Apple Original’s “Blush” by Joe Mateo. APPLE LOS ANGELES – Filipino director-writer Joe Mateo tells his real-life love story, starting when he met his late wife Mary Ann, in the inaugural animated short, Blush, from Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation. In Blush , a horticulturist-astronaut is stranded and fights for survival on an uninhabited planet, where he realizes the importance of building a new life. Mateo’s idea for the film came to him the night after his wife, Mary Ann, lost her eight-year battle with breast cancer. “It inspired me to share with people that losing a spouse or a family member or a friend can be overcome by surrounding yourself with people you love.” Mateo evokes his reaction to the loss of his wife in the film’s scene where the astronaut, devastated, crying and gasping for air, is surrounded by his daughters. “I couldn’t breathe. It was my first time experiencing a panic attack. Fortunately, both of my daughters were with me when it happened.” “I realized that Mary Ann was my air; my daughters Joey Ann and Mina saved me.” Mateo struggled to go back to work for several months and found this project to be healing….