Shainee Gabel Biography

Date of Birth: 1969

Shainee Gabel spent two years as the first Programming Director of the Los Angeles Film Festival and three years as the Director of Programming for the IFP/West where she produced her first short. She went on to co-direct and co-write her first documentary, Anthem (1997), which received a national theatrical release and was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of that year's "outstanding" documentaries. Gabel also received an International FIPRESCI Critics Prize at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

She made her feature directorial debut with A Love Song for Bobby Long (2005) starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson. Gabel wrote the script in 1998 and Johansson, whose only sizable movie role at that point had been in The Horse Whisperer (1998), signed on immediately to play high school dropout Pursy Will. By the time shooting began in 2003, Johansson was considerably hotter by Hollywood standards, with award-winning roles in Ghost World (2000), Lost in Translation (2003) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) to her credit. On that basis, Gabel was able to get Travolta and a group of high-powered New York producers involved.

Filmography:

A Love Song for Bobby Long (2005)
Anthem (1997)