Gavin Vitale
Havertown, PA
Advisor: Heather Cassano
Artist Bio
Gavin Vitale is a videographer who specializes in narrative documentary videography, fascinated with capturing the world around him in impactful, emotional stories. Having grown up in Pennsylvania before taking an interest in the University of Connecticut’s Digital Media and Design major, he is now working towards completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts within their Film and Video department. From a young age, Gavin experienced life through a highly emotional lens. Though presenting challenges, this perspective encouraged him to wield those emotions intentionally to share his understanding of the world. Today, Gavin’s work surrounds the bonds that tie us together as human beings, and the emotions with which we relate to one another, having made multiple award-winning films on these topics. As he plans for life after university, he aims to tell human stories at a larger scale, increasing the scope of people he can impact through the medium of film.
Artist Statement
The complexity of emotions, and how we are encouraged or dissuaded to openly feel them in society exists within each of us. My film, Pansy Boy, tells the story of my relationship with these restraints, and how it has evolved along with me throughout my life. The film is ultimately one founded in duality–between a supportive family and a dismissive society, between the urge to express your emotions and the imposed belief that you should not. But it is also a film about growth and healing, highlighting a core interest I possess in preserving everyday moments, and how this became a medium through which I channel my emotions. Over the past year of creating this film, I was forced to confront the internal beliefs I hold on my emotionality, and to question my fascination in others’ intimate, emotional–simply put, human–experiences. In doing so, I realized that as I’ve grown, documentation has become much more than a channel for my emotions; I capture others’ emotional experiences as a means of validating my own. Pansy Boy exists as a narrative documenting my process of reconciling with my emotions, and the natural complexity that accompanies them.
