Reel 2 Real festival films tackle youth and young adult LGBT+ issues with sensitivity and grace

    1 of 5 2 of 5

      It’s very unusual to come across films focusing on how families help their nonbinary children come to terms over a sustained period of time with their gender expression or gender identification.

      Last year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival featured one such example, the National Film Board–produced “Into Light”. Director Sheona McDonald filmed a single mother raising a young transgender girl over several years in Canada’s North.

      This year, the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth includes another, Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13. The Swedish-Norwegian documentary, directed by Engeli Broberg, explores the gender evolution of a youth named Gabi.

      Reel 2 Real’s director of festival programming, T. Bannister, is someone who uses the pronouns they and them. In a phone interview with the Straight, Bannister expressed a great deal of enthusiasm over Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13, noting that it will have its Canadian premiere at the festival.

      “It’s a sensitive documentary that follows the journey of a young person who’s trying to understand their own gender identity from a very young age and is becoming acutely aware of how boys and girls are treated differently,” Bannister said.

      The film, according to Bannister,”is very much a fly-on-the-wall situation”. Viewers can follow Gabi through formative moments when a nonbinary person develops their sense of gender.

      “It’s really this kind of moment in Gabi’s life where we get to see them with no sort of filters—and the filmmaker is quite sensitive to this,” Bannister continued. “It’s very thoughtful in how they portray this inner conflict. It’s just, in my opinion, a beautiful documentary on the evolution of Gabi’s process informing their gender.”

      Fortunately, Gabi’s family is “super supportive”, according to Bannister. Yet the youth still has a difficult path to navigate.

      "Girls Shouldn’t Walk Alone at Night (Les filles ne marchent pas seules la nuit)" is in French with English subtitles.

      Different sexualities in Love, Laugh, Sex program

      It’s not the only film focusing on LGBT+ issues at Reel 2 Real. In the Love, Laugh, Sex program of shorts for people from grades 8 to 12, there’s ”Girls Shouldn’t Walk Alone at Night (Les filles ne marchent pas seules la nuit)”, which features two French Canadians, Chantal and Delphine, going home alone at night and getting lost in a forest.

      Two other films in the Love, Laugh, Sex program with LGBT+ themes are the Australian short “Beautiful They” and the Swedish short “The Night Train (Nattåget)”.

      “Beautiful They”, directed by Cloudy Rhodes, is described on the Reel 2 Real website as “a queer surf-romance…inviting reflection on the nuance of gender and the refuge found in being truly seen”. Jerry Carlsson’s “The Night Train (Nattåget)” features two youths, Oskar and Ahmad, who are riding a night train and exchange glances.

      “It’s typically not the case that different sexualities are reflected with such nuance and sensitivity,” Bannister said. “So I wanted to build a program that was able to address that quite directly."

      "We Will Become Better" shows two male lovers who can't dance together.

      Russian and Ukrainian films will be screened

      There’s also a Russian film in the program, “First-Time Sex Rules (Правила первого секса)”, directed by Polina Kondrateva, about high schoolers who sneak into a hotel room. Bannister felt it was “imperative to continue supporting Russian artists” with whom Reel 2 Real had made a commitment.

      “It would not be aligned to our festival values to remove the Russian film,” Bannister said.

      There’s another Russian film in the Move and Connect program, which is also recommended for people from grades 8 to 12. “We Will Become Better”, directed by Andzej Gavriss, features two male lovers who dance, separated by distance, in a country that outlaws homosexuality.

      “Because their love is queer, they obviously can’t experience that in public in Russia,” Bannister said.

      There’s also the Canadian premiere of a Ukrainian feature, Stop-Zemlia, directed by Kyiv-based Kateryna Gornostai. It includes a range of gender-diverse characters dealing with relatable issues that youth were facing in Ukraine before the Russian invasion.

      Stop-Zemlia offers insights into the lives of Ukrainian youths before the recent Russian invasion.

      “What I think I like most about the film is it doesn’t shy away from tackling something as difficult as suicide and self-harm, which, I think, in this moment of history, is something that’s on the minds of a lot of young people,” Bannister said. “It’s a difficult thing, growing up in a world like we’re growing up in. I think this film really addresses that with sensitivity and care.”

      This year, the Reel 2 Real festival is encouraging viewers to donate to the Red Cross’s Ukrainian Relief, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and Maple Hope Foundation.

      In Drinkwater, Daniel Doheny plays Mike Drinkwater, who strikes up a friendship with the girl next door, Wallace, placed by Louriza Tronco.

      B.C. feature film launches Reel 2 Real

      The fest opens with Stephen Campanelli’s Drinkwater, which is a coming-of-age comedy set in Penticton and starring Eric McCormack, Daniel Doheny, and Louriza Tronco as the girl next door.

      McCormack plays a crusty and eccentric father trying to fake his way to disability benefits, setting a lousy example for his son Mike.

      “I think what I found most interesting about this film is it plays on the tropes of the ’80s and the toxic masculinity that revolved around that era,” Bannister said. “It recalibrates how we can talk about masculinity because these characters are really emotional.”

      Comments