The process of creating this documentary started with something universally relatable and aggravating: a parking ticket. 

Well, actually $800 worth of parking tickets. 

My friend Reed, co-director and narrator of the film, had his car booted and amassed so many tickets that he eventually made the hard decision to let go of his car. After this painful experience, he came to me and said: we need to make a movie about the PPA—The Philadelphia Parking Authority. 

We gradually began interviewing friends and neighbors about this hated organization and to our surprise, the concept of “Car Brain” kept coming up. 

Car Brain

noun.

A condition suffered by someone who believes in the superiority of cars as a means of transport, who cannot conceive of alternatives to cars, who drives recklessly and does not understand the dangers of cars, and who generally does not empathize with anyone outside of a car.

We decided this would be the central idea of the film and it manifested in two main plot lines.

1. Reed tells the story of his battle with the PPA. We talk to Philadelphians about their experiences dealing with this shadowy organization. Conversely, we meet people who, despite the headache of owning a car in the city, have deep connections and love for their vehicles. We eventually meet a former PPA employee with a harrowing story. Reed wonders if maybe this PPA debacle was really a blessing in disguise. An excuse for him to lead a car-free life. 

1. We discover the one group of people in the city who seem to support the PPA: cyclists. This community is a passionate one, especially one particular activist group called Philly Bike Action, who fight for street safety in Philadelphia. We document a series of their protests at a church in Rittenhouse Square who allow congregants to park in the bike lanes. They show up every Sunday holding signs that say things like: “Where would Jesus park?” Things come to a head when a local Children’s Hospital doctor is struck and killed on the same bike lane.  

When conceiving the visual look for Car Brain, we decided to film the entire movie on mini-DV camcorders. Our main workhorse was the Sony DSR PD-170.

It was popular in the mid-2000s, both as a consumer camera used for skate videos but also for documentaries and feature films (David Lynch famously used it for Inland Empire). 

We made the creative decision to use this camera because of its warm colors and the timeless look of standard definition video. This posed challenges of working with an older format and navigating the digitization process, however we believe it gives the film a unique character and texture. Philly is a gritty place and has a timelessness to it that lends itself to this aesthetic. We also wanted to reflect the ugliness of American cities and how cars overwhelm the urban landscape. 

As opposed to a portrait doc where we follow the story of one person or group, Car Brain is really an ensemble film. We meet a diverse collection of Philly characters, neighbors, and friends. These are only a few of the characters we get to know in Car Brain. 

Sue is Reed’s former neighbor in South Philly. She is a bartender who drives a hot pink moped and practices witchcraft. She has strong feelings about the PPA and loves the city very much. 

Stuart and Zach Leon are a father-son team who run a bicycle injury law film in Philadelphia. They are advocates for the cycling community and famous for their unconventional marketing and social media antics. They also play in a cover band called Mas Tequila Orchestra. 

Johnson is a car enthusiast who keeps 4 or 5 cars parked in his backyard in Germantown. Johnson is a Kenyan immigrant who has a lot of nostalgia for older cars, especially the ones he remembers from his childhood in Nairobi. 

Traffic violence is an epidemic across the country, but it has gotten especially bad in Philly. In 2024, 125 people were killed by cars including 54 pedestrians and 3 cyclists. We hope by giving a platform to a group like Philly Bike Action can help to influence concrete change to the city's infrastructure. And who knows? Maybe we can convince some people to use their cars a bit less, or at least be patient when someone is taking a while to cross the street. 

While much of the film is humorous in tone, it is ultimately a story about conflict and how it often seems like there is no love in Philly. Although cars are problematic, “Car Brain” truly extends beyond cars. We always think that we have the right of way. How do we compromise? How do we make space for each other? In a densely packed city like Philly, this is a complex problem that we are all constantly negotiating. 

We began working on this film over 4 years ago. After 2 years of interviewing Philadelphians we finished production in 2025 and commenced editing. In April 2026, editing was wrapped on Car Brain.

We are now in the final stages of post-production, where we have handed the film off to color and sound design. Once we complete the film this spring, we will begin distribution, which means film festival submissions! If all goes well, we will premiere Car Brain in Fall/Winter 2026. We will provide updates on our festival run and in-person screening opportunities later this year. If you donate with our second tier incentive, you will be able to watch Car Brain even sooner!

What will we do with funds raised?

We just finished editing our film and the most important remaining step of post-production is sound mixing and design. As we filmed Car Brain on old camcorders, our audio recording process was pretty rough. We have a lot of different sources and audio qualities. Our sound engineers at Dragonfly Audio Post help make the film more immersive and watchable for the audiences.

Car Brain was blessed with a brilliant score by Michael Cormier O'Leary. This fundraiser will provide compensation for the recording and mixing of the score.

The remaining funds for the Seed & Spark campaign will go towards film festival submission fees (which are crazy expensive for feature films, often up to $100 a pop!), marketing materials (such as originally designed movie poster), and file management for the distribution of Car Brain (fingers crossed).

What if we raise more than our goal?

If we do pass our original goal with this campaign, any extra money will go towards compensating the many friends who helped us make this film pro-bono. There also many be unexpected fees that come up in the future such as licensing or legal fees.

Please share our Seed & Spark campaign with your friends, we won’t be able to finish this project without your support. 

Follow us on Instagram at @carbraindoc to stay updated on future screenings and distribution news.