By Ross Boissoneau Rich Brauer is one of Traverse City’s best-known filmmakers. His credits include movies with Ernest Borgnine (Red Barn), Frozen Stupid and Frozen Stupid 2 (think Dumb and Dumber set on and in Houghton Lake), and the Dogman series (more on that below). He’s done countless commercials and worked on everything from features to industrial films. Brauer cheered on the film tax incentives program in Michigan, which saw numerous filmmakers and effects professionals move to and work in this area in the 2000s and 2010s. After the administration of former Governor Rick Snyder shut down the program, most of them left—except for Brauer. A Beautiful Backdrop He credits two northern Michigan communities for his passion and longevity. “It started in Beulah. We came up here from Ann Arbor,” says Brauer. At that time, the tiny community on the shore of Crystal Lake boasted its own movie theater, and a young Brauer would spend hours at the Crystal Theatre in the summer. That’s where he saw The Blue Max the summer after 6th grade. The World War I film starring George Peppard and Ursula Andress was a turning point for the youngster. “I came out of there with inspiration. How much of a treasure it was that I got inspired by that, wanting to be a part of creating a movie like that.” Film wasn’t his only passion as a youngster. The next year, he had a school assignment in his civics class where the teacher basically asked the students what they wanted to do when they grew up. Brauer’s response: “I wanted to be a movie producer or forest ranger. Now I own a
Brauer shooting at Northwestern Michigan College in 1973.
Brauer filming Escanaba in da Moonlight.
woodlot down here (in Benzie County), and I make movies. I had two passions in 6th and 7th grade, and they’ve hung with me all this time,” he says. The Exposition Brauer started by borrowing his dad’s movie camera—“I had great support from my parents,” he says—and even found a way to have sound on film by gluing magnetic strips on the non-perforated side of the film. “In 9th grade, my film won first place at the Cranbrook student film festival. I was making tons of movies—Westerns, space movies—all with sound.” After graduating from high school, he wanted to make films, but decided to get his prerequisites out of the way. That led him to Northwestern Michigan College, where he spent his first two years. After
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getting his Brauer filming Escanaba in da Moonlight. degree, he went to California for what he calls “pure filmmaking” at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California. After graduating, Brauer he returned to his home state before making a momentous decision. “I moved back to Ann Arbor but felt a calling to try Traverse City,” he says. And…Action! Since making the area his home, Brauer has logged thousands of hours writing, producing, directing, and creating films long and short. Over the years he’s worked with a diverse slate of clients: The History Channel, 20th Century Fox, Animal Planet, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Pure Michigan, Harcourt-Brace Publishing, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Park Service, and others. He’s worked with other filmmakers
from Michigan and out of state. Brauer also produced a series of educational films focusing on Great Lakes maritime history, a subject close to his heart, that appeared on PBS. Along those lines, he co-founded the nonprofit Maritime Heritage Alliance in 1982 and the Inland Seas Education Association in 1989. The Michigan Filmmaker of the Year in 2009 says the reputation he’s gained over the course of his career has allowed him to make a living from his passion as well as develop a coterie of associates both in front of the camera and behind it. “You make a name but you make a lot of friends too,” he says. Cast of Characters Those friends include actors such as Borgnine, Cadillac native Larry Joe Campbell (According to Jim and the Dogman
