by Anthony Ramirez ‘16
Saint Ignatius High School is filled with talented students. Some are athletes, others are actors, many are brainiacs, but a few are filmmakers. Gabe Mielke, noted athlete, brainiac, and Student Senate Vice President, is now a filmmaker because of the Film Studies class at St. Ignatius.
Mielke’s “The Road” is best described as a tragic “indie” short film about how a normal life can be radically changed by an unfortunate stroke of bad luck. In the film, Gabe, the protagonist, is at first troubled by a lack of knowing what he should do with his time, but is soon introduced to the photo of a college campus in the mail. It is here that Gabe begins his obsession with mapping out the roads to take to get to the college in the photograph. For days Gabe dismisses his younger brother off to school with a simple “thumbs up,” but he does not know where this carelessness will lead. In the final seconds of the film Gabe’s younger brother is hit by a moving car and dies. Gabe runs out after him, but cannot save him and is left awestruck by the terrible mistake that has occurred.
The moral of the short film can be taken in many different directions because it has seemingly universal applications, though one stands out more than the others. Obsessing over something and ignoring the rest of the world is detrimental to human life. The consequence for this ignorance was brought to life in the death of Gabe’s brother, but in daily life it may not be so obvious. Our ignorance can kill the spirit of others or cause failure in a certain class. Mielke’s satirization of such a simply subject is brilliant and should give students of St. Ignatius something to reflect on when thinking of their own lives.
