Andy Blubaugh had been trying to figure out how to approach making a film about his obsessive-compulsive disorder for several years when, one night in September 2004, the idea struck him - violently.

The Portland-based filmmaker was attacked and robbed by a gang of five youths while crossing a bridge on his way downtown. He sustained minimal injuries; however, his sense of personal safety was shattered. It was then that he understood the link between his fears and the OCD he had suffered throughout most of his life. "I realized that that's the connection," he explained. "It's not about religion or my relationship with God that is causing me to have this obsessive behavior. It's really about fear and misplaced reactions to fear. So that was that kernel around which the film was made."

In Scaredycat, his fourth short film, Blubaugh weaves documentary-style interviews, animated segments, and stylized reenactments not only to depict his OCD and the attack, but also to comment about how fear affects human lives in a universal sense. He narrates and appears as himself in the film, baring his compulsive habits and innermost fears (including an irrational fear of black men that emerged after the attack), prompting the question, why make such raw, personal films? "I've made films for a long time, but it wasn't until I started making them about myself that I really found my voice as a filmmaker," he said. "Acknowledging that everything in the film is coming directly from me, in other words, not trying to hide it behind any kind of narrative or other character. And that really happened in a film that I made about my mother. I had been wrestling with how to describe some particularly strange things that happened after she died and make it into a believable narrative and failing, until I realized that I had just to say it as myself."

Blubaugh says that at times it was painful making the film, in particular, listening to the tape of his own 911-distress call, which he included in the film. He also filmed his phone conversation with one of the five boys who attacked him, who was in prison at the time. "The conversation with Michael was strange," he said. "Not necessarily painful but definitely intense. I wrote to all five boys, and he was the only one that went all the way through. Two of them are under 18, so there's limited access to journalists and reporters; one of them asked for money. Michael was just the one we got the furthest with, and he was willing to participate - we had a nice, long conversation."

Which raises yet another question: Is the process of making films about his personal life somehow therapeutic? "No," he said laughing. "I always get asked that. I guess I feel better because nothing makes me happier than making films, but they're not meant to be cathartic. Especially with Scaredycat, I don't feel any better. And I was very careful in the film not to suggest that now I'm better."