Zef

Jessica Barclay Lawton's 14-minute Australian documentary follows Zef, a 21-year-old who works in a so-called skimpy bar and lives outside the conventional gender binary. Instead of a traditional profile, the film is assembled from fragments — moments, physical sensations and remembered scenes — drifting through Zef's working life and private life as it explores gender, love and sexuality. Alex Nash and Tanieka McPhee also appear. The result is a frank, sensual and unfiltered look at the human desire for closeness, and at the many shifting forms intimacy can take. Rather than explaining its subject from the outside, the film invites viewers to share Zef's perspective and experience, treating identity and desire with curiosity and respect. An intimate, impressionistic portrait of a young person living openly and on their own terms.