About
The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks
$124,295
1,288
S-T-R-E-T-C-H Goal a Success!
We are THRILLED to announce that we have OFFICIALLY made our $115K STRETCH goal!! Thanks to all of our contributors, this campaign is a success! Contributors will have exclusive access to a special Facebook Live event with Oliver’s primary collaborator, editor & friend (now the Executive Director of The Oliver Sacks Foundation) Kate Edgar, who will be in conversation with me, Dempsey Rice, the filmmaker behind The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks, and a few surprise special guests! We will share stories about Oliver and answer questions from you, Team Animated Mind.
Birthday Week Challenge a Success!
July 9th, would have been Oliver’s 85th birthday - his Astatine birthday! Astatine, element 85 on the Periodic Table, is the rarest element on earth. A fitting element to match the birthday of one of the rarest men to ever live.
Because we reached $90,000 in contributions before Friday, July 13th, ALL of our contributors will receive the Astatine birthday magnet pictured below. Put it on your fridge or your magnetic bulletin board!
3D Backer Challenge a Success:
On June 29 we completed our first backer challenge and reached 500+ backers by June 29th. As a result everyone will get will get a pair of retro 3D glasses plus a copy of a *NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN* 3D photograph that Oliver made as a boy!
about the film...
OLIVER & ME:
I first met Dr. Oliver Sacks in 2002. We sat down for our first videotaped interview in 2003 and went on to spend over ten years in conversation. Oliver was a private man and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been the only filmmaker he allowed to shoot interviews with him for such a long period of time.
An accomplished author and neurologist, Oliver pioneered the idea of “compassionate care” before it was popular. He saw his patients as whole people rather than as clusters of symptoms or “disorders”. As a best-selling author, he recognized that telling people's stories in a way that had never been done before, was far more powerful than publishing medical papers.
Our conversations are the foundation for The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks, a feature length documentary film that immerses viewers in Oliver's powerful stories, personal anecdotes and miraculous patient case histories.
THE FILM:
Throughout our time together, I was consistently awed by Oliver and his deep compassion for all living things. He wasn’t afraid to ask the question, “What is it like to be YOU?” and really mean it!
His unfailing curiosity drove him to explore the magic of how our brains work and delve into the extreme joys and sorrows that come with human existence.
My team and I are weaving together animation, found footage, archival material and cinematic live-action with my own on-camera interviews to tell the story of Oliver’s boundless pursuit of neurological understanding, and connection to people, patients, and the biological world.
We are making a film that will inspire new insight and deep compassion for the human experience in addition to celebrating Oliver’s irrepressible enthusiasm for, and curiosity about, the human mind.
We hope you will join us on this journey!
JOIN TEAM ANIMATED MIND!
We are super excited about what we’ve made so far. We have an amazing team of animators and producers (read all about them below), but the crucial element is YOU.
We need YOU to join US!
We want to create the most visually breath-taking, beautiful film we possibly can, but animation is expensive. We are a small team of independent filmmakers and your contribution will really make a difference.
A donation of any size makes you an official member of TEAM ANIMATED MIND so feel free to swim in a lake, hug the closest octopus or plant a few ferns in honor of Oliver!
We promise to keep you in the loop as we move forward on this journey. In addition, you can check out some amazing rewards inspired by Oliver – we’ve written all about them in the right-hand column and if you keep scrolling down, you'll find pictures of all the cool stuff.
Thanks so much for joining TEAM ANIMATED MIND -- you are helping us bring the magic of Oliver Sacks to the world!
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
- Donate to this Kickstarter campaign!
- You can check out our website and follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. And while you're at it, share a link to this Kickstarter Campaign on your own social media streams!
- Have you shot photos or video of Oliver? We’d love to see what you have! Share with us on social media or email Team Animated Mind at oliversacksfilm@gmail.com
- Do you have a story about meeting Oliver? Or about the impact of his writing? If so, we'd love to hear all about it! Email us! oliversacksfilm@gmail.com
THE REWARDS:
Everything In Its Place (Fine Art Photograph by Bill Hayes):
Animated Mind Bookmark:
Animated Mind Pocket Notebook & Pen:
Swim With Oliver on your Swim Cap!
Animated Mind Mug:
Animated Mind Tote Bag:
Welcome Squid Overlords -- this was Oliver's FAVORITE t-shirt of all time! Made with a super soft fabric, it comes in mens and womens sizes!
3D Periodic Table Placemats:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, HAT!
The OWL Stereo Viewer was designed by Dr. Brian May, lead guitarist for the epic rock band QUEEN, and astrophysicist:
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver & Me by Bill Hayes
Moleskine Journal -- the logo will be debossed (imprinted into the cover) with silver ink!
Midcentury Stereopanorama Show. Explore the wonderful world of vintage 3D slides and photos:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (special edition + art):
Hallucinations Signed, Limited Edition Book (Easton Press):
Periodic Table Quilt:
Oliver in Iceland, a fine art photograph by Bill Hayes:
ABOUT DR. OLIVER SACKS:
Oliver Sacks, M.D. was a physician, a best-selling author, and a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. The New York Times has referred to him as “the poet laureate of medicine.”
He is best known for his collections of neurological case histories, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain and An Anthropologist on Mars. Awakenings, his book about a group of patients who had survived the great encephalitis lethargica epidemic of the early twentieth century, inspired the 1990 Academy Award-nominated feature film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.
Dr. Sacks was a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.
TEAM ANIMATED MIND:
Dempsey Rice, Director/Producer, explores themes of connection, personal story, relationship and identity in her filmmaking. Her feature documentary film Daughter of Suicide (1999, HBO) received a Cine Golden Eagle, a National Council on Family Relations Media Award and a National Mental Health Association Media Award. She is the recipient of a NY Emmy as the Series Producer of IMNY. Her hyper-local project, The Listening Project: Brooklyn (2013, 133 short films) aired on Brooklyn Independent Television.
Lori Cheatle, Producer, is a producer and founder of Hard Working Movies, an independent production company in Brooklyn, NY that produces films, TV and multi-media projects that are bold, creative and entertaining. Working with a range of talented directors, she’s produced over 20 award-winning films that have screened at top international film festivals, in theaters and on all major platforms around the world. Recent titles include MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A., winner of a Special Jury award at Sundance 2018; I Am Another You, directed by Nanfu Wang and distributed by FilmRise; KIKI directed by Sara Jordeno, winner of several awards, released by IFC Films/Sundance Selects; Seven Songs for A Long Life, directed by Amy Hardie, CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart, directed by Jeremiah Zagar for HBO & Sky Atlantic; 112 Weddings and 51 Birch Street, directed by Doug Block, and many others.
Kate Edgar, Executive Producer, began working for Oliver Sacks in 1983. For more than three decades, she collaborated with him as editor, researcher, assistant and friend. Kate became the Executive Director of the Oliver Sacks Foundation following his death in 2015. Her role as Executive Producer indicates institutional support for The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks.
Joanne Nerenberg, Co-Producer, works on all aspects of documentary film as a producer, director and editor. She is the co-creator of move it! A dance TV show for kids sold to Sesame Workshop in 2003. Joanne has produced video for Harvard University, The New York Historical Society, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and The Lincoln Institute in Cambridge, MA. She is currently producing a new documentary film by Lizzie Gottlieb, featuring writer Robert Caro and his legendary editor Bob Gottlieb.
Jonathon Corbiere, Director of Animation, is Creative Director & Co-Founder of Thought Café (Toronto, Canada). Thought Café sets itself apart from other animation and visual effects studios by focusing their skills and conceptions on concrete fundamental design and communication principles. Their studio currently houses 20 artists, animators, and designers, consistently outputting concept-driven animation solutions that favor function and substance over pure visual stimulation.
MetFilm Production, our UK Team, is an independent production company making high-quality fiction and documentary films for theatrical audiences worldwide. Together with sister company MetFilm Sales, MetFilm provides a vertically integrated environment for a small pool of exceptional filmmakers. Their award-winning documentaries include the Sundance 2015 opening film How To Change The World, Sour Grapes and Donor Unknown, all directed by Jerry Rothwell, Jeanie Finlay’s The Great Hip Hop Hoax, and Dylan Williams’ Men Who Swim, recently adapted into Swimming With Men, a narrative comedy starring Rob Brydon, which will be released in theaters this summer.
Michael Hearst is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and writer. His film scores include Chicken People, The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, To Be Takei, Magic Camp, Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger, The Good Mother, and The House of Suh. Hearst is co-founder of the band One Ring Zero, which has released nine albums. As a solo artist, his projects include Songs For Extraordinary People, Songs For Unusual Creatures, Songs For Ice Cream Trucks, and Songs For Fearful Flyers. He is also the author of the books Unusual Creatures, Extraordinary People, and Curious Constructions, as well as co-director and host of the PBS Digital series Songs For Unusual Creatures.
Risks and challenges
Animation isn't fast my friends! I expect to be finished with the film by the end of 2019, but it might take longer for you to see the the film. I'll let you know about any delays we hit along the way! But don't fret, I'm working with an amazing team who has the skills to get this film done! I do plan to deliver your physical rewards by the end of 2018!
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