Revolver's Gabriel Gasparinatos is Still Working it Out
Gabriel Gasparinatos, a director represented by Revolver, made his documentary debut in 2023 at SXSW Sydney. The film, ‘ONEFOUR: Against all Odds’ was released on Netflix and was met with acclaim from audiences and critics alike.
The film rose to success on the streaming service, positioning itself in the top three films on Netflix Australia during its release period. The documentary was praised for its ability to encourage outrage, compassion and empathy from audiences.
Gabriel has also worked with We Are Warriors on ‘Through The Fire’, and continues to display his authentic directorial ability in his commercial work for clients such as Adidas, Beats by Dre, and Google.
Gabriel spoke to LBB’s Casey Martin about the kinds of scripts that excite him, how important building strong working relationships is, and what surprised him most about the ONEFOUR documentary.
LBB> What sort of scripts excite you the most?
Gabriel> I like pace and momentum - where I can read it, and feel how it’ll move in the edit. And I’m annoyingly impressionable to enthusiasm. If I can tell whoever wrote loves it, I probably will too.
LBB> What is the most important relationship for a director to have when working on a project, such as the ones with ONEFOUR and We are Warriors?
Gabriel> Months on end in suites with Jules De Ruvo and Johanna Scott cutting ONEFOUR made editors my favourite people. We got to become friends. And I think those friendships make projects good, because we had fun doing it and learnt to read each other's mind and communicate in weird but highly functional ways to get through it.
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about?
Gabriel> Still working that out. I’ve always liked things based on real people and where music has an influence, but I’m really keen to explore more beyond that, particularly in my new chapter with Revolver. I think if you have a clear voice, then genre, subject and style can and should constantly change. So most of my time is spent on just nailing that voice.
LBB> What was the most challenging part of creating the ONEFOUR documentary?
Gabriel> On the ONEFOUR doc I’d be shooting with the group all night in the area before heading into a meeting at Netflix at nine to tell them all was good. Balancing the reality of the subjects’ lives with the expectation of a major streamer created lots of problems. I think we just kept at it, stayed honest, and folded the best real world drama into the film itself.
LBB> When working on projects with people such as We are Warriors, how do you find a balance between their message and your own creativity?
Gabriel> On a project like that, every idea is there to service the message. And I’m equal creative partners with those whose message it is we’re telling - we all operate as co-directors on those films. Nooky (co-founder of We Are Warriors and co-director), Tyson Perkins (DOP & co-director) and I are all good friends, so it comes naturally.
LBB> How would you define your directorial style?
Gabriel> Margaret Pomeranz described my film as “incendiary and powerful” and I’m really holding onto that.
LBB Talk us through the process of creating ONEFOUR: Against All Odds. What surprised you most?
Gabriel> It’s a project that I unknowingly started making at 18, when I was getting into music videos and capturing an emerging subculture that ONEFOUR eventually became the heart of.
As my career developed, and ONEFOUR eventually emerged, it was exciting to be around something that I’d wanted to see happen for so long. But then a NSW Police task force called Raptor Squad kicked their doors in, cancelled their gigs and demanded that they stop.
We thought that was insane, so we set out to document their entire journey through it, leading up to them hopefully being allowed to freely make music and perform shows. To this day they still can not.
I’ve been most surprised by how broad an audience the film has had. So many of my Mum’s friends or my friends' Mums have hit me up about it, having seen it and being furious with the cops. That was surprising, but really nice.
