"You start the film with: Who is David Byrne? And he's a little taken aback by the question."

"So who are you? What is your sense of self and consciousness?"

Ian Moubayed: I think, as David Byrne said, "People are not static. We're ever-evolving." And so I'm not the same person that I was when I was a kid. And so, right now, I'm a filmmaker, I'm a New Yorker, but we're constantly changing, and I'm sure I'll be different in five years from now. 

John Tracey: To me, it evokes this question: Is who you are communicable? And whether it is possible for other people, beyond maybe one or two or none, to know that? And it's funny because the Theater of Mind show plays with that and, without giving too much away, each time you go through the show, it's not going to be the same experience as you had maybe the last time.

Nicholas Bruckman: Yeah, it's an uncomfortable question to be confronted with. And I think there's the me that's on this podcast right now. That's maybe more presentational than me over a beer with Ian or with my family or partner. And going back to the meta-storytelling themes, there's a big question about documentary truth when doing portraits of characters. And is this the real version of that person? And I think when you do these kinds of films, you're only able to capture one of those selves.

Nicholas Bruckman is founder and CEO of People's Television, a production studio and creative agency that produces independent films, and video storytelling for brands. Collaborating with the The Simons Foundation through their 'Science Sandbox' Initiative, he directed Theater of the Mind, which takes audiences into the creative inner workings of Musician and Artist David Byrne’s brain, showcasing Byrne’s immersive theater performance, which attempts to conceptualize the idea of our sense of self and how malleable the mind truly is.

He directed the award-winning healthcare justice documentary Not Going Quietly, executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass.

John Tracey is Program Director of Science, Society and Culture projects at the Simons Foundation whose mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The foundation champions basic science through grant funding, support for research and public engagement.

Ian Moubayed started his career as a cinematographer, collaborating with Emmy, Peabody, and Oscar-winning filmmakers. His work includes Netflix’s The Great Hack, NBC Peacock’s The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show, and HBO’s  The Vow.

www.youtube.com/@sciencesandbox
www.davidbyrne.com
https://nickny.com/bio
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/people/john-tracey/
https://peoples.tv/director/ian-moubayed/

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