A 21-year-old film-maker from Austinmer will have his feature debut at the Sydney Underground Film Festival on Saturday.
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The documentary, Dead Hands Dig Deep, is Jai Love’s first large scale production and has already been shown in several festivals across America and one in Madrid.
It tells the haunting tale of heavy metal frontman Edwin Borsheim, formerly of the band Kettle Cadaver, who has seemingly lost the plot.
It’s confronting and not for everyone but Love said the majority of the reviews have been positive, “just a few stinkers”.
The former Bulli High School student credits the school’s multimedia program for arousing a passion to create for the big screen.
“I did a few short films and learnt a lot there” he said.
Love didn’t want to take the usual gap year after year 12 and work in pubs across Europe, instead he packed up and moved to America to hang with family and work in his dad’s company.
From there he met Tommy Lee Jones’s wife, Dawn Laurel-Jones, who gave him an intern job on the set of her husband’s new movie The Homesman.
“She found out I was going to be a film student and was like ‘oh, we’re shooting this movie next week’ and didn’t say who or what was going on.
“Next thing I know I’m on my way to New Mexico and Meryl Streep was in the movie and Hilary Swank. It was really crazy.”
Working as Tommy Lee Jones’ assistant showed Love what he could aspire to be and he decided he didn’t just want to work on films, but make them.
He returned home to start a film degree at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and also picked up a job on Mad Max: Fury Road.
While some of his classmates may still be working out what their first major work would be, Love jumped right in.
“I don’t just want to be on a film crew for the rest of my life, like a lot of people had been. I could see these really jaded older people, who, maybe they wanted to be film-makers as well but just didn’t do it.
“So that’s why I think I immediately jumped into this project, a lot of people may have waited til they were older.”
Love traveled back and forth to the US for nearly a year to make his documentary but it was “pretty easy” because his dad hails from Southern California.
“I’d just go out there and stay with my grandparents ... then go out and do this weird stuff during the day.”
Some people will have a “visceral” reaction to his feature debut while others may be shocked or even “connect” with the sad, central character Edwin.
DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP: The documentary follows disturbed musician Edwin Borsheim and screens at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, Saturday September 17, 7pm.