Hugh Karraker of All Things Bakelite: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker
I’d say this. At some point, that precious idea you gave birth to grows and starts living a life of its own. Your story and all its constituent parts ultimately belong to the world, and you have to let it go. That’s why you must be true to your story, finding truth in all its components and respecting them. You make all your decisions based on this. Your commitment to the truth has to be 100%, because, as the poet said, there is nothing more permanent, nor beautiful, than truth. That is all ye need to know on Earth.
As part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Hugh Karraker.
Hugh Karraker is Executive Producer of the documentary film, All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic. He is a great grandson of Leo H. Baekeland, the Belgian-born American who invented Velox photographic paper and created the first wholly synthetic plastic, Bakelite. Hugh is co-founder of The L.H. Baekeland Project, LLC, which through world-wide exhibitions, presentations, and media, promotes the history, the science and the art of Bakelite, and celebrates the life and achievements of his great grandfather.
For 30 years, Hugh was a successful actor in New York and Los Angeles, working in theater, motion pictures, television and print. He earned a BFA in acting at the University of Connecticut, studied in London at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and later co-founded the Magic Circle Theater in Chicago. Now retired from acting and devoted to his Baekeland Project, Hugh lives in CT with his actress wife, Sherry Arell Karraker, where he finds a creative outlet in building rustic furniture, gates and fences on commission.
Read The Full Interview Here: Authority Magazine