A short documentary by Charlie Graley…
"I have known Jon for many years. He creates for the love of it with no obvious goal. He sees the world very differently to everyone else. He tends to favour magic over fact. He has a unique spin on everything. Even the most mundane conversations can quickly slip into time travel or how his dog Teddy, has a magical aura. Aside from all of his wonderful creations, the most overwhelming characteristic about him is his heart of gold. He is a polite, timid soul that would never say a bad word against anyone. He is a shy character so after he agreed to make the film we were unsure how he was going to react. But he opened up a lot more than what we expected. We recorded endless conversations. He offered up photos from his past and was happy to reshoot the final shot on three separate occasions until we got it right. We ended up with so much material covering a lot of different subjects. The challenge became how this was going to all come together. We decided to boil everything down and link the story through the themes of time and nature. The original ending was going to be Jon reciting Desiderata, his favourite poem. I’m pleased we didn’t need this in the end, we achieved the same goal by letting Jon be himself. I intended it to be a fable about looking at the world in a positive way. We are in a particularly turbulent wiggle in time and it’s refreshing to hear Jon’s point of view. It’s hopeful, and it’s about looking beyond the troubles to see the bigger picture and the beauty of the world. " - Charlie Graley
Director: Charlie Graley
Producer: James Graley
Director of Photography: Josh Fry
Drone Operator: Barney Clark
Editor: Dan Hemmington
Colourist: Toby Tomkins
Sound Design: Peter Duffy
Music: Spillage Fete
Graphics: Sarah Graley
Stills: Jamella Elfaki