Since 1994, legendary filmmakers and partners, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, have captured underground culture on film and photograph. We visited them in their Chapel Hill home and took a walk on the wild (and creepy) side:

How would you describe your current state of mind?

Michael: I’m a bit more stressed than normal. I have a photo show opening, books (Decline of Malls of America) to get out, and gearing up for production of a second season of the TV series Bananaland. I am doing this thing again where I’m doing too much.

Suki: I’m feeling that stress too, but also reconnecting with a state of mind around art that is a bit child-like in nature, where nothing matters as much as it does when you grow up. That’s a product of last year’s endeavor creating the series about Bananas for ESPN. Everything seemed to matter so much and we were caring about the wrong things. We are filming another series, but this time I want to do what I do because it’s fun and it gives me energy.

M: Right, it’s about being intentional.

So is stress a good thing or bad thing for getting work done?

M: Stress is an important part of our lives. Dr John Sarno wrote this book in 1991 called Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection. His understanding was that pain was rarely a structural issue, like a disk problem. He realized that it was repressed emotions that were causing the pain. And the emotions being repressed were using your brain to cause pain to distract you from that emotion. So your amygdala (think ‘fight-or-flight’) can’t tell the difference between emotional and physical threat. So, when there is a threat it floods the field with stress hormones. Once you understand that you can start to address it. The problem is that there is great resistance from your subconscious. Dr. Sarno was trauma informed when people didn’t understand what he was talking about. So he was reviled. But the point is we’re gonna have stress and it’s important to check in with it. That way we respond rather than react.

S: In terms of work, stress is important.

M: Yeah, so I am Jewish, but I always thought of myself as someone who had this odd Protestant work ethic. If I didn’t do a lot during the day I felt like I failed. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself. And that’s what Dr. Sarno is talking about. We put this pressure on ourselves to be perfect and it’s really a trauma response from childhood, which is to protect ourselves from being in trouble or from whatever traumatic thing happened. If I didn’t work hard I would feel stress that I was failing.

I can talk haha.

What kind of secret society would you like to start?

S: The kind without any stress. haha

M: I think secrets are kind of fucked up. Secrets cause problems. And they can often make us feel special, but what they do is create a sense of otherness. A secret society is inherently dangerous. But it could be fun too. I think if you could do it playfully…

S: Yeah, like a secret society that watches movies. That’s what I would do.

Also, I am trying to deal with my white lies that I tell a lot that I learned how to do socially. And I am trying not to do that so much and it seems like it’s not at the core of who I want to be. So, I am trying not to be that person.

M: Yeah, like my mom had this anxiety, but she didn’t really deal with it. And she presented herself really confident. And she’d make promises she couldn’t keep. And it created this enormous stress for the family. People were like “just be straight.”

And so I am going to go back to this. Me becoming an artist was in a sense joining a secret society. Underground art culture is sort of a secret society. You are connected to other people because you have similar interests unintentionally. It's an unknown collective.

What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

M: I cannot spontaneously think of it.

S: Dropping out of film school. I am kidding. I am less spontaneous and that’s why I am a good projectionist haha. I like to plan. I am a planner.

What would be the creepiest thing you could say while passing a stranger on the street?

M: Are you born from a sperm donor?

S: Coke or dope? Coke or dope?

What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?

M: Dead parents

S: Children

Favorite movie from the 80s.

S: Raising Arizona

M: Over the Edge