Andrew Pierce, festival patron and Oz Zehavi
Amy Lamé
Below: Berwyn Rowlands, festival director; Oz Zehavi and Robert Fowler of Peccadillo Pictures
“It’s unlikely to be one of Cardiff’s best kept secrets for much longer”
Always fascinated by real-life stories and characters, Jay started to work on his own documentary photography and, whilst volunteering in San Francisco, was introduced to Gustavo by a mutual friend. “He was dressed as Donna. He was looking very glamorous, standing next to a pool at a party,” Bedwani explains. The two of them discussed taking some still pictures of Gustavo and his female alter-ego Donna, but soon after the project began it dawned on Jay that there was more to Gustavo than what simply met the eye. “I didn’t really know where it was going to go,” says Jay, “but I very quickly realised that Gustavo had a lot to say. He was very eloquent, quite captivating, quite sincere and it seemed like what he had to say would make a really good film.” “I wanted to find out what compelled him to dress up as Donna and go up to San Francisco every weekend. I soon realised it was a lot to do with the relationship he had with his family and his mother.” Only 10 minutes long, the film itself creates a touching and thoughtprovoking portrait of an interesting an honest person. Beautifully shot, with a photographer’s eye, My Mother doesn’t try and explain every aspect of Gustavo’s character and intentionally steers clear of an artificial ending. “Documentary is really hard to pull off,” states Bedwani; “films sometimes try and go for a resolution and ending, when you know life isn’t always like that. I like things left quite open.”
Having always had a love of film and documentary, Jay attended last year’s Iris Prize Festival as an audience member and left feeling inspired. “It’s quite rare you can get three days to sit in a theatre and watch films non-stop. I watched all these short films and I loved it, so I put all my effort into doing this short film.” Loo ??????????????????e????????)???e???????????????????????????????????q%?????????????????????$?????e???????????????????????????t???????????q]??????????%??A?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????L?????????????????????????????????????????t?)???????q'?e??????????????????]?????t?]???????????????????????????????????????a???????????????????d???????????????????5??5????? ??????e???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????L???????????????????????????????????????????????]????????????????????????]????????e???????????)???e???????????????????????????????????5??5????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????e??????())??? ??????e??????????5??5?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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