Experiencing Interruptions?

Caesura

A #MeToo story of a male victim in the classical music world

  • Andy Brewster
    Director
    A Piacere, After Yesterday
  • Emma Palmbach
    Writer
  • Andy Brewster
    Writer
  • Jesse Taylor Creasman
    Producer
    Satisfaction, Help Me
  • Ellie LaFrombois
    Producer
    Satisfaction
  • Dean Yamada (Executive Producer)
    Producer
    Cicada, Jitensha
  • Brendan Shannon
    Key Cast
    "Nathan"
    Caramel, Grace
  • Matthew Rhodes
    Key Cast
    "Dr. C"
    What Daphne Saw, Paranoid
  • Tyler Skillings
    Director of Photography
    Wrapped
  • Emily Tkach
    Production Designer
    Rubaru, An Ode to Solitude
  • Robert Brown
    Editor
  • Caitlin Foster
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Biola University
Director Biography - Andy Brewster

As a young up-and-coming independent director and producer, Andy has quickly established himself as a storyteller deeply interested in the hidden motivations that propel us forward. As a director, his shorts have screened and won awards at festivals worldwide (After Yesterday, A Piacere, Caesura) and he recently directed Caesura, Biola University's flagship "Biola Film" production. As a producer, he worked with Coca-Cola and Regal Cinemas as a semi-finalist in their nationwide film school challenge, he produced two feature films (Rubaru (2021) by Marco Zambrana and All is Calm (2020) by Peter Scheibner) and he works with the Producers Guild of America (PGA) as a college ambassador. As recent alumnus of Biola University’s School of Cinema and Media Arts, Andy is dedicated to learning more about the art and business of filmmaking as he discovers and tells new stories that speak to the human condition.

Andy is also a classically-trained violinist and has performed as a soloist in the US, Canada, and Germany and has studied with artists such as the Shanghai String Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Brian Reagin, Rebekah Binford, Elizabeth Beilman, Lisa Malcolm, and Elizabeth Larson. He held a seat in the Triangle Youth Philharmonic for 5 years, has been a member of 4 different quartets including the WCPE String Quartet with the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute, and performed with the NC Symphony multiple times. In recent years he has entered the recording sphere for film scores and recorded as concertmaster for The Brilliance's upcoming album, "World Keeps Spinning." He is pursuing a music minor with his film degree at Biola University and sits as a principal player in the Biola University Symphony Orchestra.

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Director Statement

What are you willing to sacrifice for your ambitions? It was December of 2017, the Weinstein scandal rocked the entertainment world 3 months prior, and the classical music world turned upside down with the unraveling of James Levine, the famed conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. The floodgates opened and story after story tumbled out of the classical music world. I was shaken. As a violinist since the age of 4, this was my community, these were my organizations I was a part of. Suddenly, this distant MeToo movement was right near home. And in the classical music world, the nature of our craft makes it especially difficult to uncover and convict sexual predators who prey on the ambition of younger artists.

Here is where I believe film has a unique opportunity to bring us behind the doors of the private lesson and allow us into the emotions and questions of the victim. Is this worth it? What if I don’t? Then, after the culmination of physical abuse, we linger in the “caesura,” or pause, of emotional trauma. A gap silent and void of identity and song, a place where the musician cannot utter another note because the pain is too near, a moment when crippling doubts and questions spur reflection. But, like a caesura in song or poetry, this pause is not the end of the piece, but a necessary part of the journey to resolution.