Hallelujah, Comedy & Belonging

Face2Face with David Peck

Victor Gabriel and Duran Jones and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new Sundance film Hallelujah, poverty and justice, drama, death and belonging, resilience, oppression and innocence lost, Cornel West, James Baldwin and why storytelling and human experience are intimately connected.

Victors Directors Statement: "A theme that is ever present in my life is the question “How do I overcome my suffering? Is it even possible?” More specifically in this story it is the idea of grieving the people I have lost, the loved ones we have all lost. A sub theme is the idea of belonging and finding home. Where is home? As someone who has been abandoned, displaced, neglected and had to move around and live with different people, home is nebulous at best. But what I realize for me is that though I may never “belong”, I am deeply loved by many people. And being loved is more important to me than belonging.”

Synopsis:

Chetty and Paper are two brothers who refuse to grow up. But due to unforeseen circumstances, they are now in charge of their nephew HALLELUJAH,

a strange book quoting black boy and their quiet niece Lila. Sitting in the backyard, supposedly watching their niece and nephew, the two brothers become so distracted they don’t notice when Hallelujah attempts suicide. What follows is a funny moving story about family, the people we have left behind, and the people who are still with us.

About Victor and Duran:

Growing up in poverty, Victor Gabriel realized that water in cornflakes doesn't taste as bad as you think it would. He wandered without a home before eventually ending up in Compton, CA. Now as a black male writer/director and recent MFA graduate of AFI Conservatory, he has turned to filmmaking as way for him to wrestle with his own suffering as well as the suffering of others. He holds an MA in Clinical Psychology and has been working as a Marriage and Family Therapist with survivors of trauma in Compton/Watts/South Central for the past several years. His short film BLACK BOYS CAN’T CRY, won the Social Impact Award at the Hollyshorts Film Festival and is currently being shown in others. His favorite movie is Richard Donner’s Superman. He likes Red Vines and thinks Twizzlers are trash. BIG FACTS.

Duran Jones is a 2007 graduate of Hampton University, with a BA in Broadcast Journalism. He is an accomplished independent rapper and songwriter with a keen sense of storytelling. In 2017, he completed his first short film titled BLKMGC, an urban musical based on the shooting death of Tamir Rice at the hands of police. Duran is also known for his 2011 tribute to Trayvon Martin and his subsequent interview on CNN.

Now a Producing Fellow at the American Film Institute Conservatory, his goal is to tell stories for people of color that are truthful and impact the global community. While studying at AFI he graduated from the 2020 PGA Power of Diversity workshop, where his pilot “Daywalker” received interest from Mary Parent, Gary Lucchesi and Prentice Penny.

Image Copyright and Credit: BLK Magic Content and Victor Gabriel

F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.

For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

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