Meet Bruce Borowsky | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bruce Borowsky and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bruce, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk is a funny thing – you either love it or hate it. I guess I enjoy “some” risk, but not “too” much. I moved out to San Francisco early in my career – I didn’t know anyone, I just knew that I wanted to escape Florida. I found a room in a house in Haight Ashbury on my second day there, and got a job on my third day. Over the next couple of years, I ended up working for a very famous photographer, as well as getting my Masters degree; things I never, ever expected.

I did the same thing when I moved from San Francisco to Boulder. It was exciting moving to Colorado; I never really thought about it as a “risk”. When my friend and I decided to start our own company a few years later, we each put in $300, and with that capital, we held our first event for Boulder Digital Arts. We had spent a lot of time doing most things ourselves – building the website, writing all the text for it, figuring out what classes we wanted BDA to offer, and then finding instructors to teach those classes, finding a cheap space to hold the classes; we put in a LOT of time trying to build a “business” – though neither of us – a filmmaker and a web developer – knew anything about starting a business. Our first event was free, and over 120 people showed up. We now had an email list and knew we were on to something with our affordable classes in workshops in all the creative digital arts. It’s now 18 years later, and that email list is up to over 8,000 people and we now have people attending our classes from all over the country.

It’s important to be aware of risk, and to be cautious, but it shouldn’t define you. The best advice I ever got was “prove your assumptions” – I try to do that as much as I can now before proceeding with any new ideas.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been doing film and photography since I was a little kid; it was almost a natural progression for me that I ended up being a filmmaker as a career. I’ve been so fortunate in my life, as each decision I’ve made has led me to the next big thing. I’ve had great bosses in my career that were more like mentors, and encouraged me to do things that I might not ordinarily have pursued,

Though my bread and butter is making corporate videos, I still make time for my own personal art stuff. At this very moment, for example, I’m teaching a weeklong class in video production to high school students on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation in remote southwest Colorado. I taught the same class earlier this year to young adults living in the West Bank of Palestine. So it’s very important to me to have a good mix of personal and professional projects, so that I can feel close to the artistic side that’s within me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Though I love Denver, I end up spending most of my time in Boulder – walking around the Flatirons at Chautauqua Park just never gets old! Favorite places to eat and drink include the roof of Rosetta Hall, Mateo, The Post, and the patio at the St. Julien, which also has great, free live music on most days.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I couldn’t do all the stuff I do without the support of my wife Jenny; she encourages me every day, and is a great person to bounce ideas off of.

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