Yo! Youth OutLook

Editor's Note: YO! sat down with Gabriel Sunday, star of the new movie My Suicide and discussed the touchy topic of teen suicide, the Internet and bullying. Eming Piansay and Erricka X are content producers for YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia.

When I was in high school I had this weird feeling that I was stuck in some weird social experiment. I imagined hidden cameras were piping our daily activities into a television network somewhere and was being watched in some part of the world for someone’s twisted amusement. I already had enough to deal with, from trying to fit in socially with my peers, keep my grades up and somewhere snag me a boyfriend – who knows why I decided to give myself one more anxiety. I guess high school just felt like a bad movie that got turned into a four part series.

I’ve found that most Hollywood movies take a very one sided and most of the time inaccurate approach to portraying high school. I was always left scoffing to myself that Hollywood producers were clearly too old to be recreating a time in their life that they clearly only had contact with through old yearbooks, vague memories and outdated stereotypes.

But then I saw an indie film based on high school society that gets in right in a twisted way. My Suicide by David Lee Miller documents, in semi-mockumentary style, the life of a young high school student Archie Holden Buster Williams, played by Gabriel Sunday.

My Suicide: Movie Review from New America Media on Vimeo.

Miller takes audiences into the life of media obsessed Archie who has decided to commit suicide on camera for his class project.

When dealing with movies that take on tough topics like teen suicide, I noticed it is very easy to veer off into the cheese-ball realm of sentimental ‘value your life’ type of message. But Miller keeps his characters and storyline humorous enough to maintain the audience’s engagement with the characters while driving home key messages about suicide without beating the audience over the head with it repeatedly.

Miller makes the character of Archie the quirky loner you wish you could have been like when you were in high school: opinionated, talented and brave – just to name a few.

Archie represents the articulate voice for the generation of young people who still haven’t quite figured out their purpose in their part of the whirlpool.

My Suicide spoke to my hibernating 16-year-old-self who felt marginalized and forgotten by society, while bringing back the awkward memories of high school that I’ve tried very hard to suppress for the sake of my sanity -- but in a good way.

The use of innovative computer animation makes Suicide a visual playground for the senses, giving the movie substantially more depth. Overall, My Suicide is definitely one of my favorite teen flicks to date.

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