Director's Works
G.S.W. Jonny Durgan
Jonny Durgan is a double-Cannes Lion-winning
Writer-Director for his work in commercials.
Spending almost fifteen years working at some of
the world’s best advertising agencies, creating work
for some of the biggest brands such as Audi, Adidas,
KFC and Sipsmith Gin.
His first love was always cinema. Growing up in
rural Yorkshire, he spent every Saturday in the
local fleapit cinema, complete with sticky carpets
and choc ices, watching everything from escapist
adventure films to Kurosawa matinee showings,
often being the only one in there.
Working in advertising gave him the experience of
being on set, making creative decisions and working
with the best around.
The same people making his adverts were shooting
films, TV shows and shorts, including Oscar and
BAFTA winners.
He decided that if he was going to do what he
always wanted to do, then it was now or never. So
he did what anyone with a mortgage and mouths
to feed would do: he quit his job to go back into
education.
He juggled freelance work with a course at the
NFTS, and took runner jobs to ask questions of
each and every department.
He made his first short film as Writer-Director
called “Somewhere I’ve Been”, it stars Sheila Reid,
Lindsey Coulson and John Love, it showed at
festivals here and abroad, and now he’s back with
his second effort - “G.S.W.”
The spark of this story came to me when my mum
was telling me about her time as an A&E nurse, and
how she managed life-or-death situations.
In the days before mobile phones, she had to deal
with family members searching for loved ones after
motorway pile-ups, accidents and heart attacks.
As I was writing, and now that I am a parent with
a young family, I have fears that are never far away.
It struck me as to what I would do if my children
were ever in a situation and I couldn’t help them.
When it comes to the characters, they have opposite
viewpoints. The two of them have to decide to show
grace or show judgement, and that’s a theme that
runs through many stories over the years, it’s in
Bible stories, Greek literature and Shakespeare. It’s
Javert versus Valjean. It’s geopolitics every time we
turn on the news. It’s even how teachers deal with
playground fights. So it’s a theme that is relevant to
all of us.
It led to this idea of a medical professional being
tied down while their child is in danger in an
escalating situation, yet they couldn’t do anything
to help them.
When the news comes over the radio that the
man on their stretcher could have shot and killed
children, maybe even Beth’s child, Jo wants to save
his life, yet Beth decides that he doesn’t deserve it.
Genevieve and Kya bring these characters to life in
such amazing and unique ways, it was a joy to watch
them perform.
And “G.S.W.” was born.
The structure of the story is inspired by the idea
of ever-increasing stress, taking cues from “Uncut
Gems”, “Boiling Point”, and “The Bear”, where each
passing minute adds another layer of complexity.
As you delve more into this Press Kit, we hope that
you can see the journey we’ve been on and want to
know more about our project.
