I’m delighted to be presenting my film Bitter Pineapples at a symposium at the University of Chichester in May. The symposium is an all day event, jam-packed with workshops and talks by renowned artists and academics working in the field of intergenerational, community and over 60s dance. The day includes a community showcase, film, digital installations and outdoor performances.

This is a short trailer for my film Bitter Pineapples. It’s a deeply personal and poetic dance film that explores trauma, memory, silence, and healing through movement. Created by me and artist/filmmaker Anna Cady, the film offers a layered narrative of lived experience and the transformative power of dance.

The film is presented in two parts:

Gabriel’s Dance
I dance with shadows of my past, confronting memory and trauma through projected images and narration. The sequence includes archival and found footage and is a meditation on a childhood marked by both joy and violence.

Anita’s Dance
My mother, Anita, age 60, appears in this segment, which was filmed in my home in Southampton. This section is about silence, the unspoken realities shared between mother and son, and how dance offers a space beyond words for connection and release.

"We set out to make a film that reveals the therapeutic value of both dance and film, guided by Roland Barthes’ idea of describing interiority without disclosing privacy."

– Anna Cady

Film Credits
Direction & Performance: Gabriel Galvez
Filmmaking & Editing: Anna Cady
Featuring: Anita (Gabriel’s mother)
Co-created in Southampton, UK
Duration: 32 minutes
Supported by: Hansard Gallery and City Eye Southampton.