Jock Brandis

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Brandis on the cover of a Wilmington magazine.
Brandis on the cover of a Wilmington magazine.

Jock Brandis is an author, film technician, inventor, and alleged air pirate. He is also in the process of founding the world's first sustainable movie studio in Brunswick County, North Carolina.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Jock Brandis was born in the Netherlands but moved to Canada as a child. In his early twenties, he joined CUSO, the Canadian version of the Peace Corps, and was placed in "Trenchtown" otherwise known as West Kingston, Jamaica where he taught in the local elementary school. While there he became acquainted with many of the fathers of reggae such as Desmond Dekker and helped organize functions for them at the school.

Afterwards Brandis returned to Canada and found himself involved with Oxfam in their efforts to aide the cause of Biafrian Independence (Biafra was a breakaway republic that formed shortly after Nigeria was no longer a colony of Great Britain). He joined a team of people who would fly food from São Tomé (a Portuguese island off the West Coast of Africa) across a military blockade into Biafra. Once there they would return with starving Biafran children who they would nurse back to health in São Tomé and display before the world's press in efforts to build support for their cause. The blockade eventually fell and Biafra became incorporated into greater Nigeria. On one of his last days in Biafra, Jock was given a ride by a war correspondent named Kurt Vonnegut. They made an agreement that whoever would first write a book about their ordeal in Biafra could call on the other to write the forward. The book came to be known as The Ship's Cat, and indeed Vonnegut's publicist wrote an introduction on the book's Amazon.com page. Nigeria's government would later try him in absentia for the crime of "air piracy."

Brandis returned to Toronto and became involved in the local film industry as a gaffer. On a job with Dino De Laurentiis he came to Wilmington, North Carolina and has lived there ever since. While in Wilmington Brandis worked on a variety of film projects (see below).

In 2001, he traveled to Mali to fix a small village's water treatment system. While there he came across a woman who informed him that it would be of great service to her village if he could find an affordable peanut sheller for them. Upon returning to the United States he discovered that an affordable peanut sheller did not exist, so he invented one. This came to be called the Malian peanut sheller. Soon thereafter Brandis joined with a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers to found the Full Belly Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to designing and distributing unique appropriate technologies.

Also around 2001, Brandis came close to opening up his vision for a sustainable movie studio when the events of September 11, 2001 caused a major impediment. The land that had been purchased was close to a rail line that served solely as a military supply line to Sunny Point, and which was owned by the U.S. Department of Defense. After the passage of the Patriot Act the area around the rail line which included half of the property for the film studio was declared property of the Department of Defense. Consequently the studio which had been so close to completion was forced to find a new location.

As of 2005, it appears that a new location has been found and efforts are moving forward. The studio should begin construction in 2006.

In December of 2005, Jock Brandis was invited to MIT to demonstrate his inventions as part of a program known as the International Development Initiative, a partnership between MIT's Edgerton Center and their Public Service Center. One of their programs is a two semester class called the D-Lab(Development, Design and Dissemination). As a result of Jock's visit 5 teams of D-Lab students disseminated the Malian peanut sheller to Ghana, Zambia, and the Philippines in late January, 2006. There they will be compiling reports on the machine's performance as well as its effect on local economies. In June 2006 he partnered with the MyShelter Foundation to bring the peanut sheller to farmers in the Philippines. They will also develop other simple "appropriate technologies" for use with other agricultural products like rice.

Jock is the father of two adult children with his now-deceased wife, the late Suzanna Taylor Brandis: Darwin and Maaike of Wilmington, NC. He presently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina with his girlfriend the noted author and personality Gwenyfar.

[edit] Books

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As a gaffer

  • Jacob's Sound (2003)
  • Twisted Desire (1996) (TV)
  • Judgment (1990) (TV)
  • Tune in Tomorrow (a.k.a. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) (1990) (rigging gaffer)
  • Everybody Wins (1990)
  • Night Walk (1989) (TV)
  • Little Monsters (1989)
  • Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
  • Blue Velvet (1986)
  • Louisiana (a.k.a. Louisiane) (1984) (TV) (France)
  • The Dead Zone (1983)
  • Videodrome (a.k.a. Zonekiller) (Canada: English title) (1983)
  • Black Mirror (a.k.a. Haute surveillance) (1981) (key gaffer) (France)
  • Scanners (a.k.a. Telepathy 2000) (1981)
  • Funeral Home (a.k.a. 2 Cries in the Night, Cries in the Night) (1980)
  • Head On (a.k.a. Fatal Attraction) (1980)
  • Clown White (1980) (TV)
  • The Brood (a.k.a. La Clinique de la terreur - Canada: French title) (1979)
  • Blood & Guts (1978)
  • Death Bed: The Bed That Eats-uncredited cockroach wrangler (1977)
  • 125 Rooms of Comfort (1974)

[edit] Lighting

[edit] Special effects

  • Starship Invasions (a.k.a. Alien Encounter, Project Genocide; UK: video title: War of the Aliens) (1977)
  • Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)

[edit] Acting

[edit] Cinematography

  • Diary of a Sinner (1974)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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