Meet Brian Skutle

We recently connected with Brian Skutle and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I find myself continually challenged by anxiety, depression and catastrophic thinking in my life, whether it’s being overwhelmed by life in general, or a specific aspect of my life. Therapy and a lot of independent reading over the years has helped me realize the ways I was looking at things wrong in life, whether it’s my film criticism, my musical and creative pursuits, my work, my family, my friends, or romantic relationships. When it came to the latter, the realization that I needed to be comfortable as an individual before I could find a healthy relationship was a big part of making me ready when I started dating the woman who would become my wife in 2015. In most of my 20s, I was plagued my anxiety and depression about the direction of my life until I realized it wasn’t important to live up to society’s ideas of how life was supposed to be, but find where my current path would lead me in life. In terms of creative and critical pursuits, I’ve often felt myself swimming upstream without much in the way of resources, but over time, I learned it was important to stay true to myself, and to keep pursuing what matters most to me in life. What has resulted isn’t a life free of mental health challenges, but a view of living life that made it easier for me to accept the path I was on, and finding ways to defy those challenges that made it more likely I could overcome those challenges.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

When movies took hold of my life, I had no idea just how much that would lead me in a variety of directions. It isn’t just a love of movies, but an appreciation for the art form, a desire to help make them, and a passion for allowing them to be shown to the public. As a film critic, the personal connection to a film matters to me dearly, and the ones that mean the most to be have been for profound reasons. As a composer, there’s a cinematic nature to my work that always makes me consider the story or world I’m trying to build, And while I did not expect working at a movie theatre to become a long-term vocation, that it’s given me purpose beyond a financial necessity is one of the great surprises of my life.

You can find my reviews, podcast and music at www.sonic-cinema.com

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. In marching band in high school, we were told that perfect practice equaled perfect performance. I have taken this advice to heart in every aspect of my adult life, whether it’s as a critic, as a composer, or as a manager/projectionist. Whatever you choose to do in life, it is important to absorb as much as possible about it, so you know how to subvert the process (if a task requires it), and thrive when performing it as it’s supposed to be done.

2. Criticism is a challenge to open your mind, and be objective about your process. If it’s given in bad faith, it can be harmful, but the people who care most for you will be the most honest with you, and most compassionate when they have something to say you may not want to hear.

3. Embrace what makes you unique, and consider what it means for who you are. When I was born, I had surgery due to a birth defect that left me with a scar up my torso. It was embarrassing during middle and high school, and led to bullying. But I would not consider getting surgery to change it because it is representative of the perseverance I’ve accomplished throughout life. The more we embrace our quirks and idiosyncrasies, the more we grow as individuals whose value comes from within, not from without.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

Simply speaking, they were there for me. When I was born, I was always surrounded my love when I was in the hospital for the first 3 1/2 months of my life. When I was afraid to leave my life in Ohio when we moved to Georgia, they found ways to get me social in our new home, allowing me to find new friends, while we continued to visit the people we left behind. They encouraged my choice to pursue music in college, and- even when my life seemed directionless after college- they were supportive of me, even when it wasn’t what their lives looked like.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sonic-cinema.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmskutle/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/skutlelemur
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMRKc-woZsjCm_Wy_LutH6w