It Ain?t Television, It?s Brain Surgery

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It Ain?t Television, It?s Brain Surgery

TV folks like to remind themselves -- and others -- ?it?s just television, it 
ain?t brain surgery.?  Well, we?re here
to tell you ?It Ain?t Television, It?s Brain Surgery.?   Ray Farkas recently 
had Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery
to control some of the symptoms of Parkinson?s disease.

Ray is an Emmy award winning producer and director who was diagnosed with 
Parkinson?s in May 2000.  He was fortunate
enough to qualify for DBS.  DBS -- approved by the FDA just this year -- is a 
procedure that places two electrodes --
pacemaker like devices -- in the brain.  The electrodes, powered via batteries 
that live under Ray?s chest, interrupt
the abnormal firing of neurons that causes tremors ? tremors sometimes so 
debilitating it?s impossible to walk around
the corner or just shower without help.  Parkinson?s can lead not only to 
deficits in motor functioning but also
depression and hallucinations.  Ray?s father died of Parkinson?s ? Ray didn?t 
want to.

TV animal that he is, Ray?s thoughts almost immediately turned to the 
inevitable: DBS is fascinating.   Why not make a
TV documentary out of it?   Why not a movie?

The result: ?It Ain?t Television, It?s Brain Surgery?.  A whimsical, humorous, 
enlightening and ultimately hopeful
first person account of life under the knife and its after effects.  Five 
cameras captured the action while Ray was
awake and narrating for eight hours on the operating table -- if you call 
narrating flirting with the nurses, telling
bad jokes, breaking into song and asking his surgeon a good question or two.

The film mixes surgery footage with other elements including clips from ?Young 
Frankenstein? and the ?Wizard of Oz?
(?If I Only Had a Brain); two original songs ? ?Like I Need a Hole in the Head? 
(?You don?t have to shake my hand, it
shakes just fine on its own??) and ?The DBS Tango? (?I tried not to think about 
making a stink about what a big chance
I was taking, ?cause all that I know the current was flowing and suddenly I 
wasn?t shaking??); and a conversation
between the pre-op Ray and the post-op Ray (??why were you apprehensive?  It 
was a walk in the park.?)  We?ll sit with
his wife and daughter in the hospital waiting room.  We?ll hear from Danny and 
Mark Farkas, two of Ray?s sons, who were
there in the OR for their father?s brain surgery, taking it all in behind the 
lens.  We?ll eavesdrop on their
conversation with sister Julie over coffee.  We?ll see a demonstration of the 
new battery-powered Ray ?turned off? vs.
?turned on.?

Nothing Ray does is ordinary.  His style is off center literally and 
figuratively ? using long lenses, wireless mikes,
foreground composition and with a strong sense of time, place and context -- 
eavesdropping more than interviewing and
capturing unlikely, fresh, ?ah-hah? material.

SOURCE: Off Center Productions




Talking Head
TV Producer With Parkinson's Narrates His Way Through His Own Brain Surgery


Lights! Camera! Anesthesia!
By Ying Lou, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Ray Farkas is not the first patient to undergo deep brain 
stimulation surgery to alleviate the
symptoms of Parkinson's disease. But he may be the first to direct and narrate 
a documentary film on his surgery ?
while it's taking place.


Deep Brain Stimulation Helps Parkinson's Patients


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