Exclusive interview with Jonathan Pickett, director of the short film that won the 2025 Gran Premio Malescorto

Last July, Jonathan Pickett's short film Deep in my heart is a song won the  2025 Gran Premio Malescorto at the 25th edition of the Festival. Our Artistic Director caught up with the director of the film in the United States, for an exclusive interview which we are pleased to present on our official website.

A screening of the short film during Malescorto 2025

Deep in my heart is a song has been selected in various festivals, in the United States and all around the world, and received many awards. Malescorto is just the latest in this series of accolades. Did you expect such a great success when you started working on this project about Johnny Bencomo and his music?

Not at all! Of course, I thought that if we did Johnny justice, the film would be special – since his music and story is so special to me. But neither of us thought it would be making its way around the globe! Very cool to see.

Tell us how the idea for the film came about, and above all how you met its extraordinary protagonist, Johnny, who does not act but simply plays himself…

I love the story of how the project came about. In short: a few summers ago, some friends and I went on a road trip to Tombstone, Arizona and stayed at a Western-themed lodge. There, they had a bar and one evening, the night’s entertainment was Johnny. I was instantly captivated by his presence and music. He turned heads in that bar! A gifted storyteller, Johnny spouted off poetic little anecdotes between soulful songs. I couldn't look away. I remember thinking, in the words of Chloé Zhao, “I think the camera would love this guy”. I introduced myself to Johnny afterward, inarticulately paid my compliments, and asked how I could hear more of his music. He told me to write my address down on a bar napkin and he would mail me some CDs. I mailed him back a check to pay for them. So old school! Haha. Through listening to his songs on repeat, I discovered the depths of a lonely, old cowboy who had something miraculous to share, but no means by which to share it. The two of us kept in touch, regularly having phone calls to chat and tell stories. He lives in an RV at the edge of the desert, surrounded by Western vistas and open landscapes. Through our conversations and his music, I could feel his desire to connect spanning those lonely expanses. Then one day he told me a story about how he showed up for a gig to find out it was for a woman on her deathbed, and I was floored. Without telling Johnny, I wrote a script inspired by him and this story, writing the dialogue using many lines he said to me on the phone. The script was written in one day. He was very moved when I shared it with him (I had to mail him the script, of course, haha). Luckily, Johnny was down to play himself in a version of his own story, which is no small ask! I’m really proud of his work in the film. The project was a total joy to create with him.

Director Jonathan Pickket and Johnny Bencomo

What was it like directing Johnny in the role of himself and integrating him into the rest of the cast, which was made up of professional actors?

One of my biggest concerns before we started pre-production was “can Johnny act?”. He’d never been on a film set a day in his life. But I knew that his performance skills were so refined, I thought that skillset would transfer relatively seamlessly to screen acting. Luckily it did! Since he was such a natural, it made my job a lot easier. And the other actors, Lindsay Burdge and Annalee Jefferies, did a fantastic job at occupying the same world as Johnny. The biggest hurdle from a performance standpoint was shooting on 16mm film. We only had a limited amount of film stock, so we weren’t able to just roll and roll with long, drawn-out takes as a way of finding naturalism. We only were able to do 1-2 takes per setup. Given those analog restraints, I’m all the more impressed with what Johnny pulled off.

In addition to fiction films, you have also worked on documentaries during your career. Deep in my heart is a song itself, in a certain sense, incorporates some documentary elements. How much does your experience in documentary filmmaking help you when you are directing a fiction film?

It’s funny because when I first met Johnny, I thought we’d make a documentary together – like a short profile doc about the last cowboy singer or some sort. It wasn’t until after he told me that story that I decided a scripted film would be a much more effective way of capturing the power of this music. I love documentaries and I’m making some now – so it was such a neat challenge to try bringing that mindset and skill set to scripted filmmaking. I find that it’s largely the same process: train your camera on fascinating  people, framed in beautiful places, work with talented and committed collaborators, then just work to create the conditions under which magic might be able to unfold. I find that doc filmmaking helps remind me to stay light on my feet and notice the poetic details that are easy to miss. It’s a good way to practice listening.

I read that you love the idea of filmmaking as a means of connection. In my opinion, Deep in my heart is a song is all about connections between people: I think that this is the main theme of the film. If I had to sum up the whole story in one sentence, I would choose Johnny's line: “Outlaws like us, I'm glad our souls crossed paths”. Could you explain your idea about this cinema of connections in more details?

I love that! I’m happy that line stood out. Yeah, I think recently I discovered that all of filmmaking for me is like this one big (expensive) excuse that’s all just for the purpose of finding deeper connection with others – whether it be the subject/actor in the frame, a collaborator on set, or someone who sees the film and shares what it means to them personally. For me, the cinema of connection is mostly about what happens outside of any given movie’s run time – it’s the process of making a movie and sharing it, or of watching a favorite movie with others and discussing it after. I’ve met some amazing people and experienced unforgettable things because of moviemaking.

In the character of Johnny Bencomo, I saw a possible contemporary answer to the historical question of the search for the so-called true American, which is culturally very important to you in the United States. A man who is half Spanish and half Mexican, half Comanche and half Catholic, who plays his 18-strings guitar and lives alone in a RV with his dog… could he be the true American? How would you frame Johnny's story and your film in the broader context of America today?

It’s a good question, and one I’m not totally sure I know how to answer. When I think of the context of ‘America today,’ it brings up lots of other baggage and feelings that feel quite separate from Deep in my heart is a song. I remember thinking when I was getting to know Johnny that his rugged independence and cowboy lifestyle was an interesting expression of a bygone idealistic era, but that wasn’t the main way I viewed him in the context of the film. Rather, I thought of him more as the gifted artist who never really received his due in life. In my experience as an artist, it can be easy to get caught up in how my art is perceived – we all want to play to sold-out audiences who adore what we’ve worked hard on. But in the film, it’s not the larger audience that creates meaning for Johnny’s art – it’s the audience of one, the divine connection, that gives it meaning. In that way, it’s almost like I was making the film as a reminder to myself that when everything else is stripped away, connection is the only thing that matters.

In Johnny I saw – in some ways – also the figure of an extraordinary American musician, rediscovered with the documentary Searching for Sugar Man in 2012 but practically forgotten and abandoned by everyone for most of his life: Sixto Rodriguez. I imagine that you, as an attentive documentary filmmaker, are familiar with Rodriguez and this documentary. Was it a reference of yours or is it just a connection of mines?

I’m so sorry to report that I have not seen this movie! As a documentary filmmaker, I realize it’s a huge blind spot – it is on my list, and now I’m even more eager to check it out.

Many congratulations on winning the 2025 Gran Premio Malescorto, Jonathan. Our Festival staff and our audience in Italy thank you for giving us this film and wish you all the best for your career.