Gaby: A True Story

Debut theatrical feature film of actress Rachel Chagall.

The film was Oscar nominated for one Academy Award in 1988 for Norma Aleandro in the category of Best Actress in a Supporting Role with the gong being won in the end by Olympia Dukakis for 'Moonstruck' (1987).

Although the setting and characters were Mexican, director Luis Mandoki wanted to bring Gabriela Brimmer's story to the widest possible international audience. He refused several European offers, and, although he was virtually unknown in Hollywood, he still made the rounds of the major studios and production companies. While most Hollywood professionals respected the script, they were leery of its "difficult" subject matter, particularly in the hands of a young, relatively inexperienced filmmaker. It took another Hollywood outsider, first-time producer Pinchas Perry, a native Israeli who first came to Hollywood as a lawyer, to recognize the project's potential. "I had read over 250 scripts," Perry said, "looking for one I wanted to produce. Then a friend gave me this unknown script from Mexico. What amazed me about it was how this woman, Gaby, did so much in her life with so little."

In the seven years that it took to bring the story to the screen, the filmmakers and their subject, Gabriela Brimmer (''Gaby''), became close collaborators. They shared not only a deepening friendship, but an artistic quest to give their story its voice and shape. For director Luis Mandoki, the long process of adapting Gaby's story began with winning the confidence of Gaby and her family.

Working closely with first-time screenwriters Martin Salinas and Michael James Love, Gaby Brimmer and director Luis Mandoki went through numerous drafts of the screenplay before achieving the result they sought: an honest and unsentimental account of Gaby's life, with the focus on her complex relationships with her parents, her nurse and constant companion, Florencia, and the young man with whom she falls in love."The difficulty," Mandoki recalled, "was to tell a dramatic story about a character who can't move or talk, And to capture Gaby's spirit while doing it. That to me was the most important thing.