The Film

Making Sense Backwards: The Nick Bragg Story is a documentary short film about North Carolina muralist and cultural icon Nicolas Burton Bragg.

After 25 commissioned murals, 87 year-old North Carolina artist Nick Bragg paints his own life story for the first time, wrestling with his creative muses and darkness, while making sense of his life by looking backwards. The film combines real time painting with reflection, humor, and flights of fancy resulting in a southern memoir on canvas.

View Trailer

A Cultural Icon

Nicholas Burton Bragg was born in 1936. After he was kicked out of kindergarten, he began learning to paint and play the piano in his hometown of Oxford, North Carolina. He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1958, and attended graduate school at UNC Chapel Hill, studying history. What followed was a distinguished career as both artist and cultural leader that would help shape North Carolina's artistic landscape.

He was Historic Site Specialist with the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh; Director of Education and Interpretation at Old Salem; and Director of the Reynolds Homestead Birthplace in Critz, Virginia, all before landing in his longest role: founding executive director of the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, where he served for 29 years (1970-1999), transforming the institution into a premier showcase for American art.

Since retiring, Nick has painted over 20 murals, including works at City Hall in Oxford, North Carolina; the UNCSA Library; Baptist Hospital's Janeway Tower; the Foundation for the Carolinas in Charlotte; and the R.J. Reynolds High School centennial mural, plus hundreds of oil and watercolor paintings.

Known affectionately as the "Mayor” of his neighborhood for his daily walks around the circle road where he's lived for 60 years, Bragg continues his daily practice of painting, playing piano, and writing. "Everyday I paint, I play piano and I write," he shares. When asked why, he says simply, "because that is my life."

At 88, Bragg remains a vibrant force in Winston-Salem's cultural community, known for his generosity in mentoring young artists and his infectious enthusiasm for creative expression. His protégés have graced the pages of Architectural Digest, performed on Broadway, named their children after him, become wildly successful entrepreneurs and artists in their own right, and he still keeps in touch with them. (from Townies WS)

The Filmmaker's Vision

Director Diana Greene, a two-time Pulitzer Center grantee and former CNN journalist, first met Bragg around 2014 and was immediately captivated by his charisma and artistic energy. "He seemed like a film," said Greene, "But what would that film be?"

The breakthrough came when Greene proposed that Bragg create something unprecedented: a timeline mural of his life. "That way, we'd have a film where something is happening, there's a structure and narrative to a creative process that is live in front of the camera," she said.

The result is an intimate portrait that captures Bragg's creative process while exploring the experiences that shaped him. During the filming as Bragg painted his life, Greene said that he had several epiphanies such as the amount of support he had from his family. The film reveals how his parents' response to his kindergarten dismissal, enrolling him in music lessons rather than punishment, instilled discipline and a lifelong love of music that continues to this day.