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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 http://www.offcentertv.com/ http://www.offcentertv.com/docdescription.htm http://www.offcentertv.com/PeopleMag.htm Talking Head TV Producer With Parkinson's Narrates His Way Through His Own Brain Surgery http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/Living/parkinsons_surgery_040326-1.html 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. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-11-03-parkinsons-surgery_x.htm Deep Brain Stimulation Helps Parkinson's Patients http://www.parkinsonscontrol.com/parkinsons/parkinsons-treatments.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn