Pluck and Persistence: A Love Story

Between a morning spent working with a sound mixer and an evening counseling pregnant teens in South-Central, independent filmmaker Vincent Jay Miller takes time for a late lunch in Van Nuys to talk about “Gabriela.”

As his pasta gets cold, he describes how he pieced together the resources to produce his first feature film. How he unabashedly solicited funds from family, friends and acquaintances, including his optometrist and high school wrestling coach. How he convinced a restaurant in Arcadia, a hospital in Pomona and the parents of friends to let his crew shoot on location gratis. And how he persuaded veteran actors including Emmy nominee Liz Torres (“All in the Family,” “The John Larroquette Show”) and Lupe Ontiveros (“Selena,” “El Norte”) to take a chance on the dream of a recent film school graduate.

He says his persistence is all part of an innate artistic drive.

“It’s more than just a job; it’s art and a chance to express myself creatively and emotionally,” he says in between bites. “It’s what I have to do.”

What he has done is completed “Gabriela,” a love story between two co-workers at a psychiatric hospital. The 91-minute feature centers on the title character, a student therapist starting an internship at a Los Angeles institution. Mike, a social worker at the facility with a history of looking for love in all the wrong places, throws Gabriela’s plans to marry her longtime boyfriend into a tailspin, and a cadre of eclectic supporting characters help both of them sort out their tangled feelings.

Identification With Latin Culture

Like many Hollywood writers, Miller incorporated parts of his personal and professional life into film he wrote, produced and directed. Since college and throughout graduate school, the El Monte native has been by turns a substitute teacher, a special education teacher, a mentor to gang members and is currently a counselor.

“The story and characters are not based on real events, but are certainly inspired by my experiences in social work,” he says. “And there is definitely stuff from my relationships.”

That said, it’s no surprise that the film revolves around a Latina.

“Most of my girlfriends have been Latinas,” he admits, rationally citing the sociological concept of “propinquity” as the reason. “You form relationships with those in your social group and having lived and worked in predominantly Latino communities for most of my life, [I found that] this was natural.”

This identification with Latin culture has left Miller critical of Hollywood’s treatment of La Raza, saying studios shy away from making movies with positive Latino characters despite loyal audiences and box-office success for films like “Selena” and “La Bamba.” As a result, he says, he consciously shaped dialogue and experimented with colored filters and lighting to portray characters routinely shown only as stereotypes--including women and minorities--as three-dimensional.

An Abiding Love for the Movies

“In real life, Latinos are firefighters, social workers and anything you can imagine,” he says. “The cast [of “Gabriela”] actually reflects [Los Angeles] the way that it is. My stuff has more real-life characters, not just maids and gang members.”

Portraying a complex woman caught in a love triangle is what drew Seidy Lopez to the film. Lopez, who plays Gabriela, says her character is not stripped of her Latina identity, but the film is more love story than social commentary and playing Gabriela gave her a chance to step outside the more traditional roles she played in indie films “Mi Vida Loca” and “Mi Familia.”

“We still have the same stereotypes and it’s nice for once to play a character and not constantly be thinking, ‘I’m a voice for the Latino community,’ ” she says.

But underscoring his social agenda is Miller’s simple and abiding love for the big screen. The fascination began at age 11 when he began making horror spoofs on a Super 8 with his brother in their El Monte backyard.

“I’d dress up in a wig and high heels and play 10 different characters in one movie,” he says, laughing at the memory.

At Cal Poly Pomona, Miller set aside what he then considered a hobby, graduating in psychology and heading down the path to law school. But his professional course changed when he noticed “the void.” Now 28 with a USC film school diploma, he’s dusted off his boyhood passion, trying his hand behind the camera.

He masks that passion beneath a matter-of-fact exterior. With neatly trimmed hair and buttoned-down appearance, Miller seems more the level-headed entrepreneur than the tortured artist. Even on the set, he steered clear of panic mode, says “Gabriela” supporting actor Zach Galligan, who plays Gabriela’s fiance.

“He was cool as a cuke. He tweaked more than directed--a little more of this, a little less of that,” Galligan says. “It was kind of like a mechanic tinkering.”

But even as Miller discusses the process of making “Gabriela” in business-like tones, his struggles as the project’s writer, producer and director leak out during his otherwise methodical review.

It took Miller 10 days to write the first draft of the “Gabriela” screenplay, but 2 1/2 years to get to the screening room. Chronic cash flow problems, casting delays and a back injury after Miller was in a car wreck each set back the schedule. Economizing (he will say only that the film cost under $1 million) forced him to use a wheelchair as a camera dolly and to shoot the entire film in a grueling three-week stint. Even the first showing of the 91-minute film at the Culver Studios’ Ince Theater had its glitch; halfway through the projectionist started to rerun the movie’s first reel. Still, Miller feels lucky to have made it this far.

“For every ‘Brothers McMullen’ and ‘Clerks’ there are hundreds of films you never hear about,” he says. “I feel I did the best I can and also feel it turned out so well. I didn’t make this as an exercise for myself but to show to other people.”

With positive reactions from the Hollywood insiders, co-workers and “cynical film students” who attended two recent screenings, Miller is ready for the next step. He’s screening the film in San Francisco and Los Angeles next month. He would like to see “Gabriela” released in time for Valentine’s Day, but is also submitting it now for various film festivals later this year and next year.

“Starting from scratch and not knowing anyone in the business makes it a little difficult,” he says. “But the quality of the film will speak for itself.”