Our Beautiful Son, Gianni Manganelli

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[Gianni Thomas Manganelli 2/8/1991 - 3/30/2014]

The grief is overwhelming for our family. For our friends. For those

who have watched our beautiful boy, Gianni Manganelli, grow up.

The grief is overwhelming too for the Deaf Community, the

Academic Community and the Filmmaking Community,

the film industry community.

Why is it that we grieve so much for him?

We grieve for his gentle soul, his brilliance. Not only the

the brilliance of his intellect, but the exquisite luminous brilliance

of his heart as well as his precious sweetness.

People are fixated on wanting to know "how" his life ended.

But really, the manner of his passing is insignificant.

What truly matters is what led up to - and what comes after -

The moment at which it happened, when Gianni's life ended,

it was by means of self-infliction.

Why? So he could finally put an end to the

torment that he had been suffering and had struggled with,

and had believed he could somehow manage on his own.

This confounded people.
Growing up, he had been an

extraordinary, beautiful, healthy boy.

He displayed the very essence of his core being, his nature.

But then the darkness that would descend upon him began to

emerge, and eventually overshadowed who he was, his true

nature. Precisely, what this darkness was, we still don't know.

But, who Gianny truly was slowly became occluded by

this psychological, mental and emotional infightings, darkness.

The challenges of battling darkness became a cycle of normalcy

health and well being offset by periods of mental health concerns.

At first, the periods of concern were minimal and brief in contrast

But eventually, the balance shifted and the periods of

darkness became more and more prevalent, while the periods of

periods of normalcy and well being diminished.

Some of you who knew my son only within the academic world

assumed that how he was during that time of acute darkness was

an accurate reflection of who he was. But that was not normal for him.

It was confusing for some people. Thise who knew him at this

healthiest and saw him at his peak were shocked and dismayed

and heatbroken by the change in him. Others who only knew

him in the recent past assumed he was just od - "That's him" -

and never saw who he really was.