I first met Jay at Kanaal40, a bar located in Amsterdam’s Warmoesstraat. I worked behind the bar, Jay worked as a security guard at the door. At the threshold of the club, Jay found a sense of security: a space to express themselves and explore who they want to be. Even after the bar closed its doors, the experience continued to shape Jay’s life in deeply personal ways.
Jay worked as security at the door of Amsterdam’s Kanaal40, a cultural space that combined a bar, restaurant, club, and platform for the so-called “micropop culture”: small cultural scenes, niches, and very specific communities. While inside, diverse artistic expressions and people intersected, the door served as a boundary between the outside world and this ever-changing universe.
It was at this threshold that Jay found something deeper than just a job. The position at the entrance became a space for observation, belonging, and discovery, where they began to explore their own identity, influenced by the inclusive and experimental energy of the place.
The film follows this process of transformation, painting a portrait of Jay and Kanaal40, where the director also worked and where the two met. Through cutouts, assembling, layering, and juxtaposing of images and drawings, this animated documentary conveys a sensory experience and reveals Jay in all their complexity. (Margarida Moz)
