Sal Stabile was 19 when he dropped out of NYU, took 5,000 dollars his grandmother left him when she died and starting making the black comedy "Gravesend." Oliver Stone caught it at a film festival and signed on to distribute - Sal, now 22, has a two picture deal with Dreamworks SKG. Danielle Gardner's cinema verite treatment of Bed Stuyvesant basketball kids,"Soul in the Hole," was released late in the summer in New York City and was the focus of a story in Sports Illustrated. At 33, Gardner has worked on documentaries in London and on various movies made for T.V. The two young directors met up at Wolf & Berry Restaurant in Stabile's neighborhood, Bayridge, Brooklyn.

SS: I'm totally burnt out. I haven't taken a shower since, what is today, Tuesday? Since Sunday night. I spent the whole weekend working. DG: Really? What did you do? SS: A Daily News interview, the New York Times. Photo shoots for other magazines. DG: So it comes out this week doesn't it? Are you nervous? SS: I can't even sleep. DG: I had no reaction to my film being released. SS: I'm not going to see it. DG: Have you showed it to your family and friends yet? SS: Yeah, I have, but now the audience is going to be the people who live in Gravesend, the New York crowd and everybody who wonders what all this hype is about is going to go see it and there has been so much hype, I am afraid they are going to get let down. So I don't even want to be around it. DG: It's ok. SS: Yours is a documentary about basketball right? In Coney Island? DG: No, Bed Stuy. SS: I thought Coney Island. How old are the kids? DG: Eighteen. SS: And they are about to go on and play pro ball? DG: Kind of. It is not really about basketball. It is about their lives. It is very real. I would go out on weekends or evenings or days off and hang around with them. I wanted to be able to put a camera everywhere they go. And you can't possibly show up to a dice game with people if you don't know them and they don't trust you. SS: Did you focus on different people? DG: I focused on one kid basically, he is actually on the cover of Sports Illustrated. SS: This week? DG: Last week. Booger, that is his name. SS: I've seen that, I've seen the cover, now I know what you are talking about. That is great. DG: Yeah, it is pretty bizarre. He was very funny about it. He asked me, "What is the name of the magazine?" I said, "Sports Illustrated." He asked again, "What is the name?" "Sports Illustrated." Finally I said, it's the magazine with you on the cover. SS: He didn't know he was on the cover of Sports llustrated? Wow. DG: So what is your film about? SS: It is about four guys from Brooklyn, four white kids from Brooklyn who accidentally murder their friend's brother. It takes place over one night. We shot with one camera, we shot with a 16mm Eclaire and one lens, an inky and a 1K, we tied into street lampposts. It looks like shit, the sound is terrible, but the acting is really good. These guys were really good, the story moves and it keeps your interest .... it was a shot. Me and the camera man did the sound and he did the camera work and that was it. DG: Are you worried that you won't enjoy the next thing so much because it will be a bigger crew? SS: I'm not going to have a bigger crew. It is going to be a couple man crew and very guerrilla style, keep the same style. I like it. I like improv. I love what you do. DG: I don't know what is going to happen with my film. It is different so people don't know what to make of it. It is not serious, it is very funny, it is very in-your-face, it is kind of a tragedy in some ways. It is not like a regular documentary, there is no voice over. SS: I am the same way with "Gravesend." It is a comedy about four guys who have murdered people. DG: But at least it is a feature, I find people are really flummoxed by a documentary. But you sound like you had a good experience. SS: Oh, yeah.