Documentarian Molly Reynolds woke up in the middle of the night with something of an epiphany. She suddenly grasped that the best way to honour the memory of her late friend Craig Ruddy — the Archibald Prize-winning artist who died from COVID-related complications aged just 53 — was to craft a lasting tribute through film.
"It came like a bolt of lightning while we were all in varying states of grief and shock," she recalls.
In the light of day, Reynolds worried there was "a certain sort of madness" in asking Ruddy's grieving partner to approve of such a project so soon. "So I checked in with one of the most grounded people I know," says the filmmaker.
That person, her partner and fellow filmmaker Rolf de Heer (Ten Canoes), assured her it was a worthy project. "But it was pretty audacious," Reynolds acknowledges. "Here is a human being who is in a profound state of grief, and I say 'this is what I'd like to do'?"
No ordinary documentary, Reynolds painstakingly stitched together what would eventually become A Portrait of Love, using only personal footage supplied by Roberto Meza Mont — the actor best known for Candy, and also Ruddy's manager and partner of 20 years.
Lima-born Mont, who spent most of his time with Ruddy in their stunning home high up on the hills of Byron Bay's hinterland, was moved by Reynolds' offer.
"When you lose someone that you love so much, nothing can ever prepare you for something like that," he recalls of those dark days. "I was in so much pain, and I remember sitting on the sofa when I got the call from Molly.
"And in the same way I trusted in Craig's visuals, I felt that way with Molly in the moment. I knew that it was going to be a tough but beautiful path."
After enjoying its world premiere at this year's Mardi Gras Film Festival (MGFF), A Portrait of Love will now travel across the country with Reynolds and Mont attending Q&A sessions, including on the opening night of the Darwin Pride Film Festival on June 21.
Bond of trust
As well as a friendship, Reynolds and Ruddy also have a creative connection — through renowned Yolŋu actor and dancer David Gulpilil.
Reynolds directed and co-wrote (along with de Heer) My Name is Gulpilil, a moving documentary chronicling the legend's last months.
Ruddy won the Archibald Prize and People's Choice in 2004 for his stirring portrait of Gulpilil, entitled Two Worlds (he went on to win the People's Choice Award again in 2010 for his portrait of Warwick Thornton).
Mont and Ruddy visited Gulpilil while he was unwell, and were impressed with the great care Reynolds and de Heer took of him.
"It was a really beautiful family gathering of strangers, in a way, when we all came together for David," Mont says. "Molly and Rolf are such a beautiful couple that have a lot of integrity, artistically, and through what they have done for Australia, and it's really an honour to call them friends."
When Gulpilil died, Ruddy sold some of his artworks to help raise funds to return his body to his Country.
So there was a circular symbolism in handing over their private footage of a life well-lived, and of Ruddy's impressively physical artistic process, to Reynolds.
The trust was there. But watching Reynolds' rough and fine cuts of the film, then attending the MGFF premiere, was something else entirely, Mont says.
"There were so many layers," he says. "One, you do feel exposed. Two, I'm still grieving. And three, I want to ensure that people feel the message Molly has helped capture.
"It was a labour of love."
One that Reynolds never took for granted. "I think about the notion of guardianship, with Rolf and I having worked a bit with First Nations people and that notion of consultation," she says.
"And Roberto was great at giving meaningful notes, including a lovely clip where Craig's singing and dancing in the bathroom, comes out, and there's a bit of full-frontal nudity. Roberto looked at it and said, 'Craig wouldn't like that,' so we worked around it to give the intimacy without the nudity."
Flying high
The accidental archive footage, sourced only from Ruddy, Mont and their friends' smartphones, stretched to 5,000 videos all up. Editor Sam Matthews helped Reynolds uncover the connective tissues, with Ruddy's painting process and Mont's jubilant dancing at the heart of this story.
"Craig at work is something remarkable," Reynolds says. "It's organic and dynamic to watch. And we get that glimpse because only Roberto could capture it truthfully. I've seen some other footage of Craig painting, but it's not as raw."
Very quickly, she decided to let the men speak for themselves, with the only voiceover connecting the disparate footage drawn from Mont's responses to a series of set questions about their life together.
Later, re-recording his answer in Reynolds' hometown of Adelaide, Mont's lyrical guide to his life with Ruddy is haunting poetry, as gifted as his amateur camera work and thrumming with the beating wings of bird imagery.
"That's how I felt, growing with him by my side," Mont says. "I've just learned how to drive a car at the age of 38, and I was driving through Bondi thinking, 'Wow, Craig would be so blown away, realising just how much I have grown'."
No matter how difficult it was to watch A Portrait of Love with an audience, Mont is glad the film is out there in the world.
"There are so many beautiful scenes with those lessons and wisdom and knowledge that he passed to me," Mont says.
"I am so grateful to Craig because there was so much beauty that he always shared with me about myself that I never was able to actually see. He was a big bird, and he gave me the confidence to fly."
Portrait of Love is currently screening in limited release in Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and Byron Bay.
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