Gabriel's first starring role is in a movie called "My Suicide".
Gabe contributed writing and served as a chief editor on the movie. It has won a series of major awards at prominent film festivals. It has been chosen to
screen at Berlin, SXSW, Gen Art, Newport Beach, San Francisco, and Seattle Film Festivals with more screenings to come in the future.
Gabe flew to Berlin for the Berlin Film Fest, the largest in the world. Along with the My Suicide gang including Director David Lee Miller, lead actress Brooke Nevin and virtually all of the talented technical crew, the American team were stunned to win recognition. The film was awarded the highly prized Crystal Bear award in the category reserved for movies directed at younger audiences. Gabe and the team were highly complimentary about the festival’s well organized presentation. They also found the German locals welcoming and quite interested in “My Suicide”.
A few weeks later Gabe, David, Brooke and, again, almost all of production crew flew to Austin, TX for South By Southwest or
SXSW or just “South By” as the attendees call it. “My Suicide” played three times at the festival gaining some of the largest and
most excited audiences. A red carpet welcome at the truly gorgeous Paramount Theater kicked
off South By for the Suicide crew. The screening received an enormous ovation.
Gabe, his family and plenty of friends did up the town down Sixth Street. A
highlight for Gabe was being reunited with Wavy Gravy and Mrs. Gravy Jahanara for the premier of Wavy’s unique documentary
“Saint Misbehavin’”
Then back to Los Angeles for a brief breather and then off to New York city for the prestigious Gen Art Film Festival. Gen Art is special because only 7 films are selected, each one running on its own day. “My Suicide” ran on day four and to the complete astonishment of the Suicide crew, the film swept three major honors: The juried award for Best Picture, the audience award for Favorite Picture and Gabe won the Stargazer Award for Outstanding Young Actor!
The 'My Suicide' team (incomplete) including producer Eric Adams, executive producer Larry Janss, director of photography Angie Hill, director David Lee Miller, Gabriel and actress Brooke Nevin on the red carpet at South By Southwest American premier.
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Gabe at a technical
discussion in the Apple shop in Soho, NYC
Gabe with Gen Art Director
Jeff Abramson and co-star actress Brooke Nevin
1. BERLINALE
(2009): WINNER The Crystal Bear for BEST PICTURE
2. GEN ART (NYC): WINNER: Grand Jury Prize for BEST PICTURE,
3. GEN ART (NYC): WINNER: Audience Award for BEST PICTURE
4. GEN ART (NYC): WINNER: Stargazer Award for BEST ACTING - Gabriel
Sunday;
5. SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER FutureWave Award for BEST
FEATURE
6. NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER - Award for OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
IN FILMMAKING
7. GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER Jury Grand Prix for BEST PICTURE
8. GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER Special Jury Grand Prix for BEST PICTURE
9. GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER Audience Award for BEST PICTURE
10. GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER MyMovies Award for BEST PICTURE
11. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER for BEST EDITING
12. EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER - Audience Award for BEST
FEATURE FILM
13. EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER - Grand Jury Prize for
BEST DRAMATIC FEATURE
14. BUSTER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER - BEST FILM
15. CARROUSEL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM DE RIMOUSKI: WINNER The Camerio
International Jury Award for BEST FEATURE FILM
16. RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: WINNER: Jury Award for BEST INTERNATIONAL
FEATURE |
October 2009
How do we keep up with Gabriel?
Take a breath, since the last update Gabe has been traveling in a major way. If you look
elsewhere on the site you’ll see the list of awards “My Suicide” has won, it’s pretty awesome in the correct sense of that word. On a low budget this range of international recognition is rare.
Gabe flew to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and accepted their award for Best Dramatic Feature. In early October he flew round trip to London to accept the Raindance award for Best International Feature. Squeezed in there was a sidetrip to hometown Petaluma, CA where “My Suicide” screened to a totally packed hometown crowd at our local Mystic Theater. Nothing quite like coming home to receive the cheers from friends and neighbors.
The film’s production company is close to finalizing a distribution deal, initially for a few cities, later, hopefully, for the whole country. Attending a screening can be an emotional, moving experience. Young people who are balanced precariously between happiness and that other place see the movie and have been moved to re-dedicate their lives to a more positive course. A true story now repeated a number of times.
Gabe has auditioned for a number of prominent directors in bigger productions in Hollywood but so far no one snatched him up. Certain parents have a steadfast belief it will happen one day. Cross your fingers. Meantime, Gabe is furiously writing a screenplay for a follow-on feature film about the life of artist-musician Daniel Johnston. Gabe spent a few weeks with the Johnston family in both Texas and West Virginia. A previous documentary about Daniel won a major award at Sundance.
By the way, here are a few sidelights on the path to recognition to go along with that list of awards:
Director David Miller received an invitation from the Vatican (yes that Pope) to attend a
historic “Meeting with the Artists and the Holy Father in the Sistine Chapel” on November 21 as a result of the 4 Giffoni wins. That succession of wins has never happened with any film
at Giffoni, ever.
Pixar Films invited Gabe and the David to screen “My Suicide” at their splendid screening room. In anyone’s book, an honor. |
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