August 15, 2021
Cinema, like life, can take extraordinary turns.
For Michiel Thomas, the director of the sports documentaries “Game Face” and “That’s Wild”, it meant the sudden death of an occasional friend. Thomas was from the same gay basketball league as Timothy Dean, one of the victims of convicted meth murderer Ed Buck. The shock of Dean’s death, coupled with the devastation within their circle of friends, prompted Thomas to begin production on his most heartbreaking film to date, the documentary “Gemmel and Tim”. The film has its world premiere at the Outfest on August 15th.
In ‘Gemmel and Tim’, Thomas recreates the lives of Ed Buck’s two victims, Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, as well as the events leading up to their murders. Featuring numerous interviews with friends, family and activists, as well as several other victims of Buck’s abuse, Thomas humanizes Moore and Dean, from names in headlines to complicated three-dimensional men. Thomas also charges a system that kept Ed Buck running and avoiding arrest after Moore’s death, how Buck’s ties to a West Hollywood city council member may have protected him and internal political struggles between the West Hollywood Sheriff and the Los Angeles District Attorney which blocked an investigation and allowed Buck to kill again.
In short, the subject of ‘Gemmel and Tim’ is not for the faint of heart. We caught up with Thomas for one of his first interviews on the film right before the world premiere. ‘Gemmel and Tim’ debuts at Outfest 2021 on August 15th.
Video editing: David Beerman.
