His whole adult life, French acrobat Sebastién Bruas has lived for the thrill of the circus and has wanted for little else. Now older than the rest of the troupe, he struggles to face up to the impending demise of his career, with no alternative future beckoning. With no other bookings in the diary, this trip to Puglia, in the heat of the Italian summer, could be his last. His doting mothers in Paris feel his angst, while fearing for his every fall.  Yet, the thrill is as great as ever.  Jay Bedwani’s beautifully languid documentary catches the final leap of a long, idyllic youth.

Welsh filmmaker Jay Bedwani’s short documentary premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival and was selected to screen at Rhodes Island, Full Frame and Sebastopol (all USA), Encounters, Leeds, Sunderland Shorts (all England), This is England (France) before winning the Best Short Documentary award at the Wales International Documentary Festival.  It was developed at the Scottish Documentary Institute and produced with funding from Ffilm Cymru Wales.

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Stretch is distributed in Taiwan by Gagaoolala.  The film is also distributed internationally in the FilmDoo collection ‘Close to his Chest’, available on various well-known platforms, including Short of The Week.

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