumors are often used to have a character suddenly on their deathbed or show a miracle cure moment, but often people with brain tumors live on a wait-and-watch period, like Alicia, who has had her brain tumor her whole life. Her mantra is No Day But Today – a song in the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson. He inspired her to live her life in love and not fear, as she lives through six-month periods between MRI scans.

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Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

We had the pleasure of interviewing Writer-Director Taratoa Stappard about Mārama, his first feature film, which premiered at TIFF, where we first saw it. Mārama is a Māori gothic horror set in Victorian England in 1859, about a young Māori woman who is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, where she uncovers the horrific truth of her colonial heritage, and she must destroy the titled Englishman who has devastated her family.

Today's conversation dived into the inspiration for Mārama and how its themes of colonization, cultural theft, and reclaimation are told through a Māori lens. We also discussed how important it was to weave cultural safety through every part of the making of Mārama - from development through to daily on-set practice and how to preserve your mental health when working on films with sensitive subject matters.

CONTENT WARNING: trauma, death, suicide

READ TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Podcast-EP080-transcript_-Marama_-Maori-gothic-horror-and-the-trauma-of-colonialization-and-tda3.pdf

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Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Welcome to SEASON FIVE of Braaaaains!! WHA WHA??? We're kicking things off with the fantastic Kristen Lopez, who is a freelance pop culture journalist and the author of two books: But Have You Read the Book: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films, published by TCM and Running Press in 2023, and Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies published by Bloomsbury Academic, which we'll be talking about today!

As a film critic and disabled person, Kristen Lopez speaks with particular authority on how disability is represented-and too often misrepresented-in movies. Popcorn Disabilities is her impassioned, yet fun and engaging, survey of how Hollywood has dealt with disability over the last century. Over the course of this episode, we talk about little-remembered gems like Tod Browning's Freaks, one of the earliest well-intentioned attempts to show disabled characters as complex, three-dimensional human beings, to a slew of contemporary films, all of which have the power to enlighten, influence, and be used as a tool for social good.

Contact us: BraaainsPodcast.com

Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Elyse Bouvier is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer who recently wrote and directed the short documentary, Unfolding Faith, for the National Film Board of Canada. In this nuanced and timely short film, Elyse explores how her decision to give up her faith redefined both her identity and her relationships with her parents.

We spoke to Elyse about her deconversion from Evangelical Christianity and what it was like to have raw yet empathetic conversations about faith while making her documentary with her devout mother and her father, a former pastor turned atheist. We also discussed shows like Unorthodox and films about transformation, like Barbie and Wild, and how Elyse would love to see TV and film tackle the nuanced, grey areas of the deconversion process and what it is like to live in mixed-faith families.

CW: religion and religious themes

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Podcast-Transcript_EP078_Unfolding-Faith.pdf

Contact us: BraaainsPodcast.com

Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

Today's guests are the creators and stars of Crip Trip, a new AMI-tv series following Daniel Ennett, a quadruple amputee, and his best friend turned first-time caregiver, Frederick Kroetsch, on a cross-country road trip from Edmonton to New York City in their beat-up 1983 RV.

Over the course of the series, they tackle the challenges of caregiving, government shortcomings, and personal growth, all while offering a unique and candid look at the disability community, friendship, and the fight for equal opportunities.

In our conversation about the series, we delve into a conversation about the realities of caregiving and how often we forget that care work is labour that often goes unrecognized and unpaid.

Sarah has had the opportunity to work with Daniel and Fred throughout her career and was one of the editors on the series. In fact, this past weekend, Crip Trip won two Rosie awards, including best editor for documentary series over 30 minutes!! So proud of them!!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://braaainspodcast.com/s/Braaains-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-077-Crip-Trip-and-the-Labour-of-Care-Work.pdf

Contact us: BraaainsPodcast.com

Follow: @BraaainsPodcast

Music: @_Deppisch_

Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast