#21 Artist Spotlight: Cat Brewer

Join us this week as we talk with Cat Brewer, a local filmmaker, about her documentary “Sign the Show.”

Thanks everyone for listening to this week's episode. As always we want to thank you and our guests for joining us! We also want to thank Marshall "Max LaMont" Hamilton for providing our music. Please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcast apps. Also be sure to check out our website wilsonarts.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @WilsonArtsNC for the latest information about our events. Thanks for joining us this week, and we'll see you next time!

https://www.signtheshow.com

Transcript

Intro Music  0:00 

Seth Penwell  0:09 
I'm Seth Penwell.

Shaun Braswell  0:10 
And I'm Shaun Braswell.

Seth Penwell  0:11 
And this is episode 21 of Wilson Arts and Beyond - a podcast by Wilson Arts in Wilson, North Carolina.

Seth Penwell  0:17 
Today, we're excited to talk to Cat Brewer, a local filmmaker, about her documentary, Sign the Show. Welcome to the show, Cat.

Cat Brewer  0:24 
Thank you. I just got super excited when you said this was episode 21.

Seth Penwell  0:28 
Yeah.

Cat Brewer  0:28 
That's my favorite number.

Shaun Braswell  0:29 
Oh, excellent.

Seth Penwell  0:30 
Perfect

Cat Brewer  0:31 
Fortuitous. Kismet.

Seth Penwell  0:32 
Meant to be.

Seth Penwell  0:33 
So, Cat, we just want to kind of start the show with you telling our listeners a little bit about you and who you are and what you do. Obviously, you're a filmmaker. But maybe even outside of that.

Cat Brewer  0:45 
Yeah, I have been an educator or a teacher for the past 22 years. That's really how I identify. The filmmaker label is pretty new to me, and sometimes it feels really uncomfortable. But I'm trying to embrace it. But I've been teaching communication courses for the last 22 years at the college level. Most of my teaching experience has been in California. But I taught for a brief stint in Las Vegas when I lived there. And now I'm here in Wilson and not teaching, but would like to again someday. I'm just not sure when that will be.

Seth Penwell  1:24 
So I gotta ask based off that you moved from California where you were teaching into North Carolina where you're now making a film. Let's explore those things a little bit. How did you get to that - get here from that?

Cat Brewer  1:35 
Yeah, so born and raised in California, and I started producing my documentary back in 2014, so still in California. Went through kind of a big, really big life transition and ended up moving to Vegas and lived in Las Vegas for four years. And then I came out here in November 2020 to take care of my dad, and I'm still here. I haven't left. I actually really fell in love with Wilson and the people here. So it's been great.

Seth Penwell  2:04 
Awesome.

Shaun Braswell  2:04 
Wilson has fallen in love with you also. So, can we talk about your new documentary and give us kind of an overview about what it's about?

Cat Brewer  2:13 
Sure. It is a film that advocates for access for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. And when I say Deaf and Hard of Hearing, it comes in a range, right? So, you know, people can have very little hearing, or none at all, or a lot of hearing. But there's a wide community or a very big community here in the United States alone. There's 40 plus million people that belong to that community. And they face challenges and barriers every day when trying to get access to things that hearing people like us take access to or take for granted, just like this podcast, right? So that's why I had asked actually before I came on, if there would be a transcript available, because if I'm advocating for a population, they need to be able to have access to the material. So I really appreciate that you all are going to provide a transcript for this.

Cat Brewer  3:07 
But yeah, my focus for this film, to be really transparent and honest, I've said this before, that if I was going to make a film about the Deaf community and the Deaf culture, that I wanted hearing people to watch, that it had to have some people in there that are popular to the hearing community. So I reached out to lots of different folks, entertainers, specifically in the music, comedy and theatre industries. So folks like Kelly Clarkson and DL Hughley, Waka Flocka, DJ Whoo Kid, J. B. Smoove, Jordan Klepper, Ani DiFranco. There's a ton of people that I'm leaving out. Nyle DiMarco, who actually won America's Next Top Model, I think he was the first... Well, definitely the first deaf person to win. He also won Dancing with the Stars. So I have kind of an eclectic group of people in the film to hopefully draw a wide audience to to watch it.

Shaun Braswell  4:12 
You said Ani DiFranco, right?

Cat Brewer  4:13 
I did say Ani DiFranco.

Shaun Braswell  4:14 
 I'm a huge Ani DiFranco fan. I was like, oh! I'm fangirling over here now.

Cat Brewer  4:18 
She's hilarious. She's really funny. Really super down to earth. I think, honestly, every single person that I met, was really generous with their time because I couldn't compensate, I was a teacher. I had no money. I bought my camera expecting to return it after 30 days because I couldn't afford $800. I still have the camera. Hopefully I'll make a return on my investment at some point.

Shaun Braswell  4:47 
I'm sure you will.

Cat Brewer  4:47 
But it's just been... Actually, I've already made that return on my investment in just the friendships that I've made over the course of the last eight years making the film.

Shaun Braswell  4:59 
You told me this story earlier and I wanted to see if you can recap it for the audience, your interview with Kelly Clarkson, you were trying to get one with her through her team and were unsuccessful. But...

Cat Brewer  5:10 
Yeah, I had been reaching out to her management for like three months via email. And I had to do a lot of digging on the internet to find email addresses, and there's ways to go about doing it. And I kept hearing No, No, Sorry, No And I never really took it as a hard No. So at a concert, I kind of snuck backstage and hopped in the Meet and Greet line and got up to her. And she's like, "Okay, do you want to take a picture?" And I was like, "No, I just want to talk to you for 30 seconds," and kind of pitched it to her. And she said, "Yeah, call my management", you know. And I said, "Well, I've been doing that for the last three months." She's like, "Tell them I said that I want to do this." She went and performed for 45 minutes on stage, and I was just kind of like hanging around backstage trying to look like I belong there. And she's walking to her car, and she like, pointed at me and she was like,"Hey, Cat Brewer, don't forget to call my managers," and I was like, Holy crap, like she remembers my name! Like, how is that even possible? And it was almost a year or, no, maybe it was even two years. I can't remember now. It's such a blur. But it was almost a year, maybe two years to the day that I got the interview. She got pregnant and was on tour and then on bedrest, but she followed through with it.

Shaun Braswell  6:31 
That's amazing.

Cat Brewer  6:31 
She gave her word, and she followed through.

Seth Penwell  6:34 
So was that your experience with a lot of these performers that when they heard the idea, they went right on board?

Cat Brewer  6:39 
Yeah, there's... you know, I totally understand the gatekeeping aspect of the entertainment industry. And when I would typically reach out to managers or publicists, I would hear Nos. And then I was like, I need us a third door, to borrow a phrase from author Alex Banayan, I needed a third door to get into face-to-face with these artists. And so that's what I did. I tweeted them. I had a two year tweet conversation with Chuck D from Public Enemy, like back and forth on Twitter. I would go stand outside of stage doors of comedy clubs, give my 30 second elevator pitch. Sneak backstage at concerts. There was a couple times when I like tried to slip a bodyguard, you know, or security guard 100 bucks to let me through, and he took the 100 and didn't let me through. I was like, no. It happens. I believe everything happens for a reason. So I got the people that I needed to get in my film. Maybe there'll be a part two, and I'll get more. Who knows.

Shaun Braswell  7:40 
I have a friend who interprets for shows. She's in, I think she's in Florida now. Worked for Disney for several years. And she shared a video a couple years ago, I feel like. Well, you shared the same video a couple days ago - it was one of your memories or something - and it hit me it's like, that's a Cat Brewer video that she shared. It was a Waka Flocka concert, and the interpreter was so into the music and having a good time. And yeah, it was amazing. I was like, oh, I now know that person!

Cat Brewer  8:12 
I had no idea. I really I have no background in film. So I didn't know kind of the process. As I was going,  I was just learning as I was going. And I had no idea about monetizing things on social media. And so I posted that video from the concert. It's actually a clip from my film. And it went viral. There was over 11 million views on Facebook alone. And then a bunch of other outlets picked it up and were sharing it, and I was like, Oh my God! And then someone said to me, like a year or two ago, they're like, "Do you know how much money you could have made off that?" I was like, "Don't tell me. I have no idea. Don't tell me. I don't want to know."

Shaun Braswell  8:53 
I mean, if you can see that video, I'm not surprised it went viral because it was an amazing, it's an amazing video. He's up there performing and...

Cat Brewer  8:59 
 Yeah, Waka didn't really know, and he he has admitted this on air, like he just thought there was this woman dancing to his music. And he got off the stage and got on the platform with her. And then he kind of came to realize what that was about. And I mean, it was totally unplanned. And I was lucky enough to have press access at that festival. But I didn't have like full press access. It was just like, you could be in the pit, take pictures and video, and then you have to go. And so after his performance, I kind of like snuck backstage. I know I sound terrible. I sneak everywhere.

Shaun Braswell  9:35 
I'm going to concerts with you now.

Cat Brewer  9:37 
But I snuck backstage and he was like walking like maybe 25 yards ahead, and I just yelled his name. I was like, "Waka!" And he turned around and I was like, "Can I talk to you? Like literally 30 seconds." That's what I say. And some other guy came back, his name is Max, but he came back and he was like, "What do you want?" So I told him and he's like, "Let me go ask him." So he went and came back and he's like, "Can you interview him right now in the van?" And I was like, "Sure." Like, sometimes you have, like, all this time to set up. Like with Kelly Clarkson, she had her crew setup, the film, the camera, all that stuff, and I was just there for the interview. But other artists, it was literally like, okay, you've got literally 30 seconds.

Cat Brewer  10:22 
Waka realized the lighting was bad, and I pleaded, and he quickly said, you know, come to the green room, come to the tent, and I was able to interview him and Whoo Kid. And following that, did a follow-up interview with him where I was able to introduce him to two of his deaf fans, and make a connection for him that was really valuable, I think, for him and for any artist  to understand the connection between the Deaf culture and music, and they love it just as much as anybody.

Shaun Braswell  10:51 
So, oh go ahead.

Seth Penwell  10:52 
Well, I read too that he's an executive producer on it. How was that working with him?

Seth Penwell  10:57 
Yeah, I asked him a couple years ago, if he would come on to be an executive producer. I think he is just a really solid, humble, stand up guy. And he was super helpful in, you know, just agreeing to like, yes, let's do this other interview, I want to meet, I want to understand more about the culture and the connection and what we can do. And so I just thought he was like a really good fit for that. And, yeah, so I asked him, and he said, Yes. And it... I think this whole process, like sometimes I'm really shocked by it. And I was like, okay, now what do I do? So, yeah, he's great. I'm hoping that he'll be able to make it out to one of the screenings at a film festival, especially if it's in Atlanta. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Shaun Braswell  11:48 
Can you give an overview of your process from your idea to actually getting the movie made?

Cat Brewer  11:53 
Yeah, well, I had a crazy idea because I went to a concert and for the very first time saw a sign language interpreter interpreting the show. It was Gavin DeGraw. And I really was completely ignorant. I didn't know that deaf people liked music, let alone live performances. So I started talking with the interpreter and then communicating with the deaf people through the interpreter. And come to find out, yes, they love music, just like everybody else. Some people don't like music, I guess, but that's a whole 'nother story.

Cat Brewer  12:27 
So I thought that I was going to write an article for the college newspaper where I taught. And, like I said, I was going through a really difficult life transition, I was going through a divorce. And my roommate at the time, I was telling him the idea, and he was like, oh, you should make a documentary. And I was like, okay. Like, I had like no clue. And I often say that I am so glad that I didn't know. That that ignorance got me through the whole process. Because like I said, I bought a camera thinking I'd return it in 30 days, and then I would just edit it, even though I don't know how to edit anything, and then have a film. And it literally took me seven and a half years to finish it. So it was about hustling with gratitude and love is what I say for interviews, and then trying to find the right people to help me once I got to a place where okay, like, I've done everything I know how to do now I need help.

Cat Brewer  13:24 
And there have been so many weird little threads the way this has come together and connected. There was a... I'll give you one little instance, there was a TV show back on NBC back in like 2014-2015, maybe 2016 called Undateable, produced by Bill Lawrence, who's amazing. He's done Scrubs. He's done Cougar Town. And I just fell in love with this TV show, because it had stand up comedians in it that I loved and a lot of it was improvised. So I would go down to LA and like attend the tapings of the show and just got in touch, like became Facebook friends, like it was really weird. So when I started to look for an editor for the film, the first ... the only... I was like, I only know Bill Lawrence from Scrubs. And like, you know, I know him and he knows who I am, but I don't have that kind of relationship with him. So I was like, well, let me look through his list of Facebook friends.

Cat Brewer  14:20 
And I found someone and I sent him an email and I was like, Hey, like I see we are mutual friends with Bill. What do you think about, you know, this is the project I'm working on? And he's like, Let's have a phone conversation. So we talked and I was like, I need an editor, and he was like, let me help you with that. And he actually came on as one of my co-producers. He has since passed away unfortunately before the film was completed, but I know if you believe in energy that he had a hand in connecting me with things. But from him I found my editor. And then, yeah, that's just like one little story about all these different threads and the way they came together to help.

Cat Brewer  14:34 
So, yeah, I went into the studio July of 2021, and we finished. Took a month. Found a composer to score the film. Yeah, it's a blur. It's really a blur. It's a beautiful blur, but it's a blur. Because I was still working all my other jobs, and doing this at the same time.

Seth Penwell  15:28 
So is there anything you learned kind of about either filmmaking or the Deaf community and, like, being a part of entertainment, and that access that you found really interesting that you can kind of share with our listeners?

Cat Brewer  15:44 
Yeah, when I first became involved in this film, I knew nothing about Deaf culture, or the community at large. And so I tried to do some research. I ended up taking a class at the college where I taught, I was a student, and learned a lot about the oppression, the marginalization of this community, and how they have not been served by a hearing world for decades. And this is... there's a term called audism, where it's thinking that hearing people have better ability or talent or are better because we have the ability to hear, and that's just really not true. And AG Bell tends to push that agenda by telling parents, or he's no longer alive, right, but the  business, the organization tends to tell people, parents of deaf children, that there's ways around that. Like, don't teach sign. Don't let them be oral... or make them be oral. Make them learn how to talk instead of giving them access to language from birth, which would be sign language.

Cat Brewer  17:01 
So there's a lot of ways that this community has been underserved and oppressed. And my film is very light. It takes on a light topic of entertainment, right, because everybody loves entertainment. But there's so many other avenues that the Deaf community doesn't have access to, that they need access to. And so maybe my film can shed light on this one area, but that could expand to other areas that are really, really important. And I'm not saying that art, and entertainment isn't important, because it has certainly been my saving grace. In my life it's what I turned to in times of darkness, when I'm happy, really for every emotion. But yeah, so my film is just kind of like one little avenue in in regards to learning about the entertainment or the film industry.

Cat Brewer  17:54 
That's a big question. And I think that you just can't give up. Right? Like, again, I come from no background in film. I had a little bit of background in marketing. My ex husband, who's a fabulous jazz musician. TerrenceBrewer.com. You can go listen to his music. We're good friends, like, there's no animosity or anything like that. But like I used to, you know, call radio stations and ask them, Hey, did you get a press kit? Can you play this music? Like that was fun for me. And I think that if you have a passion, and you follow it, you really have to just follow it through to the end. There were so many times when I wanted to quit. I say often that it was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and sometimes within the same hour. But if you just if you have a vision and you want to do it, just to persevere. And even if you don't have the resources, I know that sounds so cliche, but like you really there are ways to do it. You just have to... you have to do your research. You have to, like, learn. You have to talk to people. And I think building relationships and making connections with people is probably one of the best ways and most important ways to do that.

Shaun Braswell  19:11 
And keep $100 bills and sneak backstage.

Cat Brewer  19:13 
Yeah, I only did that twice. The $100 bill thing, I was like, this is gonna get expensive real quick. I can't afford this.

Shaun Braswell  19:22 
So your film right now is on the festival circuit. I know when I first realized that you had done this, you were going to the film festival in Harlem. And then on your Facebook page you were suddenly hanging out with Waka Flocka and Cory Booker and all these other people. It was like, okay, this is pretty amazing right here. And then a few weeks later, it was Kelly Clarkson. So how long does this festival season go on? And after that, are you hoping to be able to release the film to the general public or...

Cat Brewer  19:54 
Yeah, I would love I would love for distribution. I think that this is every filmmaker's dream is to get distribution. And, you know, it used to be a theatrical release. I would love that, but I'm totally happy going straight to Netflix or Apple or Amazon or Hulu or any video on demand streaming platform.

Cat Brewer  20:14 
The festival run is really, I think, as long as I want to let it go on. I at first was kind of reaching out to agents, like cold calling, and being like, Hey, will you look at this? Will you be my agent? And then I was told that's not really how it works. An agent is supposed to see your film at a festival and then approach you. So for me, I'm thinking, the more festivals I'm in, the better. And there's two camps to that. Like, I've heard that, if you are in too many festivals, then too many people are going to see it. And then a video on demand platform isn't going to want to stream it. But I really, especially now with festivals, kind of being hybrid and in person, and I'll be real, I'll admit this, before I made this film I really didn't know anything about film festivals, other than like Cannes or Tribeca. And those were like that was it. I had no idea that there are literally film festivals in every city across the world. And I've spent lots of money applying to them, but we'll see what happens. I'll have been in, by October, I'll have been in 14 festivals. I'm waiting to hear back from 42 more. And I am hoping at some point an agent will see it and try to get me distribution. I would love that.

Cat Brewer  21:41 
If people want to be able to catch it at a festival, they can go to my website, which is SignTheShow.com. And if you click on news or festivals, I can't remember what the tab says, there'll be a listing of where you can watch it either virtually or in person. There's one coming up in New Jersey at Rutgers and one in Boston, Massachusetts, in the next couple of months and Dallas, Texas.

Shaun Braswell  22:07 
Do you have any plans for the future in either filmmaking or any other projects you were looking forward to getting into?

Cat Brewer  22:14 
As far as plans for the future, I don't really have any. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I said I would never do anything. But I did meet a woman who is hearing who had two deaf children. This was back in the 60s. And she has some amazing archival footage of deaf performers, and a lot of footage of protests that were happening in the Deaf community and the Deaf culture. And I thought, like, it would be a fantastic idea to partner with her to do something. She's now 83. And she's a spitfire, and I love her energy. So if we can collaborate, I'm gonna go up to Philadelphia and meet her and see, but up until just a couple of weeks ago I didn't really have any desire to do anything. But I guess if the right idea strikes and it feels good in my soul, then I wouldn't turn that down. It'd be great if I found forward funding for it, because funding a documentary by yourself is incredibly hard.

Shaun Braswell  23:22 
Well, at least you have the camera now.

Cat Brewer  23:24 
At least I have a camera. It's probably outdated. It's eight years old.

Seth Penwell  23:27 
Yeah, it's fine. It's fine.

Cat Brewer  23:28 
It'll be fine. Now I got a great iPhone, so I could just shoot everything on the iPhone. Be prepared.

Seth Penwell  23:35 
Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us, Cat.

Cat Brewer  23:36 
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Shaun Braswell  23:42 
Thanks everyone for listening to this week's episode. As always, we want to thank you and our guests for joining us. We also want to thank Marshall "Max Lamont" Hamilton for providing our music. Please subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcast apps. Also, be sure to check out our website WilsonArts.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at WilsonArtsNC for the latest information about our events. Thank you for joining us this week, and we'll see you next time.

Outro Music  24:14