BITTER PINEAPPLES
I collaborated with the Mexican dancer Gabriel Galvez to make this film which breaks the silence on the violence and abuse he and his family experienced. The film reveals the role which creativity and dance can play in coming to terms with abuse, trauma and tragedy.
Trained in somatic dance, Gabriel expresses his feelings through movement; his shadow layered with projections of found footage taken during visits to Mexico in recent years. He dances alone and with himself.
The second half of the film was made during a visit his mother made to his home in Southampton in 2018. On the occasion of this visit they at last managed to share the traumas they had experienced together and separately. The silence was at last broken.
The narrator in the film is Gabriel himself as he relates the story of the tragedy of his life to Anna.
The title, Bitter Pineapples, refers to the biblical metaphor of the The Grapes of Wrath: ‘The sins of the fathers are visited on the children even unto the third and fourth generations’ – and the fact that Gabriel’s family grew pineapples.
Screenings: Stroud Film Festival, Southampton Film Week at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton by City Eye, who supported this project throughout.
Full film available to screen contact Anna Cady for English or Mexican-Spanish subtitles.
Kindly supported by City Eye.