Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 22, 2007 issue
Local Chiropractor/Film Producer Creates New Aviation Adventure Film
Against The Wind To Debut In 2008
Story by Celeste von Mangan
He is a doctor of chiropractic by day and an actor and film producer by night. Brad Batchelor of Boone is currently at work producing a full-length feature film called Against The Wind while maintaining a busy and successful chiropractic clinic. Since appearing in Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot as a cavalry officer and providing Gibson with some chiropractic care, Batchelor has been drawn to serious acting and filmmaking. He has his own film company called Flying Scotsman Productions, Inc. and has studied with the best from New York to California. Batchelor wrote, directs and acts in his new film.
“Of course it is difficult,” said Batchelor, “and a bit stressful. I had an assistant director in one of the Costa Rica shoots—Ron Nummi from the soap opera Loving. Ron is a very well experienced actor in film and theater and very famous in Italy. Ron is a great director and actor. There are many scenes which I am not in. Organization is the key.”
The story of Against The Wind has several layers. Against all odds of survival, World War I flyers in the Lafayette Esquadrille risk everything for honor and conquest. After the war, the flyers, Alex Jamieson and Danny Brown, are sought after as international undercover agents by the First Narcotics Division. They are hired to fight the international opium trade—their way. Their ultimate goal of retirement eludes the pair when civil authorities and the Ku Klux Klan become involved, leading Jamieson and Brown from a path of retirement to one of revenge.
Many local actors and personalities appear in the movie that was filmed around Boone and Morganton as well as in Costa Rica. The late blues musician Etta Baker, local radio personality Sam Tate and his 99-year-old mother Dora Tate and Ron Nummi, plus a number of seasoned actors and cast names not yet divulged, have participated in Batchelor’s film.
“We have trenches under construction, as well as a biplane we will be filming in the air from the ground and from the air to the ground,” said Batchelor, “as well as stock footage of battle scenes. Some of the music will be from Laura Kaufman, a very good local singer, the famous Joe Simon, as well as music created for the score and other international musicians from as far away as Russia. Principal photography should be completed by June or July and should be available for distribution by September. So by 2008 it will be available in the USA.”
Other movies Batchelor has personally been involved in as an actor, writer, producer, editor or cameraman include Miami Vice, The Grave Dancers, A Tale About Bootlegging, Retribution, Firestorm Rising, Tolerance and Facade.
Not content to be only an accomplished chiropractor and filmmaker, Batchelor has sought to excel in a wide number of activities: he is a polo player with four horses, has a black belt in karate, is a certified scuba diver, is a licensed pilot (bush pilot) and is a licensed motorcycle driver (dirt and road), as well as an experienced sailor, windsurfer and an expert water skier. Batchelor has also completed 40 triathlons. God, Gandhi, his parents and his brother are his heroes.
“I give my mom credit for enhancing my need to create,” wrote Batchelor, “and my dad who originates from Scotland, for my work ethic and need for sport. Also to my brother Dan, a fellow doctor of chiropractic and a world-class runner, for stimulating my competitive nature. I spent my younger years in Michigan with my family.”
A love for and appreciation of the High Country have kept Batchelor based in Boone, although he heads for Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta to bring him back to “the real world.” Costa Rica provides him with the opportunity to recharge, surf, eat good food and take clothing to the indigenous people who live in the jungle; Scotland keeps Batchelor grounded.
For the past 29 years Batchelor has maintained Batchelor Chiropractic Clinic P.A. in Boone and he lectures internationally regarding management, profitability, efficiency and quality service as a consultant to doctors around the world. He was the youngest doctor to hold the office of North Carolina Chiropractic Association president.
“Caring for the health of others is what I do— what I have done since childhood,” said Batchelor. “Filmmaking is an adventure that fulfills my need to create and provide entertainment to the masses.”