Writer-director Gabriel Carrubba’s atmospheric and touching queer coming-of-age debut feature Sunflower has been lighting up the Australian festival circuit, including screenings at Sydney Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, and Cinefest Oz. This month it plays Queer Screen’s 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival, which runs in cinemas in Sydney February 15th – 29th, with select titles available on-demand Australia-wide March 1st – 11th.
Set in a working-class suburb of Melbourne, Sunflower follows 17-year-old Leo (Liam Mollica) who is into playing sports and goofing off with his best mate Boof (Luke J. Morgan), while he deals with the affections of the girls at school. He is also questioning his sexuality and terrified of what might happen if anyone—especially his parents—discovers his secret. It is a tender coming-of-age drama that explores that time in our lives when everything—anger, love, and shame—feels overwhelming. Read our full review of the film.
Ahead of the Mardi Gras Film Festival, Gabriel Carrubba spoke exclusively with The Queer Review’s Chad Armstrong about the catharsis of making an autobiographically inspired film about coming out, his process as a writer, how the funding and cast came together, and his favourite queer culture.
Chad Armstrong, The Queer Review: what has the reception from festival audiences been like so far and has anything taken you by surprise?
“I’m glad you asked me this, because I’ve been thinking about how the film has been received quite a bit lately. It’s interesting because when you’re making a film you’re not really thinking about how an audience is going to receive it, as you’re so focused on just trying to get the thing in the can. So upon reflection, there are two aspects of the audience reception that has caught me by surprise.”
“The first, is how the queer community has reacted to the film. While mainly positive, I’ve noticed that there have also been negative and indifferent reactions. As a community, our experience of growing up queer can be similar, yet differ in so many ways. Someone might dislike the film because it reminds them of their own experience—maybe it hits a little too close to home—but then for exactly reason, someone else might love the film. Some might even feel that the film isn’t like their experience at all and either like or dislike the film as a result of that.”
However, what’s surprised me the most, is the reaction that we’ve received from individuals that don’t identify as LGBTQ+, specifically non Gen X individuals. I feel that perhaps this generation hasn’t been exposed to queer cinema as much, or perhaps have chosen not to engage with it in the past. But the world is changing, and so are their opinions and their tastes. Many of them have never seen a queer, coming of age, coming out story before. So I suppose for them, it’s a fresh and unique story that shines a light on the struggles many of us in the queer community have faced, bridging the gap between those that identify as queer and those who don’t. Whereas, within the queer community, regardless of how true the film is to my own story and experiences, it’s something that we’ve perhaps already seen or experienced before.”
The image of Leo in a field of sunflowers is central to the film, why sunflowers?
“A sunflower that hasn’t yet bloomed is quite an ugly-looking flower and when I think back to myself as a gay, closeted teenage boy, that’s how I remember feeling. However, as I begun the process of self-love and acceptance, and thankfully, received the acceptance from those closest to me, I felt as if I had finally bloomed, and, much like a sunflower that has bloomed, for the first time in a long time, I felt beautiful. also I felt that sunflowers symbolise hope, warmth, and happiness.”
Sunflower joins an illustrious line-up of Melbourne-set queer films , like Ana Kokkinos’s Head On and more recently Goran Stolevski’s Of An Age, is Melbourne taking Sydney’s “Queer Capital” crown?
“Maybe when it comes to cinema, but I’m not so sure if that’s true when it comes to queer culture in general. Melbourne is still very much in its “discreet masc” phase. Sydney is loud and proud.”
How did funding come together and did the fact that it is a queer-themed film help or hinder that process?
“My good friend and collaborator, Zane Borg was a great inspiration and advocate for getting this film off the ground. He released his debut feature in 2022, The Library Boys, which took home the Comedy Vanguard award at the Austin Film Festival. Seeing him make his film really inspired me, and after he read the second draft of Sunflower he came on as a producer and mentor. He showed me the ropes and slowly but surely we put together our budget which was made up of self-finance and private investment from various sources. During post-production, the lovely team at Queer Screen kindly awarded us with a grant via the Queer Screen Completion Fund. If it weren’t for them, this film wouldn’t be finished. We owe them the world!”
“I think it being a queer film actually helped the process. There is always going to be a demand for queer cinema, which makes it easy to prove that the project has an audience, including film festivals that are specifically dedicated to curating, promoting, and showcasing LGBTQ+ films. In terms of sales and distribution, there are always going to be parts of the world where the film will never be shown, but most of the world is on board with exhibiting queer cinema. There’s no time like the present to be making and engaging with queer cinema.”
I loved Liam Mollica and Luke J. Morgan’s performances, how did you cast come together?
“They’re both wonderful, as are the entire cast. I’ve been extremely fortunate when it comes to casting. I met Liam when I was in my final year of film school at JMC Academy in 2017. He came in to audition for one of the graduate projects I was working on and we hit it off immediately and have been friends ever since. I always knew that I wanted to cast him outside of film school, I just couldn’t find the right project for him until Sunflower came along. I knew that he would be perfect for Leo. I offered him the part, but he insisted on auditioning anyway.”
“With Luke, it was Zane who suggested him. He initially auditioned for the part of Tony, he was great but he wasn’t right for that role. Then about a month later, the actor who was initially cast in the role of Boof had to return home interstate. It was during Covid and there were potential complications with flying the actor in and out of Victoria during the shoot, so we had no choice but to recast. We decided to bring Luke back in to audition for Boof. I remember watching him and Liam workshop a scene from the screenplay together for the first time and their chemistry was undeniable.”
Boof is a great example of Australian teen masculinity, both likeable and loathe-able at the same time. How did you strike the right balance with the character?
“Many of the characters in the film are based on people in my own life, including Boof. I think what makes him so likeable and loathe-able at the same time is that neither I nor Luke wanted to impart any judgement on the character in any way during the process of making the film. All human beings are flawed, we all have likeable traits and traits that aren’t so likeable. Even then, it’s up to the individual to judge what is morally right or wrong. Luke called me when we were about three months before the shoot and said, ‘I know this guy. I went to school with this guy.’ That’s when it hit me. We all know a Boof. We all went to school with a Boof. Yes, he is flawed, but in his flaws, I also see his beauty. He deserves happiness as much as Leo does.”
The supporting characters are far from two-dimensional allies or bullies, the writing isn’t judgmental towards them and we empathize with them no matter how they are behaving, well, apart from Derek perhaps. How intentional was that?
“That’s certainly something that I hope audiences take away from the film. The complexities of all the supporting characters came naturally during the writing process. With so many of the characters stemming from my own life, I wanted to stay true to their nature. A lot of the process was purely based on the things that I remember people saying and doing. If you write from memory, it’s a lot easier to stay on track when it comes to authenticity. I don’t feel the screenplay is judgmental of Derek either. At least it’s not what I intended, but I can see how you might feel that way because what he does is pretty irredeemable. I’m not trying to make excuses for him or defend him, but I do feel that Derek is just as complex and insecure as Leo is. He’s battling his own demons.”
Given that Sunflower has an autobiographical element, has making and releasing it been a cathartic experience?
“It has. When I look back at where I was as a teenager, when I began to realize that I was gay, at around 12 or 13, it turned my world upside-down. I thought that I was broken and that there was something deeply wrong with me that couldn’t be fixed. I remember thinking that I’d be better off dead than gay. Of course, those thoughts weren’t my own. It was the society around me that planted those thoughts; the kids at school, the parents of those children, and the wider community. But as a kid you’re impressionable, and if you’re constantly surrounded by negative viewpoints about queer identity, then you start to believe them. I experienced a great deal of shame, a constant reminder that every fibre of my being was wrong. I remember looking at myself in the mirror one afternoon and thinking ‘I’m never going to tell anyone’. As a teen, I never thought I’d tell anyone that I was gay, let alone make a film about it.”
Have you started work on anything else?
“I’m currently co-writing a film with Luke J. Morgan, which I’ll also be directing. It’s a film about class, childhood, friendship, and suburban life in Australia in the mid to late 2000s. This one isn’t as auto-biographical as Sunflower, however there are elements of the story that are true to both mine and Luke’s lives. We also begin shooting Zane’s next film in May. I’ll be co-producing it with Mia Barrett, who plays Carly in Sunflower.”
What’s your favourite piece of LGBTQ+ culture, or a person who identifies as LGBTQ+; someone or something that’s had an impact on you and resonated with you?
“I’ve recently revisited the work of author and playwright Christos Tsiolkas, immersing myself in some of his newer novels. Reading 7½ for the first time was a transcendental experience. There is something about the way he captures beauty and memory through language that I’m constantly amazed by. He’s always been a great inspiration of mine.”
“Reading Barracuda again made me realise how much I was once like the character of Daniel Kelly as a teenager, especially in his inner dialogue and private moments. Much like Danny, I had a great hunger to be something special. I’ll never forget reading it for the first time in my late teens. My aunt lent me her copy and I read it in secret at night before bed as I didn’t want anyone to know I was reading a book with a gay protagonist, especially with all those steamy moments between Danny and Martin! But in all seriousness, Barracuda was an essential part of accepting myself and it was a pleasure to rediscover it. So I want to thank to my aunty Daniela for lending me the book, because if it wasn’t for that I probably wouldn’t have discovered Tsiolkas’ work.”
By Chad Armstrong
Sunflower plays Queer Screen’s 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival on Saturday, February 24th. Mardi Gras Film Festival 2024 runs in cinemas in Sydney February 15th – 29th, with select films available on-demand Australia-wide March 1st – 11th.
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