This all-Canadian film night is presented by Toronto Outdoor Picture Show, co-presented by Wavelength Music!
Montreal-based artist Trevor Anderson’s début feature Before I Change My Mind revitalizes the teen comedy by taking us back to his Edmonton hometown in 1987, an era of neon tights, big hair, video sleepovers, and queer awakening. When Robin, a gender-ambiguous new kid in town, forges a fraught bond with the school bully, the unlikely pair find themselves in a euphoric but self-destructive spiral. Played with remarkable nuance by newcomer Vaughan Murrae, Robin’s attempts to fit in and navigate the highly-gendered social dynamics of middle school are bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, often at the same time. Anderson’s style is John Hughes nostalgia with a New Queer Cinema experimental edge, vivid colours, meticulous mise-en-scene, and an all-original synth-pop soundtrack by Anderson’s frequent collaborator Lyle Bell that sounds like a long-lost ‘80s classic. Come for the all-too-relatable teen angst, stay for the fully-realized musical parody of Jesus Christ Superstar.
In much the same vein, fellow Montreal filmmaker Justine Gauthier’s short film Death to the Bikini! is a rousing paean to youthful rebellion. 10-year-old tomboy Lili is outraged when her well-meaning parents insist she has to cover her chest for a trip to the water park even though she’s never worn a swimming top before and none of her friends (all boys) have to. With great empathy and humour, Gauthier captures Lili’s confusion and frustration as she tries to make sense of a world that shames and sexualizes women’s bodies, culminating in a joyful act of solidarity and rebellion. With a rollicking soundtrack by Montreal rock outfits Les Shirley and NOBRO, Death to the Bikini! is a defiant tween feminist call to arms.
Abenaki cartoonist and animator Diane Obomsawin’s I Like Girls, a playful animated short based on her graphic novel J’aime les filles. Obomsawin’s lively line and anthropomorphic characters bring to life the stories of four lesbian women’s first loves in a series of intimate, awkward, funny, and visually inventive vignettes. Collectively, the stories capture the tragicomic joy of queer sex and romance.
Rounding out tonight’s all-Canadian programme, Toronto filmmaker Isaac Roberts’ Goblin High (winner of Best Editing, TIFF Next Wave Young Creators’ Showcase 2024) weaves together several vignettes about young goblins – yes, the green, pointy-eared, fantasy variety – in the uncertain moments between high school and the rest of their lives. Creatively combining outstanding creature make-up, inventive editing, and DIY special effects with slice-of-life drama, Roberts finds the mundanity in magic and magic in the mundane.
Programme notes by TOPS
