Saturday, March 23 / 6:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Dream Tricks: Over a Six Stair, Close to You

Feature presentation \

family \ gender \ acceptance

Featuring a bravura performance by star and producer Elliot Page, Close To You is an articulate, insightful, and timely family drama. Transman Sam (Page) has not been back home since his transition. For his father’s milestone birthday, however, he boards the train in Toronto and heads back to small town Cobourg for the first time in four years. Anxious and unsure about how his new self will be received, he is pleasantly surprised when he meets an old high school friend, Katherine (Hilary Baack) on the train. Their lives very different now, they still share a strong bond. That bond will help as the raucous, awkward, loving, and intense exchanges happen between Sam and his parents, siblings, and in-laws, all of whom have varying responses to Sam’s transition. Combining scripted and improvised scenes, Close to You is an immediate, intense, and observant drama about the fraught nature of homecomings. Profoundly moving and superbly acted (Page and Baack are electrifying, as are Wendy Crewson and Peter Outerbridge as Sam’s parents), Close To You is a raw slice of intimate cinema which, as its narrative unfolds across familial precincts of pain and confusion, offers a healing vision of kindness, compassion, and hope.

- Tom McSorley

PRESS

Elliot Page to Star in Indie Drama 'Close to You'

Close to You review - Elliot Page anchors well-intentioned yet patchy drama

AWARDS

Cinéfest Sudbury, 2023, Inspiring Voices and Perspectives Feature Film Award

Calgary International Film Festival, 2023, Special Mention, International Narrative Competition

Short film \

Dream Tricks: Over a Six Stair

2022 / 16 minutes / Ontario
Director: Adam Seward
Language: English

About to go on tour with her band, Annie is also preparing to land a new trick for the first time: a Varial Heelflip over a set of six stairs.

An intimate portrait of a trans femme musician and skateboarder, Dream Tricks allows us to follow Annie as she navigates her experiences with identity and dysphoria, proving that sometimes it’s less about sticking the landing than it is about continuing to try.