Seventeen Northern Lights
Tickets
On sale viff.org
About
Justin Ducharme’s film takes us into Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where three Indigenous sex workers are having a rough day. Tamara (Nizhonniya Austin) belatedly realizes she has 10 hours to find her passport for a return to the US. She’s assisted in her efforts by good friend December (Aalayna), who is grieving her recently deceased father. Meanwhile, full-time student and part-time hustler Aiden (Taio Gélinas) loses most of his savings and has to rustle up cash as quickly as possible
December, Tamara, and Aidan live in the shadow of colonialism, and their story is as political as it is intimate. Seventeen is a work about solidarity in the face of oppression, and it alternates between moments of anger and affirmations of care. What Ducharme shows is that survival is as much a matter of love as it is one of will. As an artist, he’s much like his three characters: as tough as life demands and as tender as it allows.
Presented by
Media Partner
December, Tamara, and Aidan live in the shadow of colonialism, and their story is as political as it is intimate. Seventeen is a work about solidarity in the face of oppression, and it alternates between moments of anger and affirmations of care. What Ducharme shows is that survival is as much a matter of love as it is one of will. As an artist, he’s much like his three characters: as tough as life demands and as tender as it allows.
Presented by
Media Partner
