Gloria (Coming Soon)
A queer artist paints a church pink and fills it with paper-mâché parishioners.
In a small conservative town called Greymouth, Sam turns to the colour pink. Breathing new life into an
old Anglican church, he creates his home Gloria - a shimmering, bedazzled, hot pink sanctuary.
Unlike traditional churches in many ways, Gloria is not filled with people. Instead, he hand crafts
paper-mâché parishioners to keep him company, filling the space with companions of his own making.
Gloria is a portrait of radical self-expression, quiet isolation, and the enduring life of unfinished art.
Is art ever truly finished? Or does it keep evolving like the people who make it?
Director Statement
Gloria is a character piece on her delightfully off-beat creator Sam, who after years of suppressing his queerness and true self finally allowed a pink explosion to burst out of him.
This film is about what it means to embrace who you are, completely, unapologetically, and without shame.
Filming this short documentary quickly became deeply personal. To me, it shone a hot pink spotlight exposing the idea that what we show the world often hides what’s really going on inside.
Sam’s shimmering church, bold and bright, might look confident but beneath it all we find someone who is shy, unsure, lonely, and learning to heal.
I want to showcase the contradictions of what it means to be human.
Gloria is a reflection on knowing ourselves, not knowing ourselves, and how just like art we are constantly evolving.
Reviews
“Gloria is not a story about a pink church. It is a story about the ongoing process of becoming. About the ways art can hold a person together. About the tension between solitude and connection.
About the courage it takes to create a world that reflects who you are when the world around you does not.
It is gentle, strange, and quietly profound. A portrait of a man, a space, and the evolving relationship between them.”
- Alex Moulton, Blackguard Media (Full review here)
The jury members of DocEdge 2026 agreed the winning film was “a gem.” They said it “ultimately proved to be a meditation on the power of being true to yourself,
even if by mainstream social standards you may well be viewed as ‘different’.”
Directed by Loren Jalyn Kett
Produced by Loren Jalyn Kett & Julian Vares
Director of Photography Julian Vares
Original Score by Ivan Clayden
Editor Loren Jalyn Kett
Soundmix & Colourgrade Julian Vares
Story Consultant Liddy Whiteman
Additional Sound Chris Cubitt
Bass Bradley Grainger
Piano & Synthesizer Ivan Clayden
Original Poetry by Sam Duckor-Jones
Original Song ‘Kereru’ by Claire Stevens
‘Kereru’ Performed by Waiata Koha Community Choir
