Gabriel Rhenals shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Gabriel, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
The degree of intelligence and energy will always vary among individuals but the integrity required to reliably and sensibly conduct artistic practice can present in anyone with even a minimal provision of wits.
When I cast actors or seek other types of creative collaborators, I am not interested in whether a given person is particularly talented, intelligent or appealing. The quality I look for above all is said integrity; in other words, a sincerity of dedication toward creative work – typically evidenced by a strong work ethic and a willingness to operate in a mode antithetical to the dominant establishment.
The premium I place on this quality emanates from the anarchistic philosophy which governs my creative process. When you’re stressfully fashioning an elaborate creative expression using consumer-grade equipment oftentimes in public spaces without a permit while operating as a skeleton crew, securing the conviction to persist in these fraught circumstances is more important than relying on the fundamentally wavering measures of cleverness, stamina, etc.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an award-winning, Miami-based filmmaker who’s written, produced, directed, shot and edited 16 short films and four feature films since 2002; all micro-budgeted. My short film work has seen ample domestic and international festival exhibition and national televised distribution on PBS. In 2022, I self-published a 443-page memoir about my experiences as a visual artist and filmmaker, titled ’20 Years a Filmmaker’.
This past May, I completed my 4th and latest feature film ‘Ask Delphi’ which simulates an alternate future in which a small family’s matriarch embarks on a quest to forge a powerful tool for her wayward daughter. The film involved 55+ actors and took six months to produce. The principal cast was comprised of four outstanding actors: Florencia Barletta (our fourth collaboration), Karina Cancio, Nick Rubertone and Shaun Grant (our third collaboration). ‘Ask Delphi’ is currently courting film festivals and I am extremely excited to share the film with a broader audience once the film is able to secure an official premiere.
This past June, I produced and released a compilation album of my work with composer Ben Morris who’s written original music for all of my feature films and my last three short films. The album is titled ‘Rhenals-Morris: Vol. 1’ and is available for purchase on the online music distribution platform Bandcamp.
Currently, I am working on an experimental, adult-oriented series for streaming platforms, titled ‘Flush’. I expect to begin production on the series’ pilot episode in early fall!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
As a child, I spent a great deal of time on my own with a seemingly endless supply of paper and basic drawing utensils. If I wasn’t deeply engaged in artmaking of some sort, I’d be found in the company of my family’s television, an accompanying video game console or my sizable collection of toys and action figures crafting adventures of my own. These activities unlocked the imagination, creativity and play which defined so much of my idyllic childhood.
But I credit my parents and grade school teachers with endowing me lasting ontological form in a stage of life usually characterized by amorphousness and glacial coagulation for many children. My elder guardians accelerated the formation of my self-concept by regularly identifying me as an artist and, seeing that I was especially attuned to manipulating those drawing utensils, celebrating my sundry creative accomplishments. Indeed, these overseers laid out a future for me which would uncannily come to fruition. To this day, I am endlessly thankful for the guidance, direction and vision of my adult caretakers. I hope I’ve made them proud as an artist whose supply of creative projects has never ceased since childhood.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I have always had difficulty forming and maintaining interpersonal relationships, particularly as an adolescent. Much later in adulthood, I would be officially diagnosed as having a mild but affecting neurodivergent condition. Additionally, earlier this year I finally came to terms with and revealed my queer identity as aroace (i.e., someone who does not feel sexual/romantic attraction toward others or compelled to engage in mutual sexual/romantic activity).
While I don’t regard these adverse differences in my psycho-social makeup as wounds, they do limit me in ways that most people are not. However, as an artist, being out of lock-step with the general march of humanity has allowed me an opportunity to develop a unique relationship with our tricky species which I believe has enhanced my creative work immeasurably. Certainly, applying such distinctive insight and perspective to my work has been a way of neutralizing, healing and harnessing the otherwise deleterious effects of such unusual deviations.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
Artistic expression is a cultural value I protect at all costs. In fact, I’ve laid down my life in service of it for the near-entirety of my existence! In the ground-breaking book ‘The Selfish Gene’, renowned evolutionary biologist and zoologist Richard Dawkins argues for prioritizing cultural over genetic transmission of values, traits and behaviors. Books, music, visual art, literature and other human-made objects of potentially profound meaning and insight are infinitely more powerful than the more naked, natural capacities of the vast majority of humankind. So, take a picture or write a book, it’ll last longer!
On this resoundingly scientific basis, I throw my hat into the ring for creative exercise of any type. It is inexhaustible, sublimating, vitalizing and worth protecting at all costs. Civilization literally depends on it!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I’m particularly sensitive to the essentialism of technological adoption and literacy. Esteemed professor and public intellectual Noam Chomsky posits that the human race has an innate biological capacity for language use and applying its underlying logic. This idea, in conjunction with a view of language as a tool, suggests the intractability of humankind’s relationship with technology; a view not readily assumed by most people. Wielded adeptly and with moderation, technology can be an immensely liberating force, allowing us to enrich our lives with awesome creative tools, far-reaching communication, near-infinite information and deeply satiating entertainment.
However, if we take technology for granted and don’t nurture its ability to extend and enhance our natural abilities, we risk burning ourselves with Promethean fire rather than using such a godly gift to illuminate the path toward a future of greater self-actualization. As Chomsky affirms, technology is already an integral part of us from birth. So, let us assume proper stewardship of this most sacred flame!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gabrielrhenals.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grhen001
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grhenals
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/grhen001
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AskDelphiMovie
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reveullc
Image Credits
Posters and album cover art by Gabriel Rhenals.
Photos by Alonso E. Rhenals.
