Making a feature-length film is a daunting task even for a team of professionals backed by corporate funding. It’s even more difficult for a couple of students using their own money. However, this is precisely what Patrick Caracas, a fourth-year student in UBC’s Film Production program, has accomplished.

Caracas had worked on numerous short films and music videos in the past, but nothing as ambitious as a full film. That all changed last September when his friend Liam Bates asked him if he wanted to go on a motorbike trip through China. He responded, “Of course I want to do a motorbike trip! But let’s make it into a movie!”

Bates, Caracas and two others (a Tibetan and a Chinese national) travelled from Lhasa to Shanghai in 60 days. Caracas chronicled the 8000-mile trip as the main cinematographer.

There were setbacks, to say the least.  They were detained by Tibetan authorities, had equipment damaged by sandstorms and two of their motorbikes were stolen. There was even a serious crash that resulted in Bates breaking his left leg. Ultimately, they accomplished their goal. The documentary, Motorbikes, Mao, and a Yak (MMY), is now in post-production.

Caracas appreciates all kinds of film, but likes documentaries in particular. “They’re about real people…that have something to say. It’s a great medium for information and for cinema.” There is nothing wrong with fiction, he said, but it’s synthetic. “Documentaries are about the time of now.”

After MMY is completed sometime in 2010, Caracas and his team plan to release it as widely as possible. They hope to premiere it at the Vancouver International Film Festival, if it is selected. They also want to release the film in China.

Caracas said it was an unconventional documentary; since they had no producer to help find sponsors, broadcast licences or the like MMY’s future is somewhat uncertain.

Caracas’s next immediate project is doing cinematography for a student film called Serial. Collaborating with three other Film Production students, he described it as an “office thriller”—a mix between the television series The Office and a slasher film.

Regarding future plans, Caracas remains uncertain. Though film is his main passion, he has a band in Brazil and dreams of becoming a professional musician. He is also interested in directing his own films, as opposed to doing cinematography. But for now, he is content with focusing on shooting documentaries.

“This is what I want to do—travel around the world and film documentaries. I want to see the world, and if I can do it through film, that’s great.”

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