screening + Talk
wednesday, august 23 at 7:00pm
Ottawa Art Gallery
Pre-order your ticket now!
Queerness and family don’t always go well together. For Liv, in The Venus Effect, it’s the family pressure on her current relationship with a man to get married and churn out some grandchildren that makes her new relationship with Andrea difficult to share. Even in a family which already has a gay child, coming out as something other than straight can be fraught with fear of disappointment and upsetting the status quo. In films, a coming out story can be dramatic and tragic or played for comedy and often the most important coming out is to the family. As John says in Happiest Season, “Everybody's story is different. There's your version and my version, and everything in between.”
Liv’s version is a surprising one that instigates big changes in her close-knit family. In Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt), coming out to her mom is not nearly as big a deal as getting her crush to like her and in To Each, Her Own, her coming out is complicated by an unexpected attraction to a man. Everybody’s story is different. Living as one’s honest, queer self can be the best thing one can do but the journey there can be complicated, weird, funny, dramatic, and beautiful.
Directed by Anna Emma Haudal, written by Anna Emma Haudal and Marie Limkilde, 2021, Denmark
Liv is in her early 20s. She works in the family greengrocer business in the provinces when, without warning, she falls in love with the spirited and tempestuous Andrea. Andrea claims to be suffering from stress; but, in reality, she is heartbroken and has sought refuge at her uncle’s apple orchard. Liv has barely cut the apron strings from her parents when Andrea bursts into her life and becomes the catalyst for an identity crisis, which teaches her that love and family may assume many forms. The Venus Effect is a romantic comedy about daring to love another person and oneself – a warm, funny tale about family and finding yourself in love.
Danish with English subtitles
Tish is pleased to welcome Jessie Posthumus to “The Female Gaze” to talk about The Venus Effect and queerness and family in film.
Jessie is a Canadian writer, director, and editor working in both documentary and narrative film. Since graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Film Studies program with the award for Best Screenplay in 2017, they have continued to make films that put characters first. In their work you will find a deep understanding of world-building, as well as a keen sense of humour.
Centered around The Venus Effect, Tish and Jessie will have a conversation about queerness, family, and the ways they intersect.
Program:
The Venus Effect (Venuseffekten)
105 min
Talk with Jessie Posthumus
45 min
Wednesday, August 23
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Tickets: $14
- CFI Member discounts apply.
- 30% discount with the free CFI Supporter (Accessible) membership for patrons who have a low or fixed income, such as students, seniors, underwaged patrons, and patrons with disabilities.
Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
Directed and written by Monica Zanetti, 2020, Australia
Seventeen year old Ellie is struggling to find the courage to ask her classmate, Abbie, to the formal. Luckily her Aunt Tara, a lesbian who died in the 80s has shown up as a "Fairy Godmother" to dish out advice, whether Ellie wants it or not.
You Can Live Forever
Directed and written by Sarah Watts & Mark Slutsky, 2022, Canada
When lesbian teen Jaime is sent to live in a Jehovah's Witness community, she falls hard for a devout Witness girl and the two embark on an intense affair with consequences that will reshape the rest of their lives.
Happiest Season
Directed by Clea DuVall, written by Clea DuVall and Mary Holland, 2020, USA, Canada
A holiday romantic comedy that captures the range of emotions tied to wanting your family's acceptance, being true to yourself, and trying not to ruin Christmas.
To Each, Her Own (Les Goûts et les Couleurs)
Directed by Myriam Aziza, written by Myriam Aziza and Denyse Rodriguez-Tomé, 2018, France
Simone plans to inform her conservative Jewish family that she's a lesbian, but as she proceeds with coming out she finds herself attracted to a man.
