When veteran talent manager Kenny Gabor of Unchained Management, Music and Media began feeling the effects of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, he turned to the music he had loved for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic like Social Distortion, the Ramones, Rage Against the Machine, Iron Maiden, Bad Religion, H2O, Civ, Judas Priest and Killswitch Engage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gabor\u2019s experience is one of many featured in \u201cHeavy Healing,\u201d a new documentary that explores how heavy metal, punk rock and hardcore music can help people cope with physical and mental health challenges.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy Healing\u201d is a documentary about how punk, metal and hardcore music help people cope with illness and mental health challenges
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The film features musicians and fans, including Lou Koller of Sick of It All, who is battling cancer
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It was created by Howie Abrams, Seth Abrams and Jammi York after originally being conceived as a book
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The documentary will screen at the ReelAbilities Film Festival in Harlem and Brooklyn later this month<\/p>\n
The film was created by producers Howie Abrams, Seth Abrams and Jammi York, who initially planned to write a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really didn\u2019t feel that a book could do this idea justice, so we decided, three non-filmmakers, to make a movie about people who suffer from anything and everything \u2014 health, mental health, illness, disability \u2014 and have used aggressive music that we grew up being told wasn\u2019t music at all to heal, to be motivated,\u201d said Howie Abrams, who also directed the film.<\/p>\n
The documentary features members of bands including Murphy\u2019s Law, Agnostic Front, Killswitch Engage, Bowling for Soup, Leeway and H2O, as well as singer-songwriter Jesse Malin, who emerged from the hardcore scene.<\/p>\n
The project was inspired in part by Seth Abrams, a music industry veteran whose life changed after an aortic aneurysm and a stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cFans of music may not know that the musicians they look up to have had health things, and now they see a story \u2014 \u2018Oh, I have to go to a doctor too, this guy has the same thing I\u2019m dealing with,\u2019\u201d Abrams said. \u201cThey see their favorite band and artists in a whole different light because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film also highlights Lou Koller, founder and singer of the Queens hardcore band Sick of It All, who is battling esophageal cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sitting there blasting Mot\u00f6rhead in my headphones, just relaxing \u2014 it relaxed me,\u201d Koller said.<\/p>\n
Also featured is Michael \u201cKaves\u201d McLeer, co-founder of the Brooklyn hip-hop group Lordz of Brooklyn, who has long dealt with anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou find these tones and these melodies and these things to help you cope with life,\u201d McLeer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy Healing\u201d will be screened as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival, the world\u2019s largest film festival dedicated to disability. Screenings are scheduled for April 25 in Harlem at the Maysles Documentary Center and April 27 at Nighthawk Cinema Prospect Park in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Filmmakers say they hope the documentary challenges stereotypes about heavy music and shows its therapeutic value.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately whatever gets you there,\u201d Howie Abrams said. \u201cIf it\u2019s like I\u2019m going to listen to Slayer on the train to get me to go, then that\u2019s what you should do. It can be anything, whatever keeps you motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s message is simple: find solace in the music you love, no matter how loud or fast it may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When veteran talent manager Kenny Gabor of Unchained Management, Music and Media began feeling the effects of chronic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2296,25,231,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,12,2297,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-191257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-human-interest","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-roger-clark","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}