The Canadian film Whole New Thing has been chosen as this year's Centerpiece Gala as a startling example of cinema's recent breakthrough in the treatment of gay children on the cusp of adolescence. The coming out film, usually of an adolescent in his/her late teens or early twenties, is a familiar genre; much less familiar are the brand-new films entering the psyches of gay 11-, 12- or 13-year-olds and allowing us to experience, through the adolescent's point-of-view, their first sexual instincts at nearly the moment they are hitting puberty.
In Whole New Thing, 13-year-old Emerson Thorson (played by the extraordinary child actor Aaron Weber) is growing up “natural” in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, home-schooled by ultra-liberal parents in an atmosphere where casual nudity, recreational pot smoking and open discussions about sex are embraced. Emerson's just had his first wet dream, which delights his parents so much they can't stop talking about it (much to
Emerson's chagrin). Failing a provincial math exam leads to Emerson being forced to attend public school for the first time - and he lands in the home room of a middle aged gay teacher Mr. Grant (Daniel MacIvor), whose lonely secret life consists of solitary nights at home with porn rags and anonymous sex in public washrooms.
Emerson's early resentment soon melts away to excitement at the opportunity to engage on an adult level with someone other than his parents and their hippie friends, and Mr. Grant for his part welcomes the challenge of working with his preternaturally mature new student. Yet when Emerson starts sending Shakespearean love sonnets to Mr. Grant, inviting him home for nude saunas and hiding Mr. Grant's car keys so he can spend more time with him, it's clear Emerson is experiencing the primordial pangs of his first real erotic love. Obviously, this leads to great complications (both hilarious and painful) for everyone involved. Writer/director Amnon Buchbinder's great gift with Whole New Thing is to give us an authentic and compassionate interior view of Emerson's world at the point where he is no longer a child but not yet an adult. This astonishing feature allows us an opportunity to appreciate the dignity and poignancy of the next generation of gay youth whom we have barely yet met.
Writer/director Amnon Buchbinder will attend the screening to discuss his film with the audience.
Amnon Buchbinder was born in Missouri in 1958. His previous feature films include The Fishing Trip (1998). A graduate of the California Institute of Art, Buchbinder currently resides in Toronto where he is the associate chair of the Department of Film and Video at York University.
Colony
7:30pm Film Screening + Centerpiece Party at Hotel Nash
$35 non-members/$30 members
7:30pm Film Screening Only
$25 non-members/$20 members - BUY TICKETS
9:30pm Centerpiece Party Only $10 - BUY TICKETS
