Big Fish - ACE404.2

José Nava swimming underwater. Standing on traffic island and walking through street market. Film-maker’s VO saying that his father once said to him that "The people in this cold land don’t understand me. They don’t know who I really am". Film-maker muses on how he and his father can understand each other as they come from different backgrounds. Nava eating fruit. Inside José Nava’s house in Acapulco. He talks about European artists he admires, such as Goya, and about South American artists, all of whom, he says, share a "love for nature". José Nava with examples of masks. He talks about being considered as a foreigner, even after living in England for twenty years, and feeling "like a fish in the wrong pond". Film-maker gives some biographical details of his father over photograph of him as a baby, and over reconstruction of young José tied to chair to prevent him getting into trouble in the absence of his mother, a morgue employee. At the age of ten, José ran away to live with his father. Reconstruction of José working at shoe-making with his father Camillo; VO relates anecdote told to film-maker by José. Nightlife in Acapulco. Reconstruction of José in hospital after being hit by a bus; real José watching. Fish. Boys in surf. José talking about his injuries and his reaction on being told that his father had died of grief over his son’s accident. Photographs of José with American tourists he took on fishing trips. José in his studio talking about the first time he started drawing. Paintings. José eating oysters on the beach. He relates anecdote about helping man catch oysters and setting up a beach restaurant with him. Photographs of José with his future wife, Mica. José running naked in snow on his first visit to England, 1962. Home movie footage of José, Mica, and family, including young Zadoc and his brother, Orson. Family photographs. Film-maker’s VO talking about looking for signs of "impending chaos". José today, modelling in photographs, home movies of him in the People Show in the 1970s, making a skeleton out of butcher’s bones; VO describes how, in a performance in Chicago, he slashed a Matisse copy pretending it was the real thing.