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SLFC Interview – Luke Terrell: Director of GABE – We Are Movie Geeks

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SLFC Interview – Luke Terrell: Director of GABE

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GABE screens Thursday, July 20th at 7:30pm at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Ticket information can be found HERE


No parent should have to bury their child, but that was the reality the Weils faced when their son Gabe was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Told he would not live past 25, Gabe made it his life goal to earn a college degree. Then, during his senior year of college, he received a new diagnosis, doubling his life expectancy overnight. This unforeseen scenario, though remarkable, presented Gabe with a complicated obstacle: creating a future for which he had never planned in a world that often forgets he exists.

 Luke Terrell, director of GABE, took the time to answer questions about his film for We Are Movie Geeks in advance of it’s screening at the St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman

Tom Stockman: What was your filmmaking experience before GABE?

Luke Terrell: I’ve been making short films since childhood, starting with a claymation of The Odyssey in middle school. In college I began to take the pursuit much more seriously, primarily making short video profiles of fellow student artists. After graduating in 2013, I worked as a freelance videographer, and connected with Executive Producer David Donnelly as he finished his documentary feature debut Maestro. That experience taught me to love the feature filmmaking process. With Donnelly’s encouragement, I started my own production company, Restless Productions, and began working on Gabe.

TS: Tell me about the first time you met Gabe Weil?

LT: I met Gabe in 2011 when I interviewed to be his in-class notetaker. He opened with a cool, “Yo not to be rude, but you’re really tall.” Classic Gabe, always telling it like it is. It was clear from the beginning that we were going to be good pals.


TS: What about Gabe’s story did you think was worthy of a feature film?

LT: Gabe was one of those people capable of immediately leaving an impression on you. He knew how to live life fully and with integrity. He brought incredible people together; to this day some of my best friends are people I met directly because of Gabe. After being friends with him for a couple years I already would have deemed his story worth telling, if simply for the profound impact he had on my own approach to life. Then he had a doctor’s appointment in which he was told he may live twice as long as he had always thought. All of a sudden, new possibilities opened up, and Gabe wanted to document them. So the filmmaking actually occurred organically. Gabe asked me to film those moments, and the more we compiled them, the more it seemed necessary to cut them together into a widely viewable narrative.

TS: What did Gabe’s family think of the idea of making a film about him?

LT: This film could not have happened without the support of the Weils, and for that I will always be grateful. It is incredibly difficult to allow someone else to tell the story of a family member so dear to your heart, and certainly no one knows Gabe better than his family. To be given the opportunity to tell Gabe’s story in my own voice was an honor, and I hope I did some justice to his awesome legacy.


TS: How many hours of footage did you shoot?

LT: We ended with around 5 TB of footage totaling close to 100 hours.

TS: How long did it take you to edit your film?

LT: I spent a few weeks organizing and prepping all the footage before my editor got involved. He and I worked closely together full time for just over two months. Since then, we’ve continued making tweaks for over a year. It honestly could go on forever, which is why they say “a film is never completed, it is abandoned.”


TS: Were there some moments you would have like to have left in the final film but had to cut for length?

LT: Of course, our first assembly was close to 4 hours. I found some value in every moment. Ultimately, though, each new cut is more concise, accessible, and thus powerful. The ideal would be to get to a place where if any single scene were taken out, the narrative would no longer make sense. Perhaps we will get there when I cut out another 14 minutes for a broadcast cut!

TS: Why was the sex surrogate not shown? Did she not want to be filmed?

LT: I never even considered showing her. To do so would have detracted from the point. That scene was not about the act itself, which is what the focus would have been if we had given a face to the surrogate, but about Gabe being human. It probably is the most humanizing scene of the entire film, because it is the one that those outside of the disability community least expect.


TS: What is your favorite memory of the road trip you, Gabe, and the others took?

LT: The most special moments are always the little things. The encounters I would have with Gabe that don’t happen in the same way with anyone else. In the movie he references a time that I came into his bed in the middle of the night and fell asleep next to him. Truth be told, we were in Vegas and both a bit inebriated after a night of breaking even at the Blackjack table, scoring free drinks in the process. Waking up next to him reminded me of middle school sleepovers. There was a realness to moments like that with Gabe that aren’t that easy to come by.

TS: How much did the film cost to make and how was it financed?

LT: We financed the film through essentially every possible channel; private investors, crowdfunding, production loans, corporate sponsorships, and grants.


TS: How far into post-production were you when Gabe died?

LT: The film was already at picture lock, we essentially just needed to score it and do some sound and color work.

TS: Was Gabe able to see any of your film?

LT: We (Gabe, mostly) threw a 450 person private screening at the St. Louis Art Museum in April of 2016. It was a black tie event and Gabe pulled out all the stops, even concocting three different juice recipes to be shared with guests at the reception. The accessible seating in the auditorium was in the middle, and at the end of the film, every person in the audience stood up for a standing ovation, and turned towards Gabe. It was one of life’s perfect moments.


TS: Have you shown GABE at other fests and if so, how has it been received?

LT: We’ve shown Gabe in festivals around the country, including ones in New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Houston, and Los Angeles. The reception has been incredible; audiences really connect with Gabe’s story. We won Best Documentary at a Los Angeles festival, and the Award of Excellence from Impact DOCS.

TS: What are your release plans for GABE?

LT: We will finish all screenings (festival and private) by the end of the year. We are just getting our distribution plans underway. The goal will obviously be to maximize viewership and get Gabe on all different types of platforms (streaming, broadcast, and otherwise). Stay tuned, we have high hopes.


TS: What’s your next project? Do you have ideas for more documentaries?

LT: I’m currently in the middle of a film artist in residency just outside of Boston at The Cotting School, the first academic institution in the US created exclusively for students with disabilities. I am hoping to produce a film festival-worthy short that can be a followup to Gabe, since I am now very connected to the disability in film community. I have many other film ideas, including four documentaries. One is even St. Louis based! As with most indie film projects, funding will be the major factor in feasibility.