Working on a Documentary. Part 1.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I’m working on a short documentary film about Jason Barnes right now. Jason is a drummer and a music writer from Atlanta.

Jason got into an accident while working in 2012 and he got electrocuted.
He spent a month at the hospital and had 7 surgeries. After all those surgeries the doctors told him that they could not save his arm and make it work as it used to before. So he made a decision that changed his life dramatically. He decided to let the doctors amputate his arm.

Even though that happened, Jason didn’t give up on being a drummer. He had a spirit and incredible passion for playing drums. So with the help of professionals he constructed a prosthesis for his arm so he could play drums again.

Also in collaboration with one of the professors from GA Tech they constructed a robotic arm that could hold 2 sticks at the same time and one of them would have its own “mind”.

When I first met Jason I was so amazed how calm he was about what happened. I know, the time has passed but still. He made jokes like: “Hey, do you need a hand? But I only have one!” And so on.
He turned out to be a really friendly and smart person who let me creep behind him with the camera for the whole day.

At first I wanted to do my documentary about him being the fastest drummer in the world. But as I got to know him, I realized that I want to do an inspiring story about the person who didn’t give up even though life was pretty mean to him.
Also he mentioned that he actually hates that robotic arm thing and how people call him a “robot”. He is not a robot. Jason is an alive person and the credit for still playing the drums goes to him and he’s family who supported him, not to the robotic arm that “has its own mind”.

I will talk about this project more in my next post.