Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriel.
Gabriel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Looking back on my creative life after completing a glut of projects as a filmmaker (i.e., 16 short films, four feature films and a series), I feel like my journey as a creative has been largely defined by a pervasive tension between a sublime ideal and a brutally disharmonious reality. Recognized as an artist from a very young age, I suppose I was also guided by an identification with many renowned artists, living and dead, in visual art and film. Materially, though, my exploits have been largely enabled by the patronage of my loving parents and have thus allowed me to live an immensely privileged life up to now; a fact I never take for granted by remaining as occupied and challenged as I can.
As for where I am today, I would like to share two recent milestones: I released my 4th feature film ‘Ask Delphi’, a sci-fi drama about a dynamo mother and her wayward daughter, for free on YouTube earlier this month. I have also made six episodes of an episodic series titled ‘Flush’, a long-term project with a more adult sensibility, freely available on the platform as well.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Some long-resolved mental health issues notwithstanding, my creative journey has been fairly smooth and untrammeled. Perhaps only because of my routine willingness to sequester myself in a bedroom, library or coffeehouse for hours at a time in order to painstakingly strategize my little artistic coups with a major emphasis on thriftiness, economy and practicality. As you see, the most critical aspects of my work involve simply sitting alone to think and write.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
On the whole, I am responsible for a regular production of long and short motion picture curiosities. Placing a strong emphasis on narrative and editorial design – as opposed to pictorial, I have a reputation for executing complex micro-budget productions as a one-man army (in fact, I only began working with a dedicated technical crew for the first time in 23 years late last year on ‘Flush’). But I am most proud of the overall continuity and longevity of my humble career.
I feel what sets me apart from others in my field is an uncommon adherence to anarchist philosophy and, accordingly, a deep protectivity over the integrity of my process, collaborations and output; an interest far greater than attempting to fulfill the cliche of having a lucrative but toothless career in an impersonal industry. I’ll always prize getting the shots over merely calling the shots. Big difference!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
In an ideal future, aspirants of the motion picture arts and sciences will increasingly begin to see the value of doing what they can with what they have. In turn, municipalities across the country will respond to this surge in creative activity by providing the means by which these practitioners can function in their own communities. At summits then run on a regular basis, these new communities of deeply interested filmmakers will accordingly share their myriad discoveries, innovations and methodologies in an ambience of encouraged cinematic literacy, synergy and generativity. Consequently, humanity and its claims of civilization can only stand to benefit.
If this doesn’t happen, I suspect film as a man-made cultural production will fall into rank irrelevance; undone by automation, profit-driven motives and all the indifference that follows from the blight of stagnation. So, I do my part as must we all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gabrielrhenals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grhen001
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grhenals
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grhenals
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reveullc
