“Absolutely ebulliently vibrant, thanks… And you?” This was my dad’s typical response whenever someone asked how he was. He was rarely just ‘fine’ or ‘OK’. He was a big, bold character who embraced life and effused positivity. A fun playmate and role-model throughout my childhood. 

 

John’s career, which included 29 years as a managing director for FW Murphy, provided the opportunity to travel the world… He was held at gun point in India; forced to flee on the last flight out of Bucharest during the Romanian Revolution; and sipped drinks at a golf club in Beirut as Israeli bombs rained down nearby.

He spent the last ten years of his life living in South Africa. My sister and I only saw our dad once during that final decade and sadly, he never met his two wonderful grandsons. It was only in the days around his death that we finally began to learn the truth about why that was.

 

Since we weren’t able to hold a funeral at the time, this film is my attempt to celebrate and remember my dad’s life and to reflect on the relationship I had with him. I hope it will be of interest both to people who knew John, but also those who never met him. At its heart, this is a universally-relatable father and son story, told in a unique way.  

 

The film’s visuals will be composed predominantly from hundreds of still photographs taken throughout John’s life. I’m gathering these from various sources, scanning and digitising them, then piecing them together, to build the complex jigsaw puzzle that depicts his life story. The soundtrack will feature my self-voiced narration, mixed with childhood audio recordings, archived voice-notes and some of my dad’s favourite music.